Kendall Hayes, a former student adviser at A. Phillip Randolph Career Academy, says she had to “feed the meter three times,” before moving her car to a parking lot – just to get a paycheck from the Philadelphia School District.

Hayes, who prepared to make her way back into the district’s headquarters on North Broad Street, was one of the more than 2,700 employees laid off by the school system at the end of last month.

She, along with a number of other dismissed employees, was supposed to be given a “lump sum” pay by last Friday. But, for some of the employees, Friday came and went, with no pay – and no notification explaining a delay in the pay process.

Shana Kemp, a spokeswoman for the school district, said that while processing final checks, “a number were missed,” and that “all checks will be available for pickup at 440 N. Broad St. on Monday, July 25, 2011, after 3 p.m,” according to the Inquirer.

Kemp also reportedly said the weekend delay was due to a transition between payroll systems.

Still, many of the employees who arrived at the school district’s building at 3 p.m. yesterday found themselves yet again held up.

“I came down here this morning at 9 o’clock. They told me to come back after 3 [p.m.] to pick up my check,” Hayes explains. “When I got here after 3, my name wasn’t on the list. So there’s a bunch of us down there whose name wasn’t on the list.”

Others waiting for their paychecks speculated what exactly the delay was – some suggesting that they weren’t signed or that they weren’t cut.

“They don’t understand that they’re messing with people’s [lives],” says a pregnant Tamika Ivory, a former student adviser.

While waiting for her husband to pick her up, Kristin Cinar, a former special assignment teacher, says she was unable to buy groceries over the weekend because of the unexpected postponement of her paycheck.

“They [told me] I have to drive up here and I said, ‘Well, I don’t have money to park,’ and they’re like ‘Well, make someone come with you and they can just keep driving around the block,’” Cinar says, after waiting more than hour to receive her paycheck.

“I had to wait ‘til my husband got done with work and bring my little kids with me, who were sitting in the car,” Cinar says. “They were literally driving around the block.”

Likewise, Tiffany Whitebread, a former health and physical education teacher, who arrived at 3 p.m. didn’t receive her check until almost 5 p.m. – having her husband add time to the parking meter while waiting.

Whitebread says she planned to be paid biweekly throughout the summer, but had to take the one-time payment after being laid off.

But, to make matters worse, departing employees say, the paycheck is dated for today, July 26, delaying the pay yet another day.

“It’s just disappointing, so many people have bills to pay,” Whitebread says.

Adding to the frustration, Whitebread adds, is the unapologetic attitude of the district’s employees.

“There really wasn’t any consolation…they didn’t say ‘I’m sorry you waited so long.’ Nothing,” Whitebread says. “They were kind of cracking jokes about it at the end.”