DURHAM, N.C. – Twelve Durham Public Schools (DPS) will be closed on Wednesday as educators protest what they say is a lack of transparency and pay cuts.

The following schools are closed on Wednesday: The Whitted School, Lyons Farm Elementary, Forest View Elementary, Riverside High, Jordan High, Lakewood Elementary, Lucas Middle, Spring Valley Elementary, Northern High, Githen Middle, Y.E. Smith Elementary and Hillside High.

DPS workers have been frustrated over a change in a payment scale, and the anger has built up to Wednesday’s protest.

DPS has been dealing with a number of issues over the past couple of weeks, including a lack of bus drivers to cover routes.

This stems from DPS originally making the decision to count years worked in other school districts toward the DPS payment scale. The board of DPS then went back on this decision, telling workers they would have to pay back the difference.

The board eventually reversed that after backlash from employees and said they could keep their pay at least through January until a decision can be made about pay moving forward.

Last week, DPS shared a statement with Spectrum News 1, stating in part: 

“Let me start by acknowledging the implementation of the salary schedule has adversely impacted the entire DPS family. I want to issue a sincere apology on behalf of the DPS Board of Education. We are sorry for the harm caused and understand there is frustration among employees who were affected, as well as throughout our DPS community. I want to be clear that we value each and every one of our employees, and that we are working hard to resolve this situation, to understand how this happened and how it can be avoided in the future, and to earn back your trust.” (read full statement)

Symone Kiddoo is the president of the Durham Association of Educators, a public school staff union, and she says workers will be calling out from schools to attend a protest on Wednesday afternoon.

Kiddoo posted to Facebook on Tuesday, saying many factors led up to this situation, including decades of under funding for schools, the COVID-19 pandemic driving out many longtime school employees and increasingly complex student needs.

She says all of this caused, “a recruitment and retention crisis that will only get worse if DPS does not find a way to keep the promised salaries to staff that they made earlier this fall. Failure to do so will have serious implications for our schools’ ability to address student needs.”

Wednesday’s protest is scheduled for 2 p.m. outside of the Durham Public Schools Building in downtown Durham.

The Durham Board of Education says it’s holding a special meeting on Friday afternoon to address how to move forward with the chair of the board, saying, “we recognize there’s continued work to do.”

On the decision to close the eleven schools, DPS leaders apologized for the inconvenience.

If you have kids who attend Durham Public Schools, you can find more details about the schools affected by these call outs by visiting the DPS website.