Durham Association of Educators, DPS Administrators at Odds Over Meet-and-Confer Policy

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Good morning, readers.

Early last year, the Durham Association of Educators—what’s in effect the local teachers union—organized Durham Public Schools teachers and staff in the midst of the payroll crisis and staged a sickout. Then, the group successfully advocated for a $27 million increase in local funding to the county budget. 

Following the payroll crisis and the budget win, the group had hoped to make progress on implementing a “meet-and-confer” policy with district administrators to ensure DAE members are represented in future negotiations and to preserve relationships between educators, the school board, and county leaders. 

The hiring of new superintendent Anthony Lewis in July looked like a positive development for DAE, but negotiations between DAE and district administrators have since stalled. 

As Chase Pellegrini de Paur reported last month, DAE and Lewis can’t come to an agreement on who gets to participate in the meeting and conferring. The DAE says the superintendent’s version of the agreement would not require any other DPS administrators to be present to hear from the union and would allow individual, non-administrative, non-union workers to attend meetings instead. A solidarity letter signed by various labor leaders from across the country even accuses Lewis of union-busting. 

Lewis has defended his approach as allowing for more collaboration among a broader group of stakeholders, including non-DAE members, in order to foster unity and representation rather than division. 

“[The administration’s approach] is not anti-union or it is not this notion of ‘union-busting’ but rather [it is] pro-worker in the broader sense, ensuring that all worker voices are heard and respected,” Lewis wrote in a pre-holiday letter to school staff. 

With an ongoing bus driver shortage and other issues at DPS, we’ll be watching to see how this plays out in the new year 

Have a good weekend.

—Jane

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