As DPS wage saga continues, latest plan shown to still lag local peers
Ahead of tonight's consultant presentation at the Durham Board of Education, side-by-side comparisons with neighboring districts show the newest DPS plan keeps most salaries behind our peers.
This BCPI article is written by Brian Callaway.
Tonight (March 21), the Durham Board of Education will hear recommendations for yet another round of proposed salary schedule changes for classified workers.
Last month, the Durham School Board voted 5-2 to slash pay to over 1,300 non-instructional classified workers, including decreasing pay to over 1,000 workers who make less than $43,450 per year. The vote came following recommendations for that action from Interim Superintendent Catty Moore and Kerry Crutchfield, a semi-retired former budget director at Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools who was hired by the School Board as a part-time consultant in the wake of the suspension and subsequent resignation of former Chief Financial Officer Paul LaSieur.
Later tonight, the Board will hear again from Mr. Crutchfield as he presents his own version of a proposed comprehensive salary schedule that could impact approximately 2,200 workers at DPS. If the Board accepts the proposal, the new salary schedule would likely go into effect at the start of the fiscal year on July 1.
Mr. Crutchfield’s presentation at the February 22 Board meeting drew widespread consternation from DPS classified workers, parents and community members. Dozens of speakers lined up to use their allotted one minute of speaking time to dispel numerous talking points from the presentation and to try to compel Board members to not further fracture trust by cutting worker pay.
Before hiring Mr. Crutchfield to perform this work, the Board dismissed the salary schedule created by Hurd, Isenhour, Lopes, LLC (HIL), a consultant group who was paid $124,686.53 in FY22-23 according to DPS records.
The HIL team interviewed approximately 70 classified workers to build their initial report, which was received by an enthusiastic and receptive School Board on January 12, 2023. Board Member Natalie Beyer, charting a pro-worker position, even declared that she felt the pay increases called for by the report did not go far enough, asking if the increases would “be enough to hold our people.”
One year later, Ms. Beyer would go on to vote three times last month to cut those same workers’ salaries, finally winning over a majority of her peers at her third vote.
The HIL study took months to collect data, conduct interviews and make comparisons to local labor markets. The School Board weren’t the only ones to celebrate the study; Mr. Crutchfield even commended the work numerous times during his presentation last month.
In contrast to the breadth of work to create the HIL study, Mr. Crutchfield has created his salary tables in the last four weeks while working in what he described as a “part-time” role. There is no evidence any classified workers were interviewed to help inform the newest proposed changes.
Lack of comparison to market conditions
Presentation slides and supporting documentation for tonight’s meeting have been posted to the DPS meeting portal. Unlike the HIL study which included over a dozen pages reporting on market conditions, the supporting documents for tonight’s meeting lack any identifiable market evaluation.
A detailed review of publicly-available salary schedules for FY23-24 for Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) and Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools (CHCCS) shows that most classified positions under the proposed FY24-25 Crutchfield Plan still do not measure up to our neighboring peer districts.
The above table shows monthly classified worker salaries for a sample of positions that represent a majority of classified workers. Green cells in the WCPSS and CHCCS columns represent salaries that are already higher in those districts than the proposed DPS FY24-25 plan. There are a handful of red cells that denote the DPS salary schedule is higher than our neighbors’ salary. Most of those instances are for positions such as HVAC technicians, plumbers and fleet mechanics where neighboring districts have more job classes. Those workers have more opportunity for promotions and eventually higher salary attainment than similar DPS workers.
For example, a bus mechanic at DPS would top out as a Fleet Mechanic III and make a maximum of $5,282 per month. But in WCPSS, bus mechanics can be promoted through Mechanic V and even onward to Master Mechanic and make $6,275 per month or over 18% more than a top tier DPS bus mechanic. (CHCCS employs mechanics paid directly by the County, so they do not have an applicable bus mechanic pay scale.)
Occupational and physical therapists are the only analyzed position where DPS falls in the middle of our peers, but OTs and PTs in Wake County still consistently make thousands of dollars more per year than one would under the proposed DPS schedule.
Local Education Agencies (LEAs) have the option to contribute local funds to supplement any State contributions to classified salaries, according to NC G.S. § 115C‑12 (16) and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. CHCCS adds up to 9.5% in local supplement above their classified worker salary schedules, which would mean a tenured OT or PT in CHCCS still would make more than one in DPS.
Workers, Board members still at a disconnect
At the March 7 work session, DPS physical therapist Christie Clem told Board members that the morale of classified workers did not improve after the 11% decision.
“I know there was an email sent out from the district saying that that decision ended a period of uncertainty and anxiety for classified employees. That’s not accurate; it hasn’t happened.”
She went on to state the majority of classified workers she has spoken with are not sure if they will still be at DPS next year due to the ongoing salary situation.
“We’ve been very passive pawns in this game where we sit and wait to see what happens to us next.”
Meanwhile, some Board members have been self-promoting the decision on social media and continue to espouse that they “look forward to continuing to advocate for all of our staff” despite voting against worker interests, refusing to ask the County for assistance and neglecting to work on more creative solutions.
The topic of classified worker salaries barely came up in the March 14 Joint Meeting with the Board of County Commissioners.
To underscore the disconnect with worker sentiment, Board member Millicent Rogers announced in the Joint Meeting: “We were able to provide an 11% pay increase. I am 39 years old, and I have never received an 11% pay increase in my life. That is huge.”
Again, the 11% pay “increase” amounted to an actual decrease in the wages for 1,389 workers, of which 1,027 make less than $43,450 per year.
For context, DPS has a $620 million annual operating budget with over $6 million in the “emergency” fund balance. It was determined it would cost $2.3 million to pay salaried classified workers for the rest of the fiscal year at the wages that had been declared to them in writing in October. That is the equivalent of a person who makes $50,000 per year saying they cannot find $185 in a pinch—and they don’t want to touch the nearly $500 sitting in their savings account.
Meeting details
Tonight’s School Board meeting will be held at 6:30pm on the third floor of the Fuller Building at 511 Cleveland St in downtown Durham. According to the meeting notice, it will be viewable on DPS Channel 4 (where available) and on YouTube at http:// bit.ly/DPSBOELiveYoutubeLink.
DISCLOSURE: The author, Brian Callaway, has spoken publicly in support of DPS classified workers receiving the full pay that was promised, and the author himself is a former DPS classified worker from 2014-19.