On Thursday, the Durham school board unanimously voted to send a $222 million funding request to Durham county commissioners.
Last year’s request to the county included a historic $26 million increase from the previous year. This year, Durham Public Schools (DPS) is requesting an increase of $16 million.
For weeks, the Durham Association of Educators (DAE) has been lobbying board members to delay the vote, asking for more transparency and a commitment to no frontline cuts. On Thursday night, the hallway outside the boardroom was loud with cheers and boos from DAE members as they watched the livestream of the meeting. But the budget discussion inside the board room was relatively calm and free of drama.
Here’s a breakdown of the budget request and the process ahead:
What now?
The county commission will incorporate the request into its own budget process. It’s impossible to say with certainty what the county will decide, but DPS chief financial officer Jeremy Teetor has mentioned several times that his office is in contact with that of the county manager.
Last year, county commissioners worried about the sustainability of the historic funding increase, and in February, commissioner Wendy Jacobs warned DPS administrators to “restrain” their expectations for this year. But it’s safe to imagine that the manager would have warned Teetor if she found the request entirely unpalatable.
Teetor said that the county manager will unveil her own budget proposal to the county commission on May 12. That budget will then go through a similar process as the DPS request, with opportunities for the public to weigh in before the county commission takes a final vote.
Under North Carolina law, the county commission is required to adopt a budget (and levy the proper taxes to pay for it) by July 1. Last year, commissioners approved their budget in mid-June.
How much of the DPS budget is this actually?
Last year, Durham County’s contribution accounted for about 30 percent of the district’s $708 million budget, the state contributed about 35 percent, and the federal government made up about 6 percent. It’s not entirely clear what the district will receive from the state or federal government for 2025-26. The two chambers of the state legislature still need to reconcile their budget bills, and the federal government is … unpredictable.
What is in the $16 million increase?
Of the $16 million increase, about $6 million is needed to just keep the lights on (literally—the district anticipates a $220,000 increase in its utility bills) in an increasingly expensive world.
About $2 million more will go to increasing the local teacher supplement, which the district uses to pad the pay that the state provides. DPS currently provides the third highest average teacher supplement in the state (about $10,000), behind neighboring Wake County and Chapel Hill-Carrboro districts.
About $1.4 million will fund higher pay for educators with master’s degrees. Until 2013, the state provided that funding. Wake and Durham, in recent years, are the only counties that have decided to bring that extra pay back at a cost to local taxpayers. The budget this year doesn’t include every educator with a master’s degree, much to the disappointment of the DAE.
At the meeting on Thursday, board members discussed the possibility of extending master’s pay to everyone who previously qualified. Teetor said that his department was focused on classroom teachers before a possible expansion to other staff.
“I wouldn’t want to commit to it, but let’s say we’re not closed to it, and we know we may have to evaluate that,” said Teetor.
Following this year’s transportation crisis, the budget would set aside about $400,000 for bus driver pay supplements. Teetor said that the supplement, $200 per driver per month, would help ease some financial uncertainty for drivers when the district shuts down for inclement weather and they don’t get paid.
Board member Emily Chavéz asked Teetor about a possible pay supplement for bus monitors, the staff who ride with drivers and deal with any student issues on the bus.
“We had not contemplated a supplement for the monitors,” said Teetor. “We’re happy to do homework and quantify that and just put that on our radar for continued improvement.”
But any adjustment there is unlikely to show up until next year.
Is anyone losing their job?
Probably.
After budget approval, the board also accepted Teetor’s plan to eliminate 27 central office positions, though Teetor noted that 11 of those positions are currently empty. He also told the board that “any action that involves specific people is still going to require approval of the board,” and that the people in those eliminated positions may be able to move into other vacant positions.
The budget also includes an adjustment in teacher-student allotment ratios for the upcoming year, which will eliminate 112 teacher roles across the district, though Teetor noted that there are currently 158 classroom teacher vacancies in DPS. The biggest change is upping high school classroom sizes, for every one 9th and 10th grade teacher, from 23.25 students to 27 students.
When asked by INDY, Teetor did not directly address if the 158 vacancies will entirely absorb the loss of those 112 roles.
Who’s happy and who’s not?
Happy:
- CFO Teetor, who started with the district in November, has spent months cleaning up the mess left by the previous administration. The man clearly takes a lot of pride in his work, and on Thursday he told the board that the district is in a good place to start planning for future years. “I’m eerily calm because it makes sense now,” said the newly-tranquil former teacher.
- The board’s unanimous vote on the request was also a vote of confidence for their new CFO. All members were relieved to have hired someone who seems competent enough to manage the district’s money. “Transparency and trust go hand in hand,” said Joy Harrell Goff.
Not happy:
- The DAE, which pushed the board to delay the vote, is still seething. On Thursday, they picketed before the meeting and handed out report cards for board members. The teachers may need to curve those grades—by INDY’s count, not even Chavéz, lately the DAE’s most vocal advocate, received an A. Natalie Beyer and Millicent Rogers were most clearly at risk of getting a “see me after class” note.
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Reach Reporter Chase Pellegrini de Paur at chase@indyweek.com. Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.