Durham Public Schools' superintendent, school board, and the Durham Association of Educators (DAE) have come to an agreement on a policy to give school employees more voice in district decisions.
The new "meet and confer" policy will allow members of employee representative organizations with a large enough membership to meet regularly with district leaders to discuss issues.
DAE's push for a "meet and confer" policy has lasted a year and a half, beginning with the association proposing the policy in February 2024 in the midst of a financial debacle that led to prolonged staff walkouts that sporadically shut down schools across Durham.
After many months of pursuit, DAE celebrated a major victory last week when the board revised a policy it originally passed in April to meet the association's demands. The new policy makes the following changes:
- defines an employee representative organization as an employee-only organization that is open to employees, independent of the district
- raises the threshold for the size an employee representative organization must have to be able to participate in "meet and confer" from 6% of all the school district's non-supervisory employees to 11% of non-supervisory employees, with different numbers of representatives depending on the proportion of DPS employees in membership
- allows employee representative organizations to seek a third party to certify their membership
That final point was a particular sticking point for DAE, because they did not wish to hand their membership roster directly to district officials. DAE leaders argued this is not how union certification works in most settings.
The school board voted 4-3 last Thursday to approve the revisions, with Natalie Beyer, Millicent Rogers and Wendell Tabb voting against it. Tabb said his only reservation is that he would like to see the threshold for eligibility remain at 6%.
With the new policy in place, DAE now plans to seek certification of its members to participate in "meet and confer" - similar to a union vote to seek formal recognition.
Public sector employees in North Carolina - including public school employees - are barred by state law from collectively bargaining their contracts as a formally recognized union would, but DAE members say this policy will now give them a seat at the table with their employer.
Within the past year, a majority of Durham Public Schools employees joined DAE. Now the superintendent and DAE must agree to a third party certification process and certify the association's membership.
Superintendent and DAE call the news "historic"
Durham Public Schools' Superintendent Anthony Lewis celebrated the policy alongside DAE members at a joint press conference Tuesday night.
"When educators and staff know their voices are not just welcomed, but expected, a shift begins," Lewis said. "That shift leads to stronger classrooms, better staff retention, and most importantly, better outcomes for students."
Lewis called the announcement historic, because Durham Public Schools will be the first school district in the state to have a long-term board policy like this.
In March, Asheville City Schools announced a district "procedure" to have a similar relationship with the Asheville City Association of Educators, but that measure is not as permanent as a board policy, because it could be changed by future superintendents.
DAE's president Mika Twietmeyer underscored that the effort by educators in her district to organize over the past two school years has also been historic.
"It was historic for DPS workers to organize a majority union last year despite restrictions on union power," Twietmeyer said. "We refused to accept the status quo of powerlessness and dared to make history together."
Editor's Note: An earlier version misstated Wendell Tabb's preferred threshold for eligibility. The latest version also lists the names of other board members who voted nay.
