DPS Considers Budget Priorities

The Durham Public Schools Board of Education continued developing budget priorities ahead of a planned joint meeting March 14 with county commissioners.

Top of mind for most board members: finding a better way forward for paying classified workers.

“I know that our staff have been incredibly discouraged by decisions that this board has made,” said Board Member Natalie Beyer during the March 7 work session. “I know that we remain committed to investing in our people.”

She noted that classified staff – as well as the Board of Education – anxiously await an impending proposal from Kerry Crutchfield, the comptroller hired to guide DPS through the recent pay crisis.

Beyer wants, if possible, to at least match what Durham County pays its staff – a minimum wage of more than $19 per hour – so that “together we lift all employees.”

But Catty Moore, interim DPS superintendent, cautioned that if the district wants to apply that new scale while avoiding salary compression “you should increase your budget by what’s needed to address compression all the way through the salary scale.”

“That is a much bigger ask,” Moore said, “but it is the only way to keep positions from falling all over each other.”

The district has identified about $8 million in legislated (required) local budget needs, including:

• 5% (estimated) salary increase for certified employees, including teachers.
• 3% (estimated) salary increase for classified employees.
• Retirement rate increase from 25.02% to 25.5%.
• Health insurance increase from $7,557 to $8,095.
• Pass-through funding for charter schools, currently projected at $2.1 million.

Other budgetary considerations include:

• Continued focus on increasing classified salaries with new 2024-2025 salary schedules, hopefully skewed more toward market rate. Projected costs won’t be available until Crutchfield presents options to the board. That’s expected on March 21.
• Local supplement increases for teachers, which are projected to cost the district $3.2 million.
• Master’s pay for teachers with relevant degrees ($1.3 million).
• About $4 million for capital needs.
• $3.7 million to support Growing Together, specifically for pre-kindergarten and Global Language positions at elementary schools. Emily Chavez, vice chair of the Board of Education, suggested that the board reconsider this investment in favor of other needs. Beyer countered that Global Language was too significant a feature of the Growing Together plan to discard it.

Further departmental needs include about $5.7 million for curriculum materials, new network switches, teachers and instructional assistants for pre-K at Murray-Massenburg Elementary School, social workers, evening academy/credit acceleration programming, and funding for infrastructure and systems development in budget and finance.

The district has identified potential risks and unknown factors, such as:

• Federal, state, and local economic outlook.
• The sunsetting of pandemic-driven ESSER funds, which have supported more than 100 DPS positions.
• Potential changes to the state legislative budget.
• Ongoing staffing needs throughout DPS.
• Continued review of the district’s current fiscal position.

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