Teachers and staff of Durham Public Schools (DPS) staged walk-ins at more than 30 schools Wednesday morning.
The latest protest against district-wide pay cuts drew support from community members and parents who honked and cheered from carpool lines.
DPS announced last month that it would revoke recent raises to about 1,300 classified staff, including cafeteria workers, custodians, instructional assistants, school nurses, physical and occupational therapists, along with some maintenance and transportation staff.
“They’re messing with people’s livelihoods,” Christy Patterson, special education teacher at Carrington Middle School, said. “People need to know how they’re going to pay their mortgage, their rent and how they’re going to be able to feed their families. Simple as that.”
Patterson has taught at the school for almost five years. She also sits on the Durham Association of Educators’ board of directors. The organization is a local affiliate of both the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE) and the National Education Association (NEA), the largest teachers’ union in the country.
Patterson said pay cuts take a huge toll on staff’s mental and emotional well-being and an even bigger toll on students.
“They’re who we do this for,” Patterson said.
“What we want and what they deserve is a safe environment with qualified educators of sound mind, body and spirit. Decreasing pay for people, not just teachers, but cafeteria workers, custodians, transportation, front desk, etc. makes our jobs much more difficult,” she said.
“How can I go into a classroom fully prepared to teach if I cannot even provide for my family?”
Patterson said these staff members make up a bracket of workers known as classified staff. DPS organizes salaries for classified staff by “grades” and “steps” which denote job type and years of experience respectively. Workers receive one step for every year of experience. But, in January, DPS announced that…
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