Community group calls on Durham County to make up gap in wages for school employees
After four days in a month where schools were closed because staff were protesting a salary issue, the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People on Monday asked affected employees to stand down. The group asked for a 30-day pause in any actions that might result in the cancelation of school.
Interim Superintendent Catty Moore said last week that some schools are running out of banked time.
"We will need to look at days that right now are scheduled to be student holidays or staff holidays, and we will need to look at whether or not those will be student days," she said.
The committee is also calling on the district to keep classified staff salaries at the October rate, a rate the district has said would exceed the budget by $9 million.
School board Chairwoman Bettina Umstead says continuing to overpay staff is financially unsustainable.
Walter Jackson, chairman of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, wants the county to make up that difference.
"We are asking the Board of County Commissioners to step up and do what they need to do to provide adequate funding," he said. "We are not calling on the state at this point. We think this is a local issue."
Funding for public schools, including in Durham, from all levels of government. State funding makes up about 49% of the Durham Public Schools budget, and 30% comes from the county. Federal funding is 8%, capital funds 7%, 4% from child nutrition and 2% from grants.
WRAL News reached out to every member of the county board of commissioners to see what they would do. Only one responded. Commissioner Wendy Jacobs said she would have no comment.
The county commissioners and the school board have a regularly scheduled quarterly meeting Tuesday morning at 9 a.m.
The school board has a meeting planned Thursday with the Durham Association of Educators.
