Budget problems in Durham Public Schools have caused disruptions, including halted bus routes and schools closings as staff members call in sick to protest. The protests come as the school district reported it had budgeted incorrectly and could not pay raises for 1,300 classified staff members, including bus mechanics, cafeteria workers and physical therapists. Here is ongoing coverage from The News & Observer.
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A fifth of Durham public schools were closed on Wednesday as staff — furious about unresolved salary issues — called in sick to attend protests.
The Durham Association of Educators alerted around 8 p.m. on their social media channels that enough staff would be absent from 12 schools that they’d likely be forced to close:
The Whitted School
Y.E. Smith Elementary
Lyons Farm Elementary
Forest View Elementary
Lakewood Elementary
Spring Valley Elementary
Githens Middle
Lucas Middle
Riverside High
Northern High
Jordan High
Hillside High
Durham Public Schools notified families and confirmed the closings around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Daniel Kemp, a teacher at Riverside High School, cheers on the speakers during a rally at Durham Public Schools Staff Development Center in Durham, N.C., Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024. Ethan Hyman ehyman@newsobserver.com
Symone Kiddoo, president of the Durham Association of Educators, led a rally in the cold morning rain outside the district’s staff development center on Hillandale Road Wednesday morning.
“They don’t want us to be out here today,” Kiddoo said. “They don’t want us talking to each other, organizing with either other, because they know we’re more powerful than them.”
The educators also picketed for more than two hours outside the district’s administrative building downtown. Protesters held signs and chanted as they marched, starting at 2 p.m. on a narrow stretch of Cleveland Street, then circling the block when the crowd grew large enough.
“The Board of Education is absolutely committed to getting all matters with our employees resolved fairly and as soon as possible,” school board chair Bettina Umstead said in a statement late Tuesday. “In the meantime, we appeal to everyone in Durham Public Schools to remember our mission and our commitment to providing our students with the best possible education.”
Ashley Smith teaches Spanish at Northern High School, but she’s also a parent of an elementary school student. At the Wednesday morning protest, she said she hopes parents understand staff skipped school because they care about the children.
“This is not you versus us. This is all of us coming together and making the community stronger,” Smith told The News & Observer. “When we don’t retain staff for a long time, that inconsistency is really confusing for our children.”
Kiddoo also emphasized this point in an interview.
“We have the same interests — well-funded, fully staffed schools,” she said.
Kristin Hovis, a speech language pathologist at The Whitted School, said many of the educators were working parents themselves.
“We get it. It’s hard to change your schedule on a dime,” Hovis said. “But we really want to keep our classified staff in schools. If they can’t pay their bills, they’ll have to work somewhere else.”
Educators are worried about the future.
Protesters picket outside the Durham Public Schools administrative building in Durham, N.C., Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024. Twelve Durham public schools were closed Wednesday as staff — furious about unresolved salary issues — called in sick to attend protests. Ethan Hyman ehyman@newsobserver.com
“Next school year everyone is saying they are leaving. They’re all looking for new jobs,” said Simesha Sawyer, an exceptional children’s teacher at Lakewood Elementary.
Quentin Headen also works with exceptional children, as an instructional assistant at Riverside High School. He said it’s not an easy job.
“But we do it because we really do love our kids to see their a-ha moments, to see that smile on their face every day, to laugh and joke around with them and have them feel like they’re not an outcast,” Headen said in between Wednesday’s protests.
“This group of people out here, these classified staff members and teachers who came out here with us as well,” he continued. “They understand that it takes a village to raise these kids, and if that village is missing one key component, the kids are impacted.
Brigid Flaherty, whose daughter is enrolled at Whitted for pre-school, said it’s painful seeing staff not getting “what they deserve.”
“I just see how much they pour into her,” Flaherty said while watching the pickets. “I’m watching my daughter totally grow and thrive. And I want the teachers to know how much they mean to us.”
Shawna Pochan stayed home with her first-grader Arthur on Tuesday, before the pair showed up with signs for the afternoon protest.
“It just seems so awful and unfair to pay people a certain amount of money and then attempt to take it back,” Pochan said. “What’s most important is that people are paid well and treated with respect so they can show up for our kids.”
Doris Dickerson, an administrative assistant at Githens Middle School, center, and others protest outside the Durham Public Schools administrative building in Durham, N.C., Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024. Twelve Durham public schools were closed Wednesday as staff — furious about unresolved salary issues — called in sick to attend protests. Ethan Hyman ehyman@newsobserver.com
Staff received significant raises in October and have been drawing paychecks since then to reflect that raise. But earlier this month, employees learned that the school district had budgeted incorrectly and could not pay the higher salaries going forward.
On Jan. 25, the board voted unanimously to spend $4.5 million so that employees can keep the money they have been paid this school year at the higher salaries. They’d already received $4 million from the county to fund the raises, meaning the accounting error likely tallied eight figures.
Finance Director Paul LeSieur, who had been suspended, resigned the next day. The district said its attorneys and an outside consultant are investigating.
Riverside High School teachers and staff gather for a group photo during a rally at Durham Public Schools Staff Development Center in Durham, N.C., Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024. Some Durham public schools were closed Wednesday as staff — furious about unresolved salary issues — called in sick to attend protests. Ethan Hyman ehyman@newsobserver.com
The raises ended effective Jan. 31, but school board members said they would meet weekly to find a solution. The first of those meetings is at 3 p.m. Friday.
“We believe this is the fair and right thing to do,” Umstead said in her statement Tuesday night. “And while the actions at last Thursday’s meeting were a first step in moving forward, we recognize there is continued work to do.”
Melissa Feimster Lido, center, a teacher at Riverside High School, was one of the many who gathered for a rally at Durham Public Schools Staff Development Center in Durham, N.C., Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024. Some Durham public schools were closed Wednesday as staff — furious about unresolved salary issues — called in sick to attend protests. Ethan Hyman ehyman@newsobserver.com
Kiddoo’s statement cited “decades of underfunding, a global pandemic that drove many long-time school employees out of the profession, increasingly complex student needs, and years of understaffing” as all contributing to the current crisis.
She said the association has been meeting daily to stay in “deep connection with workers across the district,” but declined to comment on whether more school closures were on the horizon.
She said it was up to the Board of Education and administration, whom they hadn’t heard from as of 3 p.m. Wednesday, to decide whether to meet the association’s demands — to restore the raises and give worker’s a seat at the table.
If not?
“I think people will continue to feel frustrated,” Kiddoo said
Mary Helen Moore covers Durham for The News & Observer. She grew up in Eastern North Carolina and attended UNC-Chapel Hill before spending several years working in newspapers in Florida. Outside of work, you might find her reading, fishing, baking, or going on walks (mainly to look at plants).
Budget problems in Durham Public Schools have caused disruptions, including halted bus routes and schools closings as staff members call in sick to protest. The protests come as the school district reported it had budgeted incorrectly and could not pay raises for 1,300 classified staff members, including bus mechanics, cafeteria workers and physical therapists. Here is ongoing coverage from The News & Observer.
