Durham Public Schools approves hiring freeze for rest of school year
Days after teachers and other staff rallied for worker rights, Durham Public Schools has put a hiring freeze on nearly all its vacant positions.
The school board met Thursday night to discuss the preliminary 2025-26 budget. Superintendent Anthony Lewis is recommending nearly $723 million in spending for next school year, including $222 million from Durham County, a nearly $16 million increase.
The proposed budget would increase teacher and staff pay, ensure reliable transportation for students and address staffing shortages for supporting roles in the classroom. Details could change before the plan goes to the county for approval later this spring.
Jeremy Teetor, chief finance officer, told the board that in order to continue sustaining schools and the district’s over 5,000 employees, the budget is calling for a $6.3 million increase for salaries and benefits, utilities, insurance costs and software.
The hiring freeze was announced to teachers and staff on Tuesday, according to DPS, and will help the district manage current stresses. Two months ago, the system found a $7 million deficit in funds to cover remaining costs this year. Earlier this month, Wake County Public Schools System issued a partial hiring freeze and restrictions on traveling as it faces financial challenges this year.
“My colleagues and I find ourselves all in this kind of similar place of needing to press pause and assess what we’re working with and make sure that as we transition into the new school year, we don’t create unnecessary hardship for staff,” Teetor said.
In a statement, DPS said the freeze is a temporary measure to “ensure fiscal accountability and help us to focus on reviewing our hiring needs for the new school year.”
The freeze exempts Exceptional Children’s positions, transportation personnel and other state-mandated positions.
As of March 14, DPS had 123 vacant positions.
Mika Twietmeyer, the president of the Durham Association of Educators, said while Lewis and Teetor have vowed to bring more transparency, “we haven’t seen any changes.”
The association rallied Tuesday to urge Lewis and the school board to approve a new Meet & Confer policy that would formalize a role for DAE in district decision making.
“A Meet & Confer would be a real meaningful change where the staff of DPS get to engage and actually have transparent conversations,” Twietmeyer said.
A DPS budget breakdown
As proposed, Lewis’ $723 million budget is about 2.1% more than this year’s budget, and includes:
- a $6.3 million increase in continuation budget needs
- a $9.4 million increase in expansion budget needs.
DPS’ 57 public schools serve 31,188 students this year.
The district is anticipating a 3% increase in teacher pay from the state, Teetor said, but it won’t know for sure until the state legislature passes its budget this year.
“The state is projecting much less revenue on their side of the coin,” he said. “So probably not a lot of room for historic investment at the state level. Even [Governor Stein’s] proposed budget is not particularly bullish.”
The school system gets money from the state, the county and a smaller amount from the federal government.
Board member Natalie Beyer asked if the school system was being overly optimistic given the “uncertainty of federal funding, the uncertainty of a state that is not willing to change their status on corporate tax rates.”
“I’m hoping that as you work through allotments that you bring us some clarity on where we are,” Beyer said. She doesn’t know if Durham County has the additional $16 million for schools.
DPS will hold a public hearing on the budget in April before sending the proposal to the county commissioners on April 24.
This story was originally published March 28, 2025 at 4:32 PM with the headline "Durham Public Schools approves hiring freeze for rest of school year."