DPS Board Clears Administration to Develop Classified Salary Plan

The last time Durham Public Schools tried to implement a brand new structure for classified worker pay, the district sent out letters of intent on which employees based critical spending decisions.

They bought new cars. They moved into bigger apartments. And then district administrators discovered they’d botched the math, talked about clawbacks, and school board members spent the next few months battling ill will and distrust and school closures while the chief financial officer and superintendent departed under a cloud.

So Alexandra Valladares and other board members certainly could be forgiven for their unease when asked Thursday to vote on whether to approve the concept of a new classified salary schedule proposed by Kerry Crutchfield, the contracted comptroller helping DPS find its way back into the good graces of employees who haven’t yet left the district in the aftermath of the last salary debacle.

If officially approved, the district would again send out letters. Again, employees might make major – and expensive – life changes based on those intent letters. But administrators don’t yet know exactly how much they’ll have to work with. At the very least, classified workers can expect a 3% increase legislated by the state. But anything beyond that depends on whether the Durham County Board of Commissioners approves the $8.8 million sought by DPS to raise classified pay – and whether the GOP-controlled state legislature makes any more changes that would affect district finances while it’s in session. Any letter sent to employees before that is settled would require caveats explaining that everything is pending.

“I’m having some déjà vu all over again,” said board member Natalie Beyer.

“My concern right now is that taking action tonight on something not yet feasible for employees doesn’t seem fair,” Valladares said, adding that it fell to board members to be very clear. “I’m not convinced we have to take action tonight.”

Chair Bettina Umstead wondered if it wouldn’t be more confusing to introduce a still nebulous plan to classified workers. “I just don’t want more confusion,” she said. She added that “we’re in a complex time and wrestling with a lot of complex decisions.”

Interim Superintendent Catty Moore agreed that it would be enough for the board to effectively give a “thumbs up” for Crutchfield and the district’s finance staff to move forward with building out a model of the new pay structure while the district continues to sort out the funding questions. But Moore tried to assure that board that approving the concept of the pay ranges wasn’t the same as approving the pay ranges.

“For purposes of modeling, we’re using these minimums and these maximums,” Moore said. “But the actual adoption of pay ranges and schedules would need to come later.”

In his presentation Thursday, Crutchfield shared a plan with a few implementation examples of starting classified worker salaries, with minimums and maximums that likely would be divided into 30 levels of 1.5% increases. But Crutchfield recommended against steps in the ranges “because it locks the board into a certain amount each year,” he said.

Beyer and other board members want to see the plan fleshed out to show workers what they might expect to earn 10 or more years out.

Ultimately, the board reached consensus and gave their go-ahead to further develop the classified salary plan.