Durham County to raise pay of school cafeteria staff, bus drivers to $15/hour

Bus drivers, cafeteria staff, janitors and substitute teachers at Durham Public Schools will soon see their salaries rise to $15 an hour.

The county commissioners voted unanimously to work with the school district on a financial plan in January to raise DPS classified employees’ salaries to what advocates across the country consider a minimum livable wage.

“We know the classified staff work incredibly hard. They’re incredibly devoted to our children in our schools in various forms,” said Commissioner Heidi Carter, who proposed the vote to the board at a Monday meeting.

DPS has roughly 1,200 classified staff members in full-time and part-time roles, said Chip Sudderth, chief communications officer.

A total of 904 full-time equivalent positions are paid under $15 an hour. Bringing all positions to the new minimum wage would cost about $3.9 million, according to DPS’ finance department.

In order for the district to receive $3.9 million on a yearly basis to support the minimum wage increase, the county must allocate an additional $900,000 for charter schools, bringing the total annual county expense to $4.8 million, said director of budget development Alexander Modestou in an email to The News & Observer.

In January, the board will receive updates on property tax and sales tax revenue, Carter said, which will help guide planning.

Although the increased pay won’t start until the new year, the board voted to commit to the wage increase on Monday to give DPS and county staff sufficient time to work together.

Michelle Burton, president of the Durham Association of Educators, is glad the commissioners came to a consensus on the matter.

“That was a victory, that this can happen,” Burton said. “We’re going to continue to work to ensure that the right vote happens in January.”

Burton said the board’s decision is significant from a racial equity perspective.

“If you look at the composition of the folks who work in those positions, they’re primarily women of color, Black and brown women,” she said. “A lot of our custodians are African American and Latino. Our child nutrition, African American women.”

“And that will give them a little economic boost,” she added.

Carter was also thinking about the holiday season when she brought the issue to the board Monday night.

“Our public employees will go home for Thanksgiving knowing, you know, this change will be happening,” she said.

“I think it makes a great holiday gift for them,” said county commissioners Chair Wendy Jacobs.

Hazard pay spending put on hold

Also Monday, the board put the county’s hazard pay spending on hold.

County Manager Wendell Davis approved hazard pay for almost every county employee in March, increasing base salaries by 10% for emergency medical staff as well as clerks in office buildings on days requiring the employees to be onsite, The N&O reported.

Monday’s motion, approved unanimously by the commissioners, also directs the county manager to review Wake and Mecklenburg counties’ hazard pay policies. After that, the manager will bring back a new approach for Durham County, possibly scale back the county’s current spending, and project future expenses to the commissioners.

A majority of commissioners had expressed concern, in October, over how much of the county’s hazard pay expenses would actually be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Public Assistance program.

Burton supported hazard pay for county employees, she said. But she questioned why the county spent millions on it when the commissioners had not included DPS classified staff raises in the annual budget. Commissioners had then cited concerns over pandemic-related revenue losses, The N&O reported.

“If we value what they’re contributing, there would have been — somebody would have found the money to figure out how to pay them,” said Burton. “Just like how it was figured out how to give Durham County government employees hazard pay.”

This story was originally published November 24, 2020 at 4:37 PM with the headline "Durham County to raise pay of school cafeteria staff, bus drivers to $15/hour."