Durham Public Schools could let 1,000-plus workers who got overpaid keep the money

Durham school leaders hope to let over a thousand employees who received raises by mistake keep the money, the chair of the school board said Monday.

As another week starts in Durham Public Schools, the Board of Education met in private in a downtown board room to discuss paycheck problems that derailed school activities last week.

Many classified staff — including bus mechanics, physical therapists, cafeteria workers and groundskeepers — skipped work last week, plunged into a financial panic over whether they’ll get to keep raises promised last year.

Neither teachers nor bus drivers were directly affected, but some drivers chose not to drive their routes in solidarity.

That has prompted confusion since Wednesday, as school officials urge parents to figure out how to get their kids to and from school each day.

Here are the five top takeaways so far:

The salary issues

Employees were expecting raises approved in 2023 to take effect at the start of this school year.

• The raises didn’t start showing up until October, although the pay bumps were promised to be retroactive.

• Monthly paychecks were expected to vary dramatically over the past four months, with the raises, retroactive pay, holiday bonuses and new benefits selections all affecting the numbers workers saw on their pay stubs.

• “We’re not going to have consistent checks for a while,” school board member Natalie Beyer warned in an October board meeting. “I feel like we can’t overcommunicate that.”

But some workers may not be getting raises, or as big a raise as they thought, after all. The district said in mid-January that accounting errors had occurred and some classified staff had been overpaid for months.

• A spokesperson said 1,300 employees were being reclassified and would be paid according to their experience solely with Durham Public Schools. Pay steps used to also count relevant experience from the private sector and other school districts.

• What that means: Five years of experience with DPS and five years of experience with a private school previously placed someone on Step 10. Now the same employee would be on Step 5, potentially erasing hundreds or thousands of dollars from monthly paychecks.

The school board statement

Board of Education Chair Bettina Umstead did not take questions but issued a statement at 2:30 p.m. Monday.

• The statement came after a three-hour school board meeting that began at 8 a.m. and a 90-minute meeting between transportation workers and Superintendent Pascal Mubenga that started at noon.

• Media was barred from both meetings.

In the statement, Umstead apologized and said the board hopes to let employees keep any money they were overpaid.

• “We have asked administration to identify sufficient funds by Thursday’s board meeting that will allow employees to keep all pay received through Dec. 31, 2023 and to be paid at the same rate for January 2024.,” she said.
  
  

• She did not say how much money that would take.

The rally planned for Thursday

“School employees are very upset, and they should be,” Durham Association of Educators President Symone Kiddoo said in a video statementy. “The disrespect has been felt by all staff, not just the classified workers whose pay was affected.”

• Kiddoo said some workers have made big financial decisions based on the expected raises, like buying a new car.

• The association, which has no collective bargaining power under North Carolina law, is not yet calling for a work stoppage.

It is, however, calling for a rally on Thursday outside the Board of Education meeting.

• Supporters are asked to gather at 5:30 p.m. at 2107 Hillandale Road.

• The school board is meeting in closed session at 5 p.m. then in a regularly scheduled open meeting at 6:30 p.m. No agenda has been published, but public comment is traditionally allowed in-person.

The association has three core demands: no clawbacks of money already paid; no changes to January paychecks; and greater transparency and a seat at the table during decision-making.

The DPS financial officer suspended

The district’s chief financial officer, Paul LeSieur, was suspended with pay last week, a spokesperson confirmed.

• LeSieur remains suspended as of Monday. He has been with DPS since 2010.

Mubenga, who was hired in 2017, has apologized repeatedly to staff and parents.

• Mubenga met with about 40 transportation employees downtown Monday.

• Workers left the lengthy meeting in unison. They declined to speak with reporters, but said they were confident in the superintendent and looking forward to the board’s statement.

The school district investigation

The school district stopped answering questions about the matter last week, saying an active investigation is underway by its attorneys at Tharrington Smith

• “Due to the sensitive and critical nature of this matter, we are not able to provide any further public statements to the media,” an emailed statement read.

• Umstead said an “outside financial consultant” will also investigate.