Lehighton Area School District was still cutting paper checks and mailing them to retirement account vendors earlier this year, a discovery that caught the district’s own superintendent off guard and ultimately left the district on the hook for more than $800 in interest payments.

Superintendent Jason Moser disclosed the situation Monday night during the finance portion of district’s workshop meeting, telling the board that retirement benefit payments owed to employees by Aug. 1 arrived late because of what he described as an outdated and unnecessary process that should have been modernized long ago.

“I was actually caught off guard by the fact that we were still going through the process of cutting physical checks and mailing them in an envelope,” Moser said. “There is no reason to do that in this day and age.”

The payments in question are contractually required deposits into employees’ 403(b) retirement accounts, covering retirement benefits tied to years of service and accumulated sick time. Under the terms of the district’s agreements, those deposits were due no later than Aug. 1. The checks were mailed prior to that date, Moser said, but did not reach the vendors, and therefore were not deposited into employees’ accounts, by the deadline.

“What happened is we had an overlapping of transition in the business office,” Moser said. “Those steps were completed, and then there was too long of a delay for the next step to happen.”

Because the deposits missed the Aug. 1 deadline, the district is now required to pay what Moser described as lost earnings, essentially interest on the amounts that were not deposited on time, calculated through the U.S. Employee Benefits Security Administration. The total owed is just over $800.

“In terms of the financial hit, that’s not where it’s a big deal,” Moser said. “The big deal is in process.”

The district has already contacted all of its 403(b) vendors and confirmed that future payments can be made electronically through an ACH transfer, a standard electronic payment method that eliminates the need for physical checks entirely.

“We know we can wire it — this is a click of a button and should be that way,” Moser said. “Shame on me. I didn’t know. I’ll take responsibility for it, but we certainly have a solution moving forward. This certainly will not happen again under my watch.”

Board member David Bradley argued the corrected process needed to be institutionalized at the board level so that personnel changes in administration would not create the same vulnerability in the future.

Director Jeremy Glaush said the important thing was that the problem was being addressed openly.

“You acknowledge it, you’re telling us there’s a solution, and you’re taking care of it,” Glaush said to Moser. “It sounds like this is the beginning of catching up to the future as we should have been for quite some time. When mistakes happen, the good thing is that you move forward, and hopefully you can make things better.”

The board suggested the district review other financial processes to identify additional areas where paper checks could be replaced with electronic payments. Moser said the business office has already begun that review.

The correction will be brought before the board for formal action at either the September or October legislative meeting.