Durham Public Schools (DPS) has been dealing with a slew of staffing issues after it was announced that some employees would have to take a pay cut after the district said they were overpaid for months.
So what exactly happened? WRAL News is breaking it down.
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What's the latest update with the Durham Public Schools pay dispute?
On Thursday, Durham Public School employees could learn how much they'll be paid this year. The Board will also discuss masters pay for teachers and salary bumps for teachers of exceptional children.
The district has been overhauling its salary schedules for classified employees, after an error led to protests.
In the new salary schedules for classified staff, the minimum salaries are 11% higher than the state-recommended minimum.
The new salary grades are aligned with the state naming protocol. Steps will be based on verified years of service.
If the School Board approves the proposal, the salaries would go into effect for this 2024-25 school year.
What prompted DPS employees to rally?
The district said some Durham Public Schools "classified" employees were unknowingly overpaid when the district implemented raises during the second half of 2023.
Classified employees include instructional assistants, nutritional staff and maintenance employees.
On Jan. 12, 2024, DPS announced in a statement that some employees had been overpaid in their July 2023 through December 2023 paychecks due to an error in implementing salary changes for classified staff.
The error stemmed from a mistake in the October 2023 implementation of the board-approved salary schedule.
The school board chair said the approved budget did not account for those raises.
What is the total cost of the 'overpayment' and how many employees were affected?
The Board of Education voted to allocate $4.5 million from the fund reserve to cover the money already paid to employees. That means no employees owe money back to the district.
The district said 1,300 employees were "overpaid" in their paychecks for the last three months of 2023.
Timeline of DPS pay disputes
Fall 2022
- DPS hires HIL Consultants for $78,500 to engage in a salary study.
January 2023
- HIL Consultants presented the study results to the school board, saying implementation will cost about $10.8 million.
February 2023
- Former Durham Public Schools Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Paul LeSieur asked to run the numbers on the cost and got an estimate of $21 million.
- He had the consultant redo the cost estimate, only counting state years of service, and they came up with a cost of about $13 million.
October 2023
- LeSieur tells the school board that the salary implementation will cost about $10 million.
November 2023
- LeSieur informs Mubenga that implementing new salaries for classified staff would put the district $12 million over budget.
December 2023
- Mubenga notifies two school board members, Board Chair Bettina Umstead and Board Member Natalie Beyer, of the salary issue.
- Mubenga said they would take care of the salary issue after the holiday season.
January 2024
- Former DPS Superintendent Pascal Mubenga informs all school board members of the salary issue.
- DPS sends memo to staff informing them of the salary dispute.
February 2024
- Superintendent Pascal Mubenga resigns.
- School board appoints Catty Moore as interim superintendent.
March 2024
May 2024
- Durham Public Schools includes employee raises in its proposed budget, but county commissioners did not fully approve the budget request.
- More than 50 Durham Association of Educators (DAE) members walk out of a school board meeting, expressing frustration over failed attempts to unionize.
- Some at the meeting accuse the school district of union-busting tactics.
June 2024
- Durham County commissioners approved the county budget for the 2025 fiscal year – totaling more than $966 million in funding for the county, with $27 million in additional funding for Durham Public Schools.
- One of the commissioners said the school district is getting more than 90% of the county's budget.
September 2024
- DPS employees will find out how much they'll be paid this year at a school board meeting on Thursday, Sept. 19.
- If the school board approves the proposal, the salaries would go into effect for this 2024-25 school year.
How did this happen?
The error stemmed from a mistake in the October 2023 implementation of the board-approved salary schedule.
Since this pay issue came into the public spotlight, there has been little transparency from school officials about what prompted it. WRAL Investigates watched hours of old meetings, dating back more than a year, to try and better understand the dispute.
In an October 2023 meeting, during which the board gave final approval for the new payment plan, school board members were clearly confused about what they were being asked to vote on.
Board members expressed concern about the lack of specifics and a lack of documentation provided to them by staff to explain the full details of the plan.
WRAL Investigates reached out to Board Chair Bettina Umstead and DPS spokesperson Crystal Roberts by email, asking if they could explain what went wrong. Did the board approve something that just wasn't feasible in the budget? Or did DPS accounting staff pay out something more than what the board approved?
In an email from February, Roberts said the school system would "issue a timeline outlining the answers to these and other questions soon."
The board previously said an outside financial consultant would be investigating what happened with DPS employees' paychecks. The school system also launched an internal investigation into the matter.
DPS has not provided a specific timeline for when those reports will be released.
What is Durham Public Schools doing to correct the problem?
When employees were told they had been overpaid, many were worried they'd be asked to pay back the money.
The Durham Public Schools Board of Education voted 5-2 in February to maintain the 11% salary increase for classified staff for the remainder of the 2023-24 school year – an unpopular vote that left many staff members upset.
Under the option the board chose, 1,875 classified employees are impacted differently:
- About 26% will make more than they did when the salary study was implemented in October 2023.
- Nearly 1,400 employees, or 74%, will make less than they have been since October 2023.
Although this decision provided a temporary solution, the district still needed to come up with a permanent solution.
For the district to continue paying classified staff at the same rate from October 2023 – when DPS classified staff got raises after a study conducted by HIL Consultants – DPS would be $9 million over budget.
After months of protests, the school board did decide to put those raises in their budget, and Durham educators were happy with the school board's proposed budget. However, the district's request exceeded the proposed funding from the county – by a large amount.
In May, DPS said they needed a roughly $27 million increase in funding, which included salary increases for educators and classified staff.
The following month, county commissioners granted the district's request – agreeing to provide $27 million in additional funding for Durham Public Schools.
According to the County, funding DPS’ additional $27 million would equal an approximate 5-cent increase in the property tax rate. The County’s current property tax rate is 75.12 cents per $100 of property valuation, and the proposed budget already includes a 3.25-cent increase.
Who is being held responsible?
On Jan. 12, the district's CFO, Paul LeSieur, was suspended with pay after discovering that some employees received overpayments in their July 2023 through December 2023 paychecks due to an error in implementing salary changes for classified staff.
On Jan. 26, LeSieur resigned after working for the district for 13 years.
Cierra Ojijo took over as the acting (CFO) for the district on Jan. 31.
In February, WRAL News obtained a copy of former DPS Superintendent Pascal Mubenga's resignation agreement. Mubenga resigned on Wednesday, Feb. 7. He is owed $297,759 in severance pay.
Following Mubenga's resignation, school board members appointed Catty Moore – the former superintendent for the Wake County Public School System – to serve as interim superintendent.
In June, Dr. Anthony S. Lewis was appointed to a four-year term as the new superintendent of Durham Public Schools, effective Aug. 12.
How have parents & students been impacted by the DPS salary dispute?
It seems that the entire DPS community has been negatively affected as a result of the district's mistake.
This payment dispute also caused transportation problems with school buses. Some mechanics and supervisors didn't show up to work as part of the protests – forcing parents of bus riders to arrange their own transportation.
For months, a combination of rallies and walk-ins forced schools to close due to staffing shortages, which caused students to miss several days of school.
Schools were closed for so many days that the district was on the verge of having to make up lost days.
How much do Durham Public Schools' teachers get paid?
Teachers who work for Durham Public Schools make between $43,450 and $82,025. This is based on a 10-month salary, which DPS said includes a local salary supplement.
Pay scales are set depending on the position and experience and whether the employee is a certified or classified staff member. If certified, like a teacher, the state sets the scale. The district does that for those who are classified, like a bus driver or physical therapist. The nuances of that make understanding pay somewhat complex.
Teachers at Durham Public Schools are making less than those in Johnston and Wake counties but aren't the lowest, according to publicly available information. A first-year teacher with a bachelor's degree, but without national certification, earns more than $45,000 annually. While a teacher with the same education but 10 years of experience makes about $56,000 annually.
Who is considered a 'classified' employee?
DPS Employees are either classified or certified.
Classified employees were impacted, but certified employees were not.
Bus drivers are classified employees but were not impacted due to a different past pay study for them.
Classified employees include:
- Instructional assistance
- Physical/occupational therapists
- Transportation workers (bus mechanics, supervisors, drivers)
- Building services
- Grounds crews
- Cafeteria workers
- Custodial staff
Certified employees include:
- Teachers
- Speech language pathologists
How does Durham Public Schools determine where employees fall in the pay scale?
Right now, many classified staff are on salary grades numbered 50 through 78. Salary steps are based on verified years of service at the time an employee is onboarded; employees will need to submit experience forms to get the credit.
DPS staff is recommending the board adopt state naming protocol; rather than 50-78, it would be NC-01 through NC-19. You can learn more about state naming protocol at dpi.nc.gov.
You can find those 2024-25 classified salary numbers by clicking here.
Click here to see the 2023-24 salary schedules for classified employees.
The salary schedules for certified employees can also be found at dpsnc.net. To see the hourly pay rate for bus drivers, click here.
For more information about DPS employee compensation, go to dpsnc.net.
What portion of the DPS annual budget goes to employee pay?
41.2% – $302,393,271 – of the fiscal year 2023-2024 budget went toward employee salaries.
How does DPS set its budget?
The budget is based on several different factors.
"The largest line item is a $4.1 M request to fund the classified salary study to bring DPS classified staff closer to market rate in the Durham area, and hopefully reduce the loss of good personnel and reduce workloads of those continuing to work at DPS," the superintendent said in the FY 2023-24 budget proposal.
The superintendent's budget proposal also highlighted how the district must use local funds to comply with legislative changes. Local funds had to be used for the FY 2023-24 budget due to the following legislative changes:
"HB-90 class size requirements: DPS must add additional teachers (without additional state funds) if Kindergarten, 1st, or 2nd/3rd grade class sizes exceed 21, 19, or 20 students.
"An annual reduction of approximately $860K in state at-risk funds due to a decline in overall Durham County poverty levels despite no significant decline in poverty levels among DPS families."
How many employees work for DPS?
There are 2,410 teachers and 5,054 total employees that work for DPS.
What is the student-to-teacher ratio at Durham Public Schools?
The student-to-teacher ratios are based on the following grade groupings:
K-3: 1 to 18
4-5: 1 to 23
6-8: 1 to 21
9-12: 1 to 24