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It’s Thursday, August 8.
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Good morning, readers.
As the last school year got under way, the Wake County Public School System found itself short of enough bus drivers to transport students to and from schools across the district. In fact, bus driver vacancies, and drivers’ dissatisfaction with their working conditions in the district, go back several years.
On Tuesday, the Wake Schools Board of Education members approved a measure that they hope will incentivize bus drivers to join the district and stay with the job. School bus drivers will receive a new $20 per hour minimum wage, and the district now says it has enough drivers to cover all bus routes this upcoming school year, up from a shortage of 300 in April.
“This $20 an hour, we hope, continues to chip away at the challenge that we face here locally, across the state, and across the country, in our need to recruit and retain these important staff,” said the district’s chief business officer David Neter at Tuesday’s meeting.
Bus drivers aren’t the only school employees receiving raises this academic year.
The board also approved a 4 percent increase to district teachers’ local salary supplement (which comes on top of a 3 percent salary increase that the state authorized this summer) and set the system’s minimum wage to $17.75 per hour, up from $17 last year. Now, a teacher with a bachelor’s degree starting out in Wake County schools will earn $48,339.90 per year, paid out over 10 months, a $2,200 annual pay increase over last year.
School board member Lindsay Mahaffey said she is excited to be able to give these workers raises but noted that educators still have to budget and that many workers are still underpaid in a district where the cost of living is high.
“While we celebrate this, I want to acknowledge that most of these folks are 10-month employees, and so for a 10-month driver, it takes 13 years under this salary schedule for them to get to $40,000 a year, and 22 years for our lowest-paid employee to get to $40,000 a year,” Mahaffey said.
Have a good Thursday.
—Jane
Durham
ICYMI: Rents are rising, restaurants are closing, and as new residents move in, downtown Durham still feels disconnected. Can the city act quickly enough to help keep local businesses afloat?
Durham Public Schools hired an integrated and academic behavior support director who is tasked with establishing support systems for students.
Wake
A company that says it provided maintenance and janitorial services at St. Augustine’s University is suing the school for more than $1 million in alleged unpaid bills.
Orange
The UNC Board of Governors is expected to elect a new chancellor for UNC-Chapel Hill tomorrow.
North Carolina
High-ranking state lawmakers allocated $55 million in state grants to try to attract Olympic organizations to the Charlotte area. None have come.
Today’s weather
Rainy with a high of 79 degrees.
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