Over the past few weeks, we’ve been reporting on the pay dispute between Durham Public Schools and the district’s educators and staff, including its classified staff who were told that salary increases they had been promised and already paid would not continue. As a result, DPS has closed schools twice in the past two weeks as educators and their supporters have protested the pay situation and lobbied for more transparency. We received the following email from HANNAH POSNER, a student at Riverside High School, who attended the rally last Wednesday at the Fuller Building in Downtown Durham. 

It’s hard to get people to pace around a building in windy 40 degree weather for 2-plus hours, especially when they have no obligation to be there. 

Teachers, students and parents had no incentive to show up at Wednesday’s protest. Teachers’ paychecks were unaffected by the pay dispute, and students could have spent the day off relaxing at home. Yet, they turned out to show their support for classified staff. 

Many of the people who showed up had already been protesting in the rain all morning, and had returned from a lunch break to continue their efforts. 

Passersby were very supportive of the cause. The DPS employees inside the building put signs of support up on their windows. Cars and school buses drove by and honked, and some students in the buses rolled down the windows to clap. 

The amount of support for classified staff gave me hope for DPS. Although its leadership has made a serious mistake, the staff, faculty, students and parents have a strong sense of what they want and are united in their cause. The school board seems committed to reinstating at least some of the raise for classified staff because they see the value in the work that they do to keep our schools running. 

Teachers and students know the classified staff personally, while the higher-up people in DPS most likely do not. We see how the front office staff manage everyone who comes in and out of the building, and how the custodians clean up our messes. We see how many people rely on our bus drivers for transportation to school. 

I have faith that people who care about this cause will remain willing to sacrifice their time and energy like they did on Wednesday, and DPS will have no choice but to listen. 

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