Seven Durham Schools Closing Monday Over DPS Pay Dispute

Durham Public Schools families in seven schools – a new set, no repeats from last week – are scrambling to deal with closures on Monday.

“We anticipate staffing challenges tomorrow, Monday, Feb. 5, that will prevent us from conducting our school day,” said Crystal Kimpson Roberts, DPS director of strategic communications, in a statement Sunday evening.

The Durham Association of Educators, dissatisfied with the DPS Board of Education’s progress on resolving the classified worker pay crisis, on Saturday morning got commitments from certified and classified employees at the seven schools to plan another day of protest.

Affected schools are:

• Bethesda Elementary School.
• Carrington Middle School.
• Durham School of the Arts.
• E.K. Powe Elementary School.
• Little River Elementary School.
• Morehead Montessori.
• Sandy Ridge Elementary School.

“The Durham Association of Educators, all Durham Schools staff, students, parents, and the Durham community have been watching and waiting this week for the Board of Education to respond to our union’s demands for how to fix the classified pay debacle,” the DAE wrote in a statement released on Sunday. “Classified staff members are some of the lowest paid in our district, they were given new market-rate salaries last October, and now, the district has pulled the rug out from under 1,300 dedicated educators and support staff – erasing years of their work experience and thereby cutting their pay.”

The Board of Education is set to meet on Thursday to resume the search for a solution, starting with how to handle paying classified workers through February and the rest of the school year.

The DAE currently demands the following from DPS leadership:

• Restore classified worker steps based on experience.
• Commitment not to cut pay in February checks.
• Public explanation about why January checks changed.
• Scheduling of “meet-and-confer” work session with DAE during the week of Feb. 12.

“District employees have lost trust in the DPS administration, and remain frustrated by the lack of transparency with the district’s finances,” the DAE statement said. “What DPS can afford to pay its employees going forward remains a mystery. It was evident during Friday’s Board meeting that the majority of the Board agrees.”

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