CINCINNATI — Former Dampe Community School employees protested outside of the building Wednesday. The group said 17 employees laid off on Oct. 11 are still owed money nearly three weeks later.
In August, the group had to participate in professional development training that was not part of the employee contract. A letter from the operations manager of the Cincinnati Charter School Collaborative, Javoria Bryant, states that the time sheet will be paid out on Aug. 30. The group was later told that they had to pick up physical checks that had bounced back.
A former dance and music teacher at Dampe told us that they were told to contact AIC Education Partners, the school's parent organization.
"We've been dealing with checks that have bounced, not been deposited directly into our accounts, and now we're still waiting for the check that's due today," the teacher said. "They told us to contact the number, contact the email that was on a paper that we had when we got laid off, and we were not able to get in touch with them since."
WCPO contacted Cincinnati Charter School Collaborative, Dampe Community School Board and AIC. We did not hear back and some numbers were out of service.
The former employees hope to get paid by Friday. If that doesn't happen, they say they may take legal action. A former gym aide with the school said this has impacted his entire family.
"We're on the verge of being evicted, we are in the midst of finding a new apartment because we just don't got the funds to continue to stay where we are at," they said. "So it's affecting everybody — even the kids."
We reached out to the Ohio Department of Commerce for a solution. In an email, the department's public information officer said they have not received any calls or complaints regarding payments at Dampe and encouraged people to file a complaint to have their claims properly investigated.
