Some Masterton teachers fear worse payroll woes to come, said Solway Primary School principal Gail Marshall.
Mrs Marshall said the last two Novopay payment rounds were flawed for a handful of her teachers during the holiday break and she is expecting problems to worsen during the first pay round of the new school year in early February.
"I'm holding my breath about that pay. There will be new staff and new contracts and the system won't be able to handle just the changeover let alone any errors we make. You can guarantee that pay will be messed up. It will be chaos," Mrs Marshall predicted.
Novopay has been wracked with problems since its launch in August and the NZ Secondary Schools Principals' Federation has written to the Auditor-General asking for an urgent review of the system.
Mrs Marshall said two of her full-time teachers had received only half of their pays during the seasonal break and the school was funding the shortfall.