DPS Weighs $2M Staffing Contract Amid 31 Special Education Teacher Openings

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Just three days into the traditional-calendar school yar, Durham Public Schools is advertising 31 openings for teachers who work with students with disabilities.

On Thursday, during the Board of Education's next meeting, the district will consider paying an outside company more than $2 million to provide special education instructors while developing a new pipeline of teachers. Eventually, DPS could directly hire them.

Under the proposed agreement, Unlimited Instruction LLC would recruit, employ, train, and oversee instructors working under DPS supervision. The company also would help those teachers complete North Carolina licensing requirements. DPS could then hire the teachers after they've worked through the company for a year and obtained their licenses.

The contract would cover as many as 26,950 hours of instructional services through June 30, 2027. Depending on how the hours are scheduled, it could be roughly equivalent to 19 or 20 full-year teaching assignments.

Most unfilled openings listed on the district website are full-time positions at schools across the Bull City, from Murray-Massenburg Elementary School to Githens Middle and Jordan High School. Some of the postings have been on the website for months.

The contract is currently included in the meeting's consent agenda and could be approved with other items in a single vote, unless a board member pulls it for discussion.