'Public crisis:' Wake educators plan rally to demand pay increase in face of rising cost of living
Demonstrators are calling the rally a 'walk-in,' as they prepare to hold signs and chant while walking into the school as students arrive.
Posted — UpdatedDemonstrators are expected to be at seven local schools and the school system's transportation complex, which will begin around 8 to 8:30 a.m.
Demonstrators are calling the rally a 'walk-in,' as they prepare to hold signs and chant while walking into the school as students arrive.
"Years of inflation and underfunding from North Carolina’s legislature has created a crisis in public education, leading to record numbers of educators leaving the field," Wake North Carolina Association of Educators President Christina Spears wrote in a press release.
Soon, state lawmakers will convene for a short session in which state employee pay will be discussed. The state is the primary funder of education in North Carolina and sets base pay for employees. Counties can then add extra to that base pay amount.
According to the Department of Public Instruction, 1 in 9 teachers left education last year, the highest total in at least two decades.
Monday's announcements says staff and families are demanding immediate action from the Wake school board to "keep our schools from failing by increasing local supplement raises to help hard-working educators maintain their homes and budgets in the face of a rising cost of living."
On Tuesday afternoon, after the rallies, the Board of Education will hold its last publicly announced work session on the budget. In recent years, vacancy rates have been high for some employees but have improved with pay increases, with the exception of bus drivers.
Tuesday's walk-in participants will also speak with parents and hand out information in morning carpool lines. Wake NCAE encourages supporters to contact Board of Education members to meet Wake NCAE’s demands.
The series of walk-ins will kick-off with transportation staff at Rock Quarry transportation complex at 5 a.m.
The schools are South Garner and Green Hope high schools and Abbotts Creek, Banks Road, Turner Creek, Wilburn and Wildwood Forest elementary schools.
What's in the budget proposals
The proposed budgets also include raising other employees' hourly pay to at least $17.50 -- costing $3.5 million -- or as high as $18.25 per hour, costing $8.8 million. Each $0.25 increase could amount to $300 to $400 more in a year for a 10-month employee, depending on how many hours they work.
For teachers, budgets propose either a 4% increase to the local salary supplement, costing $7.6 million, or a 4.5% increase to the local salary supplement, costing $8.5 million. Each would amount to $300 to $400 more in a year for most teachers.
Vacancy rates for instruction assistants have improved alongside pay raises of several dollars per hour. The system had a 4.6% vacancy rate in March, down from as high as 11% in November 2021. For cafeteria workers, the vacancy rate was 8.2% in March, about the same as last spring. But it's been a major improvement since vacancy rates regularly topped 10% two years ago and even reached highs of 20% in 2021.
For teachers, the school system counted 1.5% of positions vacant in March, an improvement from more than 2% most of the past few school years.
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