{"id":11620,"date":"2024-02-27T21:48:54","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T21:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/?p=11620"},"modified":"2024-02-27T21:48:54","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T21:48:54","slug":"meet-the-candidate-michelle-burton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/02\/27\/meet-the-candidate-michelle-burton\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the candidate: Michelle Burton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editors\u2019 Note: Eleven candidates \u2014 all Democrats \u2014 are vying for five seats on the Durham County Board of Commissioners in the March 5 election. No Republicans or Libertarians have entered the contest, so the March 5 results will determine who sits on the commission. The 9th Street Journal is profiling each candidate in the race.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

As a school librarian and former teacher\u2019s union president, Michelle Burton has spent much of her life surrounded by teachers and school staff, listening to and standing up for their concerns. Now she wants to bring her advocacy work to the next level by winning a seat on the county commission.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cMany people asked me why not run for school board\u2026I wanted to be in a position where I could really impact policy and funding at a bigger scale,\u201d Burton said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

School funding will likely be a big issue for the county commissioners this coming year. A Durham Public Schools payroll crisis has recently led to protests, teacher and staff \u201csickouts\u201d and commotion at school board meetings. In its Feb. 22 meeting, the board approved an 11% raise for classified workers over last year\u2019s pay. The new pay rates \u2014\u00a0which are less than workers received in October through February \u2014\u00a0are in place until the end of the school year. A plan for next year\u2019s pay is yet to be figured out.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Durham Association of Educators spearheaded many of the recent protests and has advocated for staff pay raises. Burton served as DAE president from 2019 to the summer of 2023. She has been a member of the North Carolina Association of Educators since 1995 and became more active starting in 2013 when the North Carolina<\/span> General Assembly<\/span><\/a> passed a budget eliminating 5,200 teaching positions and 3,800 teachers assistant positions statewide.<\/span><\/p>\n

As president of the union, she fought for federal funds to be used to pay retention bonuses for teachers and navigated teacher\u2019s rights during the COVID-19 pandemic. In her last year, she talked extensively with former Superintendent Pascal Mubenga about raises for the school system\u2019s classified workers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis was something that was important to me because I knew, talking with my colleagues in the building, how they were not being paid enough to do the work that they were doing,\u201d she said. \u201cI was really happy that the classified pay study went forward\u2026So I didn’t expect to see what happened.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Although she supports higher pay, she wants to see what the school board requests from the county before deciding how to assist.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDPS needs to present a budget to the commissioners to tell them what they need to help alleviate what has happened. I think it has to start there,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCan we align Durham Public Schools salaries, minimum salaries, with the county government pay, so they’re comparable?\u201d she added.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although Burton grew up in Chicago, her family history and roots trace back to North Carolina, where her grandmother taught first and second grade in segregated schools. Her father was the first Black student to graduate from UNC\u2019s Kenan-Flagler Business School.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Burton also had early exposure to unions, as her <\/span>grandfather <\/span>wa<\/span>s a member of the Brotherhood of the Sleeping Car Porters, the first all-Black union in the U.S.<\/span><\/p>\n

Burton has worked in North Carolina schools as a media specialist and librarian for 30 years, most recently at Spring Valley Elementary School in Durham, where she now works. She settled down in Durham while pursuing her master\u2019s in library science at North Carolina Central University after spending four years at UNC-Chapel Hill pursuing a B.A. in speech communication and rhetoric.<\/span><\/p>\n

Christy Patterson, special education teacher at Carrington Middle School, recalled meeting\u00a0 Burton in the beginning of her teaching career while signing up for DAE. \u201cAs soon as you walked in\u2026Michelle was right there to greet you,\u201d she said. \u201cBeing a new teacher, it\u2019s intimidating, I\u2019m nervous\u2026She really just took me under her wing.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Burton served on the board of directors for DAE and was a founding board member of the Durham Public Schools Foundation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI do have a unique perspective. I’m a longtime career educator, teacher, librarian. I am a labor organizer and I\u2019m an education activist,\u201d Burton said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Besides public school funding, her other policy priorities include affordable housing and public health and wellness.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She hopes that the county can look at \u201ccreative solutions to build affordable housing in Durham County, like looking at county-owned land, Durham Public Schools land,\u201d she said. She also supports tax assistance programs and home-owning initiatives.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Burton also hopes to expand the HEART program and prioritize working closely with the Department of Social Services and Department of Public Health. \u201cMany of our residents are suffering from mental health issues. They’re suffering from the opioid crisis in Durham, and many of them are not getting the support that they need,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Burton also wants to focus on post-secondary education and career preparation initiatives.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although Burton has never held elected office, she\u2019s eager to lead.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMichelle knows that she doesn\u2019t possess all the knowledge that it\u2019s gonna take to turn our city into what we need it to be. But she\u2019s willing to learn. As an educator, that\u2019s part of who she is,\u201d said longtime DPS physical education teacher Nisha Watson.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Burton has been endorsed by INDY Week, the Durham Association of Educators, <\/span>the People\u2019s Alliance and the Sunrise Movement Durham.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI really see running for county commissioner as an extension of the advocacy work and the labor organizing work that I have done,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is just the next step.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Early voting has already begun and election day on March 5 is approaching.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editors\u2019 Note: Eleven candidates \u2014 all Democrats \u2014 are vying for five seats on the Durham County Board of Commissioners in the March 5 election.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":11623,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[124],"class_list":["post-11620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-schools","tag-durham-public-schools","entry"],"yoast_head":"\nMeet the candidate: Michelle Burton - 9th Street Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/02\/27\/meet-the-candidate-michelle-burton\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meet the candidate: Michelle Burton - 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