Featuring an unhappy union, an unyielding school board, and a pair of plans for reductions in staff, tonight’s Durham Public Schools (DPS) board meeting is set to be yet another municipal barn burner.
The school board is expected to vote on a budget request to Durham County, including a proposal to adjust teacher-student allotment ratios for the upcoming year (potentially eliminating teacher positions) and a separate plan to cut central staff.
For weeks, the Durham Association of Educators (DAE) has pushed board members to delay the budget vote until DAE gets “more budget transparency and collaboration” from the board. DAE representatives and board members met Monday about the ongoing budget process—just as DPS chief financial officer Jeremy Teetor’s presentation on the allotment adjustment was posted online.
In total, the allotment adjustment will eliminate 112 teacher roles across the district, though Teetor’s slides note 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.
“We look at teaching positions on the whole and HR will manage this through the transfer process as well as working directly with principals to pair teachers with available positions they are licensed to fill,” Teetor said via email.
The lack of clarity hasn’t landed well with the DAE, which had already deployed a “NO CUTS!” chant in a practice picket last week. The union also plans to picket and to present “report cards” for board members before tonight’s meeting.
“It’s a reduction in force on the front lines,” DAE representative Ananda Ghosh told board members on Monday. “Just because a position has been vacant this year or somebody’s retiring doesn’t mean those positions are unneeded. There are no positions at DPS worksites that are unnecessary.”
The conversations echo some that took place in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools (CHCCS) last month, when the district simultaneously insisted that no teachers had been laid off and did not renew the contracts of some teachers.
Most DPS board members did not seem keen to delay a budget vote.
“The county is expecting our budget in a timely manner so that your requests and needs can be funded,” said board member Natalie Beyer. “So I don’t think it’s in the best interest of Durham Public Schools for us to delay. I understand your frustration.”
Also Monday, DPS administrators sent an email to staff announcing an actual reduction in force (RIF) plan to eliminate 27 central office positions.
“None of the reductions will affect the classroom directly. All of the positions being reduced are in Central Services, and a significant portion of this reduction will be absorbed by currently vacant positions,” said the email signed by Superintendent Anthony Lewis.
The DAE had little to no problem with that RIF; in both CHCCS and DPS, “make cuts to the central office” is a popular refrain, as administrators and their staff tend to pull in higher salaries (and have a less obvious impact on students) than their school-building-based employees.
While the state legislature has long outlawed public sector strikes, the DAE’s recent practice pickets and walk-ins served as a reminder to the board and administration that any union with a majority membership has the power to make life in the district very, very difficult.
After Monday’s meeting, INDY asked DAE president Mika Twietmeyer if the union has plans to take action if the board moves ahead with a budget vote.
“I have no comment on that,” said Twietmeyer.
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Reach Reporter Chase Pellegrini de Paur at [email protected]. Comment on this story at [email protected].