A cluster of red filled the Cleveland Street sidewalk outside the Durham Public Schools central office on Thursday, as dozens of Durham Association of Educators members shook signs and shouted chants at passing cars before the Durham school board work session.
The protesters, clad in red T-shirts and jackets, were on hand to protest the district’s draft budget proposal. The draft budget calls for a raise of just over 12% in classified pay, up from the 5% raise that was proposed two weeks ago.
DAE President Mika Twietmeyer said in an interview that while she and her members are encouraged that the administration is proposing bigger pay increases for classified workers, there’s still more to advocate for.
The association wants a minimum wage of $22 an hour for classified employees, including teacher assistants, custodians, bus drivers and cafeteria workers. The group also called for a multi-year plan to raise the district’s minimum wage to $25 per hour. Also, the group claims that a great deal of unpaid labor goes on in the district, and calls for the budget to include $1 million to pay employees for those extra duties.
“It’s unacceptable to pay people poverty wages,” Twietmeyer said to the crowd of protesters. “And we know that all that extra work that we do that goes unpaid contributes to burnout and unprecedented turnover. It’s not fair for our students. It’s not fair to us.”
She also said she’s nervous about Durham schools’ ability to retain classified workers.
“Right now, our classified staff don’t know how much they’ll be making in the future,” she said. “They have to wait every year to see what they’re going to be making year to year, and that’s really tough for workers.”
Relations between DAE and the district were tested last month when Twietmeyer referred to Superintendent Anthony Lewis by his first name during a professional meeting. An open letter calling for Twietmeyer’s resignation has since been signed by more than 100 teachers, parents and students, including several current and former school board members. The letter was written by Ronda Bullock, founder of a local anti-racist advocacy organization.
When asked for a response to the letter on Thursday, Twietmeyer declined to comment.
At the rally, DAE sought to visualize just how much unpaid labor they say takes place in Durham schools. Over the last month, members from schools district-wide collected colorful pom-poms in jumbo plastic jars, with each pom-pom representing an hour of unpaid labor. On Thursday, members emptied all the jars into a large plastic bin that almost overflowed.
“There are over 10,000 pom-poms here,” said Twietmeyer. “And we know the hours represented here are just a fraction of the unpaid labor that keeps our district afloat for our students.”
Two former district employees also spoke to the crowd, including Yamileth Rodriguez, a former custodian at Sherwood Githens Middle School. She said that due to staff shortages, many employees work overtime.
“It’s not fair that the workers are killing themselves doing the work of three or four people for the same pay,” she said in Spanish, which was translated through an interpreter. “I had to quit to take care of my health.”
At the work session, school board members discussed extra-duty pay, with many in favor.
“One thing we really need to work on first and foremost is making sure we’re consistent across our schools with the way we’re doing extra duty pay and communicating that out to folks,” said board member Natalie Beyer.
Superintendent Lewis said he wants more time to finalize how extra duty time would be distributed consistently across departments.
The next draft of the district’s budget proposal will be presented at the March 26 school board meeting.
Above: Members of the Durham Association of Educators rallied for higher pay ahead of the school board’s recent work session. Photo by Yaa Bame — The 9th Street Journal
Yaa Bame
