Q&A: What is going on with Durham Public Schools?
Durham Public Schools (DPS) has been dealing with a slew of staffing issues after it was announced that some employees would have to take a pay cut after the district said they were overpaid for months.
So what exactly happened? WRAL News is breaking it down.
What will Durham Public Schools do for the time being?
The Durham Public Schools Board of Education voted 5-2 on Thursday to maintain the 11% salary increase for classified staff for the remainder of the school year.
This increase, exceeding last year's pay, serves as an interim "fix" while a long-term solution is developed.
Staff retention and morale linger for DPS after an unpopular vote at the Feb. 22 meeting.
Under the option the board chose, the 1,875 classified employees are impacted differently.
About 26% will make more than they did last October when the salary study was implemented.
Nearly 1,400 employees, or 74%, will make less than they have been since October 2023.
Now, the district turns to next year's budget, and a long-term solution.
Why are Durham Public Schools employees protesting?
The district said some Durham Public Schools "classified" employees were unknowingly overpaid when the district implemented raises during the second half of 2023.
On Jan. 12, 2024, DPS announced in a statement that some employees had gotten paid more than they should in their July 2023 through December 2023 paychecks due to an error in implementing salary changes for classified staff.
The error stemmed from a mistake in the October 2023 implementation of the board-approved salary schedule.
The school board chair said the approved budget did not account for those raises.
At first, when employees were told they had been overpaid, they worried they'd be asked to pay back the money.
Later, after a public meeting, the DPS Board of Education said the district secured funds so employees would be able to keep the full payments they received through Dec. 31 and be paid at same rate for January's paychecks.
Aside from the issue of the past paychecks, DPS employees told WRAL News they received emails explaining that only state years of service would be taken into account in salary calculations. In the past, employees say, related work elsewhere would have been considered in calculating years of experience. The change meant smaller paychecks.
The Durham Association of Educators (DAE) said in a press release that the change in calculating experience will negatively impact more than 1,300 workers.
Although Durham Public Schools was able to provide a short-term fix for employee salaries through January, the district has not come up with a long-term solution.
What is the total cost of the 'overpayment' and how many employees were affected?
The Board of Education voted to allocate $4.5 million from the fund reserve to cover the money already paid to employees. That means no employees owe money back to the district.
The district said 1,300 employees were "overpaid" in their paychecks for the last three months of 2023.
What are the consequences so far?
On Jan. 12, DPS suspended LeSieur with pay after discovering that some employees received overpayments in their July 2023 through December 2023 paychecks due to an error in implementing salary changes for classified staff.
On Jan. 26, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Paul LeSieur resigned after working for the district for 13 years. Cierra Ojijo will be taking over as the acting (CFO) for the district on Jan. 31.
On Thursday, Feb. 8, WRAL News obtained a copy of former DPS Superintendent Pascal Mubenga's resignation agreement. Mubenga resigned on Wednesday, Feb. 7. He is owed $297,759 in severance pay.
Over the last few weeks, a combination of rallies and walk-ins have caused students to miss school since the staffing shortages caused the schools to close.
Timeline of DPS pay disputes
- Jan. 12, 2024: DPS sends memo to staff informing them of the salary dispute.
- Jan. 11, 2024: Former DPS Superintendent Pascal Mubenga informs all school board members of the salary issue.
- December 2023: Mubenga notifies two school board members, Board Chair Bettina Umstead and Board Member Natalie Beyer, of the salary issue. Mubenga said they would take care of the salary issue after the holiday season.
- Nov. 8, 2023: Former DPS CFO Paul LeSieur informs Mubenga that implementing new salaries for classified staff would put the district $12 million over budget.
- October 2023: LeSieur tells the school board that the salary implementation will cost about $10 million.
- February 2023: LeSieur asked to run the numbers on the cost and got an estimate of $21 million. He had the consultant redo the cost estimate, only counting state years of service, and they came up with a cost of about $13 million.
- January 2023: HIL Consultants presented the study results to the school board, saying implementation will cost about $10.8 million.
- Fall 2022: DPS hires HIL Consultants for $78,500 to engage in a salary study.
Who is considered a 'classified' employee?
DPS Employees are either classified or certified.
Classified employees were impacted, but certified employees were not.
Bus drivers are classified employees but were not impacted due to a different past pay study for them.
Classified employees include:
- Instructional assistance
- Physical/occupational therapists
- Transportation workers (bus mechanics, supervisors, drivers)
- Building services
- Grounds crews
- Cafeteria workers
- Custodial staff
Certified employees include:
- Teachers
- Speech language pathologists
What is Durham Public Schools doing to correct the error?
The DPS Board of Education said in a statement that the district is continuing to work with employees on a resolution.
"The Board of Education is committed to getting all matters with our employees resolved fairly and as soon as possible," Bettina Umstead, chair of the DPS Board of Education, said. "In the meantime, we appeal to everyone in Durham Public Schools to remember our mission and our commitment to providing our students with the best possible education."
The board announced an outside financial consultant will investigate what happened with some DPS employees' paychecks.
At a meeting on Feb. 8, the Board of Education will weigh two options to resolve the salary dispute. Intially, the board was supposed to make a decision on Dec. 2. Both options are feasible under the current budget.
The board has come up with the following two options:
- Stick with the plan from January: All classified staff would be given at least a 4% raise from the state. However, they would not get credit for out-of-state or private practice experience, which could adversely affect their pay.
- An 11% raise: The raise would be 7% from the district and 4% from the state. It would also restore the 2022-2023 salary steps.
The presentation said under option 2, some employees would still receive less than they were told in January.
If you're still confused, here's a hypothetical scenario for each of the options:
Let's say a physical therapist started working at a year-round school in DPS two years ago after 33 years in private practice.
According to the published salary schedules, for the 2022-23 school year, she was making $93,550. This school year, before any adjustments were made in the past couple weeks, she was making $112,308.
That is from the credit for her 33 years of experience outside the school system, plus the benefit of the salary study that was done and implemented between the 2022-23 and the 2023-24 school years.
Now, with the changes, because the district won't let anyone go below the pay they were on this past year, she's actually on step 18 and is making $95,352 – but she won't get a raise for the next 18 years.
Option 1
Under option 1, she would no longer get credit for her 30+ years of experience – only for the two years that she's been with DPS. She would get a 4% raise on top of that.
Under this plan, she would be making $95,352, plus a 4% raise, to bring her to $99,166.
Option 2
Under option 2, she would keep the credit for her private sector experience but lose the additional money added to her pay from the salary study. So she would go back to her 2022-23 salary then get an 11% raise on top of that.
That brings her to $103,829 annually – 8% less than she was making before all these changes but still better off than option 1.
More options presented at February board meeting
The board has presented two additional options to resolve the ongoing pay dispute.
Option 3: Eliminate third-party compensation study conducted by HIL Consultants and provide employees with a 15% raise compared to last year's salary. This option restores salary steps that would credit employees for experience worked outside of the state.
Option 4: Eliminate third-party compensation study conducted by HIL Consultants and provide employees with a 15% raise compared to last year's salary. This option restores salary steps that would credit employees for experience worked outside of the state. Also, add on month of pay suggested by the study for February's checks.
Later this month, the board could also consider other long-term payment options.
How have parents, students been impacted by the salary dispute at Durham Public Schools?
It seems that the entire DPS community has been negatively affected as a result of the district's mistake.
This payment issue has also caused transportation problems with school buses as some mechanics and supervisors have not been showing up to work to protest, causing parents of bus riders to be forced to arrange their own transportation.
How much do Durham Public Schools' teachers get paid?
Teachers who work for Durham Public Schools make between $43,450 and $82,025. This is based on a 10-month salary, which DPS said includes a local salary supplement.
Pay scales are set depending on the position and experience and whether the employee is a certified or classified staff member. If certified, like a teacher, the state sets the scale. The district does that for those who are classified, like a bus driver or physical therapist. The nuances of that make understanding pay somewhat complex.
Teachers at Durham Public Schools are making less than those in Johnston and Wake counties but aren't the lowest, according to publicly available information. A first-year teacher with a bachelor's degree, but without national certification, earns more than $45,000 annually. While a teacher with the same education but 10 years of experience makes about $56,000 annually.
How does Durham Public Schools determine where employees fall in the pay scale?
You can find the salary schedules for classified employees at dpsnc.net. The salary schedules for certified employees can also be found at dpsnc.net.
You can also find the hourly pay rate for bus drivers at dpsnc.net.
How many employees work for DPS?
There are 2,410 teachers and 5,054 total employees that work for DPS.
What is the student-to-teacher ratio at Durham Public Schools?
The student-to-teacher ratios are based on the following grade groupings:
K-3: 1 to 18
4-5: 1 to 23
6-8: 1 to 21
9-12: 1 to 24
When does Durham Public Schools set its budget?
According to the district's website, the DPS Board of Education adopted the FY 2023-24 superintendent's proposed budget in April 2023, and the Durham County budget was adopted on June 12, 2023.
What portion of the DPS annual budget goes to employee pay?
41.2% – $302,393,271 – of the FY 2023-2024 budget went toward employee salaries.
How does DPS set its budget?
The budget is based on several different factors.
"The largest line item is a $4.1 M request to fund the classified salary study to bring DPS classified staff closer to market rate in the Durham area, and hopefully reduce the loss of good personnel and reduce workloads of those continuing to work at DPS," the superintendent said in the FY 2023-24 budget proposal.
The superintendent's budget proposal also highlighted how the district must use local funds to comply with legislative changes. Local funds had to be used for the FY 2023-24 budget due to the following legislative changes:
"HB-90 class size requirements: DPS must add additional teachers (without additional state funds) if Kindergarten, 1st, or 2nd/3rd grade class sizes exceed 21, 19, or 20 students.
"An annual reduction of approximately $860K in state at-risk funds due to a decline in overall Durham County poverty levels despite no significant decline in poverty levels among DPS families."
What are the origins of the DPS' salary dispute?
The pay issue came into the public spotlight in January and, since then, there has been little transparency from school officials about what prompted it.
WRAL Investigates watched hours of old meetings, dating back more than a year, to try to better understand it.
In an October 2023 meeting, during which the board gave a final approval for the new payment plan, school board members were clearly confused about what they were being asked to vote on.
Board members expressed concern about the lack of specifics and a lack of documentation provided to them by staff to explain the full details of the plan.
WRAL Investigates reached out to Board Chair Bettina Umstead and DPS spokesperson Crystal Roberts by email, asking if they could explain what went wrong. Did the board approve something that just wasn't feasible in the budget? Or did DPS accounting staff pay out something more than what the board approved?
In an email response, Roberts said the school system would "issue a timeline outlining the answers to these and other questions soon."
What's next?
The Durham Public Schools Board of Education will hold a special meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 7 at the Fuller Administration Building at 511 Cleveland St. in Durham.
The district said the purpose of the meeting is an open and closed session to discuss attorney-client privileged and personnel matters.
The board is also scheduled to meet at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 8.
