Seven Questions about the Durham Public Schools Budget

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Wake up, readers! It’s budget season in Durham Public Schools!

$20 thousand for tubas. $377 thousand for bus driver pay supplements. $43 million for charter schools: The superintendent’s $230 million draft budget is officially here, and so is our first look at the 2025-26 financial plan for the oft-troubled district.  

Will federal cuts impact DPS? How will the district avoid another transit crisis? What about that $34 million shortfall? We have a lot of questions, so I dug into the budget document (and notes from all the board meetings I’ve been sitting through) to get some clarity.

On Wednesday, the board will host a public hearing and a meeting with the Durham Association of Educators (another big win for the union, which has been turning up the pressure on the board and superintendent) and on Thursday the board will give a final round of feedback to the superintendent before a final vote two weeks later.

I’ll keep you posted on all of that. In the meantime, read about the budget draft below and have a good weekend.

 —Chase

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Durham

Residents in the Hayti neighborhood are concerned about plans for a mixed use development in Heritage Square that does not include affordable housing, ABC11 reports.

Wake

This weekend’s Dreamville music festival was reported to be the last. The city of Raleigh and the people behind Dreamville now say they’ll continue to hold a (yet-to-be-named) music festival in Dix Park, WRAL reports.

Orange

Five years ago, Maurice King died in custody at the Orange County jail. After his mother filed a lawsuit alleging negligence on the part of detention officers, a recent ruling paves the way for a potential trial, our partners at The Assembly report.

North Carolina

State superintendent Mo Green says the Trump administration plans to cut school repair grants for some of the state’s poorest districts, WUNC reports.

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