In A Contentious Meeting, Durham Association of Educators Pushes for Meet and Confer Policy

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Good morning, readers.

At a meeting last week with the Durham Association of Educators, Durham Public Schools superintendent Anthony Lewis walked in to applause and left, about 20 minutes later, to hisses and jeers.

The meeting was an aggressive play by the union, which has been deadlocked with Lewis since December over the final details over a “meet and confer” policy to give educators more input into how the schools are run.

And the pressure campaign may have paid off. Two days after that meeting, Lewis told the school board that he’s ready to present a draft of the policy next month, even though the biggest disagreements aren’t quite resolved.

But when I called school board chair Millicent Rogers, she reminded me that the policy still has to get approved by a majority of the seven member board.

“The reality is, it doesn’t matter if DAE and Dr. Lewis agree on a policy, because the board can chop it up, add in what they want, take out what they don’t want,” said Rogers, adding that they have a “right and responsibility” to do so.

And it’s Durham politics so, you know…stay tuned.

Read more here about the intense meeting and the board dynamics that will shape the policy’s possible path forward.

And have a good Monday. 

 —Chase

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