WEST WARWICK — Individual members of the West Warwick Teachers’ Alliance have begun filing complaints with the state after the town failed to issue two of five paychecks due this week.

Union president Donald E. Vanasse said Friday the complaints are being made to the R.I. Department of Labor and Training after the School Department, which has run out of money, reneged on payments for work already done.

If the state finds the department guilty of violating state pay law, the town will have to give workers what they are owed, plus a 25 percent penalty, further deepening the budget problems of the beleaguered school system.

In its budget for the coming fiscal year, which begins on July 1, the School Committee is already planning to spend a half-million dollars more than it expects to receive.

Asked after Thursday night’s Financial Town Meeting if a solution to the teacher pay issue was in the works, School Committee Chairwoman Lindagay Palazzo said she was unaware of any progress.

The School Department’s finance director, Michael Petrarca, and Supt. Kenneth Sheehan have not been returning phone calls. Petrarca reportedly took Friday afternoon off. Sheehan did not return another phone call on Friday.

“I’m feeling like you — unanswered phone calls,” said Vanasse.

It’s not clear if the teachers can be paid for this year out of the funds appropriated for the next fiscal year. The same question looms for vendors who are owed money by the School Department. Petrarca reportedly has a list of vendors who will not be paid for their services this fiscal year, but it has not been made public.

By contract, teachers are supposed to receive paychecks every other week through the summer. But they can opt to receive all five paychecks at the start of vacation. Vanasse said most, if not all, of the teachers requested that payment option, and should have been paid by Thursday.

The union president said the School Department is reneging on paying after “we’ve made very, very deep concessions on salaries. We took the equivalent of a salary cut compared to last year’s levels, and for two-and-a-half years. Our [medical] copay amounts went from 5 to 15 percent. We’ve redesigned the health plan to a much lesser plan in terms of benefits and out-of-pocket expenses. We’ve done a number of other smaller things to give relief to the School Committee, which saves them up to $6 million over the next three years.”

“We’ve played our part,” said Vanasse. “It’s like no good deed goes unpunished.”

gemery@projo.com