Fact check: Chapel Hill schools will not cut jobs based on race, spokesperson says
The Chapel Hill-Carrboro school district isn’t using employees’ race to decide staffing cuts, its spokesperson said after claims to the contrary circulated online.
The school board voted last month to freeze and cut dozens of positions as part of the district’s plan to remedy a nearly $5.6 million budget shortfall. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Sept. 17, Libs of TikTok — an account run by a far-right activist that boasts over 3 million followers — said the district’s downsizing would “discriminate against employees in the name of ‘racial equity.’”
The post included a screenshot from board materials listing factors that administrators used to decide which jobs to cut. One factor was a district racial equity protocol that’s used to assess how different racial and ethnic groups could be impacted by a potential decision.
The final outcome of the protocol is a plan that “shifts and shares power to ensure inclusion, equity, success, and sustainability,” it says.
Federal law prohibits discrimination against employees on the basis of race.
“Our focus, as always, was to make decisions that would not disproportionately affect any group based on race, gender or other protected categories,” district spokesperson Andy Jenks said in an email.
How did district leaders decide which employees were impacted?
District leaders aimed to preserve student-facing positions “to the maximum extent possible,” Superintendent Nyah Hamlett told the board in August.
They used a rubric to make the decisions, the district’s plan says. The rubric gave double weight to employees’ work performance and evaluations.
Other factors in the rubric were:
Areas of licensure
Program enrollment
Service in extra duty positions
Length of service
Administrators also considered questions from the racial equity protocol, Hamlett said, “primarily the question, ‘Who will experience burden or benefit if we cut X position or this employee group?’”
According to the plan, they also asked:
Who is most directly affected by this plan?
How can the district support and expand the engagement, leadership and power of Black, Indigenous and People of Color communities in the decision-making process regarding service provision to schools moving forward?
Jenks said the questions were used to make sure reducing staff wouldn’t have an excessive impact on a specific group of students, teachers or schools.
“For instance, no Exceptional Children (EC) positions were cut, reflecting our ongoing commitment to improving programming for students with disabilities,” he wrote. “However, certain administrative roles were eliminated despite significant reservations, precisely because we remain dedicated to school-based equity work designed to support students and families who have been traditionally and historically marginalized.”
NC Reality Check is an N&O series holding those in power accountable and shining a light on public issues that affect the Triangle or North Carolina. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email realitycheck@newsobserver.com
This story was originally published September 23, 2024 at 1:33 PM with the headline "Fact check: Chapel Hill schools will not cut jobs based on race, spokesperson says."