DPS Board of Education Work Session - March 12, 2026: Durham Schools Weigh Living Wages and Cuts
The Durham Public Schools Board of Education hears from teachers, staff, and parents about unsafe classroom conditions, mold and air quality concerns, and the push for fair extra‑duty pay and a living wage for classified workers. The board weighs shifting to a $19.22 hourly minimum, tightening central office and contract spending, updating arts and counselor funding, and confronting the limits of its power over state policy and local taxes. 43mins
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Original Meeting
Thursday, March 12th, 2026
14079.0
#DPSCommunity | DPS Board of Education Monthly Work Session | 3/12/26
Video Notes
#DPSCommunity | DPS Board of Education Monthly Work Session | 3/12/26
In This Video
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Coach Francisco Dolz, a physical education teacher at Pearsontown Elementary School, supported a 12% raise and a multi-year plan to reach $25 per hour for classified staff while highlighting how elementary specialists were frequently asked to take on extra duties without compensation and calling for fair extra-duty pay.
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Board Member Emily Chávez and others connected advocacy for undocumented students to broader tax and funding inequities, with Chair Umstead emphasizing school boards’ limited power over revenue, immigration, and gun policy and calling for wider statewide and external action to secure adequate support for the district.
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Chief Finance Officer Jeremy Teetor briefed the board on continued uncertainty in state funding, highlighting the governor’s proposal for educator pay raises and restoration of master’s pay, and explained that any freed local dollars could be redirected to classified staff compensation while the district budgeted cautiously amid ongoing legislative instability.
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District staff explained that the latest budget draft responded to feedback by replacing a planned 5% classified pay increase with a move to a $19.22 per-hour minimum to match county government, aligning therapist pay with similar certified roles, and bringing the total requested increase to about $25.7 million in current expenses plus $2.8 million in capital outlay from the county.
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District staff explained that Durham’s longstanding practice of funding smaller K–3 class sizes and more enhancement teachers than the state formula required represented millions in costs but that moving closer to state ratios would significantly harm program offerings, especially in smaller elementary schools.
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District staff and board members clarified that the proposed 12% classified pay increase would apply across all classified roles while discussing the challenges of also addressing pay scale compression and noting that the DAE meet-and-confer model for classified compensation, though exemplary, carried significant additional cost beyond what local funding likely allowed.
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Board Member Emily Chávez asked how many central office positions a 3% reduction would affect, heard a rough estimate of about 17 roles, voiced concern about the implications of such cuts, and then confirmed that an external RTI assessment of central office staffing was expected to be completed in about two weeks.
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Vice Chair Millicent Rogers sought clarification on whether a proposed 3% central office reduction would include school-based roles such as nutrition workers, tech specialists, and coaches, and a district leader responded that while central office encompassed a broad range of staff, they would distinguish and prioritize protecting those who worked full time in schools over cutting such positions.
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Board Member Natalie Beyer supported raising all classified staff to at least $19.22 per hour while stressing county budget constraints, the aging state of school facilities, potential property tax impacts on renters and homeowners, the need for continued advocacy without freezing city or county employee raises, and the possibility of renewed city–county merger talks to find efficiencies.
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Chair Bettina Umstead asked for clearer analysis of how budget choices would affect classrooms and student learning, highlighted pay compression as a threat to staff retention, and urged that existing cost-saving measures be explicitly documented when presenting the district’s budget request to the county and public.
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A board member emphasized that locally funded positions such as counselors and enhancement teachers needed protection during budget decisions, called for clearer snapshots of how local dollars supported schools, and, with Superintendent Dr. Anthony Lewis, discussed tracking return on investment and using staff surveys to understand how compensation changes affected retention.
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Vice Chair Rogers questioned why arts supply budgets had not increased since before the district merger, warned that stagnant funding might shift costs onto families and create barriers to arts participation, and urged the board to elevate overlooked needs and match its rhetoric about the arts with actual investment.
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A district leader explained that a previous one-time $150,000 arts refresh had been made a recurring budget line, credited internal advocacy for highlighting arts needs, and outlined plans to fully honor school operating formulas next year while exploring ways to direct some of the restored funds specifically toward arts supplies.
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