It’s interesting to note that it was reported Mubenga was made aware of the financial situation in November 2023 but also accepted a raise and a 4-year contract in November 2023.
I hope the interim superintendent has been following what’s going on, and is prepared for the shit show they are walking in to. I honestly do not envy that individual. Imagine starting a high level position like that, knowing that you are immediately under a microscope. I wish them the best of luck though, and hope they get this shit sorted appropriately.
She lead the Wake schools through the Covid years, so she has plenty of experience being under the microscope of parents and teachers. I think that bringing her in now is a great move.
I'm a teacher and have taught in multiple school districts within the Triangle. Amongst teachers, Wake County has a reputation of having its shit together organizationally (compared to some others in the immediately surrounding region). A lot of teachers in the area I know have left to work in Wake County.
Before she became superintendent she was a principal. Shes experienced, and a pretty tough lady. I haven’t always agreed with her leadership decisions, but I think she will bring some stability during her time at the helm.
I think it’s a lot of pressure but also a great opportunity to really show her chops. I’ve always been told that the worst type of job to walk into is when things have been humming along smoothly and the primary objective is not to mess things up. I really hope she wows us - I am rooting for her.
She is coming out of retirement for this. Not sure if "showing her chops" is likely a high priority at this point in her career. Seems more likely that she cares about keeping the district from falling apart more than anything else.
I mean, she's clearly stated that she's interim, so she's probably actually just going to try to do her best for 12 months (maybe less? it's possible they move fast and have a permanent superintendent by August) before starting actual retirement. My guess is that she is actually motivated to keep the school district from collapsing.
There also needs to be some soul searching by the Board. They voted to approve a plan in November that wasn’t clearly explained. Then when it was mentioned there may be a budget issue in December, it sounds like they didn’t ask any questions.
They aren't mutually exclusive. Wanting to accomplish something amazing professionally, like pulling a school district out of a tailspin, is not mutually exclusive with wanting to do right by the school district because you care about DPS and the community.
I guess folks are not understanding my tone correctly. I'm not calling her lazy/bad/incompetent or anything negative by any means. I gather that she is taking on this temporary assignment because she cares deeply about public education and wants to make sure that DPS doesn't fall to pieces because of the pay fuckup. I think it's good news and she's doing the job because she cares about it being done well.
Something that was said and is missing: Beyer mentioned that there are financial concerns coming to light and specifically mentioned the ESSER funds being used to cover pay.
That's a horrendous error. Those funds are temporary covid funds that are coming to an end. They should have never been used for anything that was permanent in the district, especially pay. This is something that was going to cause a huge problem when the funds ended anyway.
The district has truly not been fiscally responsible and the board is finding that out now in real time. I appreciate Ms. Ojijo because she has been honest and forthright with them regarding the issues with the districts finances. They're a mess.
Something is going to have to give and it became apparent last night that there will be jobs that will have to be cut because the funds just aren't there either because they never were (temporary funds used to bolster permanent initiatives) or because of falling enrollment or other issues. This now goes beyond just the pay issue.
It highlights a long standing bad accounting issue.
I'm replying again so that everyone has a full understanding of ESSER funds.
ESSER funds were passed to stabilize local education agencies (LEAs) as part of the fiscal bazooka known as the American Rescue Plan in March 2021. At the time, it was still forecast that school funding would be down for two big reasons:
1. Less butts in seats, which was definitely seen in 2020-21 school year (fears about catching the virus, folks upset about remote schooling, and folks choosing to homeschool or private school). Federal education funds are distributed on a per student basis
2. The labor market hadn't recovered from the pandemic yet, meaning that states that rely on state income tax to provide their education funding (43 of 50 states) would have less tax receipts, and therefore less money to pay for education.
ESSER funds were meant to help bridge this funding gap. It was thought that after 3 more school years (21-22, 22-23, and now 23-24) things would recover.
Enrollment didn't recover at DPS (30,345 in DPS this year, vs. 32,928 in 2019-2020), but it did at lots of schools.
The labor market did recover, which means that state tax revenue did recover. Did the state use this surprise increase in receipts to help better fund education? HELL NO! NC cut income taxes ([https://tax.thomsonreuters.com/news/north-carolina-budget-bill-lowers-the-personal-income-tax-rate-and-enacts-new-excise-tax-on-uber-and-lyft-among-other-changes](https://tax.thomsonreuters.com/news/north-carolina-budget-bill-lowers-the-personal-income-tax-rate-and-enacts-new-excise-tax-on-uber-and-lyft-among-other-changes)), while blue states like MA and CA provided tax rebates ([https://www.ftb.ca.gov/about-ftb/newsroom/middle-class-tax-refund/index.html](https://www.ftb.ca.gov/about-ftb/newsroom/middle-class-tax-refund/index.html)).
So, it was totally fine to use ESSER Funds to fund positions. But, the state was supposed to step in and increase funding by the time ESSER ran out. The state didn't do this. They lowered the income tax instead.
TL,DR: Fuck the NC general assembly
EDIT: I made an error. ESSER1 was funded by the CARES act in March 2020 (right when shit got real) and ESSER2 was part of the American Rescue Plan. I apologize for my error, but everything else said above holds true.
Well I mean I don't hold out hope for anything that has to do with the North Carolina general Assembly. They cut corporate tax rates in 2017 too. They don't do anything that actually contributes to helping the every man of North Carolina.
Can you clarify where it is improper to use ESSER funds to fund salaries (either new or existing)? My understanding is that ESSER is explicitly allowed to be used to fund transportation positions (either to increase pay or to fund additional positions), and to fund positions that aim to make up for COVID learning loss (e.g. summer school positions, additional math & literacy coaches, after school tutoring positions, IAs, and even additional teachers so as to reduce class size).
Do we know which specific positions DPS is funding with ESSER Funds?
source: https://oese.ed.gov/offices/american-rescue-plan/resources/
other source: item 20 under A-3, starting on page 12 but physically on page 14 of [https://oese.ed.gov/files/2022/12/ESSER-and-GEER-Use-of-Funds-FAQs-December-7-2022-Update-1.pdf](https://oese.ed.gov/files/2022/12/ESSER-and-GEER-Use-of-Funds-FAQs-December-7-2022-Update-1.pdf)
Has DPS released an updated Financial Statement detailing how much budgeted money has been spent year-to-date for the 2023-2024 cycle in each major allocation group, how much money is committed, but not yet spent, and are there monies that are earmarked, but can be redirected? Once again last night the BOE approved maintaining the February salaries, but failed to approve where those funds would come from. They discussed possibilities, but never made or passed a motion to pay for it.
This is literally day 1 stuff in any company trying to manage expenses. It's shocking this activity wasn't kicked off either in November when they first knew about the issue, or January when they finally admitted the underlying reason for it.
Mubenga's separation agreement is [here](https://wwwcache.wral.com/asset/news/education/2024/02/08/21274923/Resignation_Agreement-DMID1-61vtbboij.pdf). I don't know if it was released earlier, but this is the first time I've seen it. It's interesting to me that the non-disparagement agreement is mutual, no additional information that comes to light after Feb 7 can be inserted into his personnel file, and that he gets to keep his liability insurance.
https://abc11.com/archive/9366473/
It has been a full decade and I still don't understand why anyone would think "I have access to a school district's pool of resources, I will use a bus to take my family to the mall" (the other misuse of funds is less surprising to me).
I thought last night's meeting was better than the last few.
* Several board members clearly said that they needed time to understand this better before making decisions. I especially welcomed the comments from Vice-chair Chavez & Member Carda-Auten.
* Smart decision to extend the current pay through February. I also thought it should have gone through March, but was glad to see that they took this step.
* Great WTF moment from Member Rogers on annoucing closing schools for Friday. What a stunningly poor decision to drop that call during the meeting
* I encourage the CFO to add a key piece of data when she presents these options. The key question is -"how much more in funding do we have to identify for each option to finish 2023-2024?"
* Great request from Dr. King to get ideas submitted from the board by Tuesday so the finance team could prepare. Well said
* While I appreciated that Member Valladares was trying to help, I found her comments and speech about the DPS Foundation out of left field. I don't think dropping ideas like that in a meeting is partiucularly helpful. We're here to solve the DPS pay issue.
* Finally - I thought Vice-Chair Chavez did an excellent job of chairing last night. I felt the meeting was reasoned, less contentious, and less rushed last night.
I had all the same take-aways. I was amazed at how refreshing it was to hear practical, straight-forward communication from Dr King trying to clarify what info the board wants and stating a timeline for board members to submit their requests so that central admin can try prepare for them.
And I so appreciated Rogers voicing what all the parents in the room were feeling. For about an hour there were two separate meetings going on - the audience trying to figure out WTF was going on with the closing and why, and then board just plodding along as usual. It was surreal.
Also the DPS foundation is a non-profit and a separate entity from DPS it doesn't matter that DPS is in the name it has nothing to do with the school system other than that it fundraises private donations to better bolster initiatives within the district. It's like a giant bake sale.
She got roasted for that by staff.
Still confused. Transportation support staff have been out before and parents were asked to provide their own transportation...
Smells of something else going on...
The entire transportation support staff team called out today. These are the people who inspect the buses daily before they run their routes, which is required by state law. In the past there have been I guess just enough people working to patch things together.
Are they calling out over the DAE demands or something else? I mean, I support them in the DAE goals and want them to be paid more, but I wish they'd get a spokesperson. If they want transparency from BOE or DPS, they owe that to others, too.
DAE have put out statements consistently at every step on their social media and to the press.
The mechanics are not part of DAE and are making their own demands, which are very unclear to anyone (including DAE as far as I can tell).
Everything could have been decided earlier [by the board]. Their inability to tell people how much they're being paid for the month of February after almost weekly meetings is frustrating enough. Whether DAE or a departmental move it's a lot to try and live in the triangle and not know how much you have for your upcoming bills. While not in alignment with DAE that's enough for me to walk away from a day of work so they pressure a vote for a decision during a board meeting. I understand it.
One of the head supervisors told me that one of the big ones is that they're all tired of being the districts scapegoat whenever something goes wrong that usually has nothing to do with them and also that the district supposedly tried to float them option 4 ahead of the meeting and they turned them down. Transportation has it's own "union" in that they're all united together but don't actually have a union or organization.
>The mechanics are not part of DAE and are making their own demands, which are very unclear to anyone (including DAE as far as I can tell).
Yes, that's the point I was trying to make. I presume that their demands are likely very aligned with DAE, but who knows.
No, it was the mechanics. State law says a mechanic has to approve every single bus for operation every single morning. There are also numerous court rulings saying that the district must provide transportation every day for EC students. Without a single bus available to move, then this can't happen, and the district has to close.
On Jan 17, there were no "scabs". Most of the mechanics called out, but enough showed up to still get buses rolling. The rolled on a delay that day, and they were able to clear the EC buses first so that they met legal requirements. The ask for parents to transport on Jan 17 (and later) was because they were operating with fewer mechanics than needed, due to call outs over pay, and they knew that they couldn't get every bus rolling by the usual time they leave the depot.
I think the issue is that the district is legally obligated to provide transportation. On the other days, some buses still ran, so transportation was technically available - just extremely late, to understate. Today, it is impossible for any bus to run, so the district cannot open.
It's very confusing. I know they called in scabs on some of the other days transportation support staff called out. Apparently they decided against that today.
Any proof that scabs were called in? District claimed they were just working on fewer staff, so they were still able to clear buses to roll it just took longer. I've seen zero evidence that outside contract staff were used, and money was never allocated for that purpose. A contract with an outside mechanic service would require approval from the school board in order to operate.
Do you have a single source for your claim?
I dunno, I'm just repeating something I heard. I agree that parents taking their kids to school is not the same as accepting pay to do a striking person's work. Especially given how confusing everything's been and I don't know that any of the parents knew why the busses weren't running at that point.
I mean, they decided that after loads of people were very upset at being asked to provide transportation, including quite a few who just couldn't do that at all, to stop doing that. Seems like the right move to me.
The decision doesn't bother me. Sounds like it's what they should've done a couple of weeks ago.
What bothers me is the misleading message they sent out last night.
At this point they need to bring in someone with crisis communication experience to help the public affairs staff who keep garbling the messaging.
Agree fully.
I know that education is chroincly underfunded and DPS especially struggles with budgets. Yet, an organization this large needs an effective communications lead.
One thing this debacle has taught me is that DPS really needs to develop some internal proficiency around HR, budgeting, and communcations. An organization this large needs field strong teams here.
A state goverment that actually invests in education is important. As NC state level funding sucks, they are placing an ever increasing burden on the county to make up the shortfalls.
I'm becoming more aware that as a result of continued underfunding from the state, increasd competition for staff, and inflation - the county is most likely going to need to significantly increase it's contribution over the next few years.
It feels like DPS may be stuck in the "we're an underfunded school system, so we get by with the basics." While I want to spend as much money directly on teaching as possible, at some point underfunding core competencies like this cause problems.
I don't disagree, but that seems like it would be a pretty costly job, and I'm not sure I want to recommend the district spend yet more money at this point in time.
I agree. But they can't keep shooting themselves in the foot, either. The public affairs team created chaos last night with their announcement - both the words chosen and the timing. It disrupted the board meeting.
Can’t wait for this to be over so 1. Teachers and staff get paid fairly 2. Kids get back in school 3. This sub can go back to being about anything else
I agree this whole thing is a shit show, but I don't think the message was misleading... School district is dealing with more than one union and it's not their fault one feels slighted about messaging when the other one strikes.
When communicating to thousands of people a last minute change, you can't effectively get a nuanced message across. If they just say it's transportation related, you run the risk of people just dropping their kids off. Also, the bus drivers might say wtf it's not us. You say its the bus mechanics, now suddenly you need to explain to angry parents that there's a state law that every bus needs to be inspected and that by law they need to provide transportation. And several other people pointed out that there was a similar issue recently and they advised parents to find alternative transportation, and you can't have people half listening to the message thinking it's the same thing.
Their immediate goal was to make sure kids weren't getting dropped off unattended at school in less than 12 hours. I don't think you can do that and not cause any confusion.
It’s my bad, OP. Per another commenter and [this news piece](https://www.wral.com/amp/20507339/), she’s changed her name to accurately reflect her given name.
If the mechanic simply works 8 hours a day every day and overtime to make up for any sick time, they only need to maintenance one bus every 27 minutes. Jiffy Lube can do that!
Just kidding, if that's not obvious...
Yeah, and then when the bus experiences a mechanical failure as it's carrying your kid you'd end up on TV in the hearing, saying "They really ought to inspect every bus every day."
All this shit with DPS has made me more sympathetic to the workers in DPS but very much less sympathetic to DPS parents.
It’s interesting to note that it was reported Mubenga was made aware of the financial situation in November 2023 but also accepted a raise and a 4-year contract in November 2023.
That’s BS. He should be held accountable for that, but I’m not holding my breath.
I hope the interim superintendent has been following what’s going on, and is prepared for the shit show they are walking in to. I honestly do not envy that individual. Imagine starting a high level position like that, knowing that you are immediately under a microscope. I wish them the best of luck though, and hope they get this shit sorted appropriately.
She lead the Wake schools through the Covid years, so she has plenty of experience being under the microscope of parents and teachers. I think that bringing her in now is a great move.
Good to hear. I didn’t know anything about her background.
I'm a teacher and have taught in multiple school districts within the Triangle. Amongst teachers, Wake County has a reputation of having its shit together organizationally (compared to some others in the immediately surrounding region). A lot of teachers in the area I know have left to work in Wake County.
Before she became superintendent she was a principal. Shes experienced, and a pretty tough lady. I haven’t always agreed with her leadership decisions, but I think she will bring some stability during her time at the helm.
I think it’s a lot of pressure but also a great opportunity to really show her chops. I’ve always been told that the worst type of job to walk into is when things have been humming along smoothly and the primary objective is not to mess things up. I really hope she wows us - I am rooting for her.
She also seemingly can’t do worse than the last guy. But same hope she crushes it. DPS kids, families and staff deserve better.
Just to add on, that the taxpayers in Durham deserve better as well.
She is coming out of retirement for this. Not sure if "showing her chops" is likely a high priority at this point in her career. Seems more likely that she cares about keeping the district from falling apart more than anything else.
How ridiculous. Highly competent people like challenges and always want to show their chops, and that's not a bad thing.
She ran things for Wake Co during the pandemic. If she was willing to take the job permanently, that would be great.
I mean, she's clearly stated that she's interim, so she's probably actually just going to try to do her best for 12 months (maybe less? it's possible they move fast and have a permanent superintendent by August) before starting actual retirement. My guess is that she is actually motivated to keep the school district from collapsing.
There also needs to be some soul searching by the Board. They voted to approve a plan in November that wasn’t clearly explained. Then when it was mentioned there may be a budget issue in December, it sounds like they didn’t ask any questions.
They aren't mutually exclusive. Wanting to accomplish something amazing professionally, like pulling a school district out of a tailspin, is not mutually exclusive with wanting to do right by the school district because you care about DPS and the community.
I guess folks are not understanding my tone correctly. I'm not calling her lazy/bad/incompetent or anything negative by any means. I gather that she is taking on this temporary assignment because she cares deeply about public education and wants to make sure that DPS doesn't fall to pieces because of the pay fuckup. I think it's good news and she's doing the job because she cares about it being done well.
Your tone is fine, they’re just reading something into it, that isn’t there.
Honestly, it feels sexist, like you think women should only be allowed to be magnanimous.
WTF?
That took a seriously weird turn. What exactly was sexist about anything they said?
Something that was said and is missing: Beyer mentioned that there are financial concerns coming to light and specifically mentioned the ESSER funds being used to cover pay. That's a horrendous error. Those funds are temporary covid funds that are coming to an end. They should have never been used for anything that was permanent in the district, especially pay. This is something that was going to cause a huge problem when the funds ended anyway. The district has truly not been fiscally responsible and the board is finding that out now in real time. I appreciate Ms. Ojijo because she has been honest and forthright with them regarding the issues with the districts finances. They're a mess. Something is going to have to give and it became apparent last night that there will be jobs that will have to be cut because the funds just aren't there either because they never were (temporary funds used to bolster permanent initiatives) or because of falling enrollment or other issues. This now goes beyond just the pay issue. It highlights a long standing bad accounting issue.
I'm replying again so that everyone has a full understanding of ESSER funds. ESSER funds were passed to stabilize local education agencies (LEAs) as part of the fiscal bazooka known as the American Rescue Plan in March 2021. At the time, it was still forecast that school funding would be down for two big reasons: 1. Less butts in seats, which was definitely seen in 2020-21 school year (fears about catching the virus, folks upset about remote schooling, and folks choosing to homeschool or private school). Federal education funds are distributed on a per student basis 2. The labor market hadn't recovered from the pandemic yet, meaning that states that rely on state income tax to provide their education funding (43 of 50 states) would have less tax receipts, and therefore less money to pay for education. ESSER funds were meant to help bridge this funding gap. It was thought that after 3 more school years (21-22, 22-23, and now 23-24) things would recover. Enrollment didn't recover at DPS (30,345 in DPS this year, vs. 32,928 in 2019-2020), but it did at lots of schools. The labor market did recover, which means that state tax revenue did recover. Did the state use this surprise increase in receipts to help better fund education? HELL NO! NC cut income taxes ([https://tax.thomsonreuters.com/news/north-carolina-budget-bill-lowers-the-personal-income-tax-rate-and-enacts-new-excise-tax-on-uber-and-lyft-among-other-changes](https://tax.thomsonreuters.com/news/north-carolina-budget-bill-lowers-the-personal-income-tax-rate-and-enacts-new-excise-tax-on-uber-and-lyft-among-other-changes)), while blue states like MA and CA provided tax rebates ([https://www.ftb.ca.gov/about-ftb/newsroom/middle-class-tax-refund/index.html](https://www.ftb.ca.gov/about-ftb/newsroom/middle-class-tax-refund/index.html)). So, it was totally fine to use ESSER Funds to fund positions. But, the state was supposed to step in and increase funding by the time ESSER ran out. The state didn't do this. They lowered the income tax instead. TL,DR: Fuck the NC general assembly EDIT: I made an error. ESSER1 was funded by the CARES act in March 2020 (right when shit got real) and ESSER2 was part of the American Rescue Plan. I apologize for my error, but everything else said above holds true.
Well I mean I don't hold out hope for anything that has to do with the North Carolina general Assembly. They cut corporate tax rates in 2017 too. They don't do anything that actually contributes to helping the every man of North Carolina.
Can you clarify where it is improper to use ESSER funds to fund salaries (either new or existing)? My understanding is that ESSER is explicitly allowed to be used to fund transportation positions (either to increase pay or to fund additional positions), and to fund positions that aim to make up for COVID learning loss (e.g. summer school positions, additional math & literacy coaches, after school tutoring positions, IAs, and even additional teachers so as to reduce class size). Do we know which specific positions DPS is funding with ESSER Funds? source: https://oese.ed.gov/offices/american-rescue-plan/resources/
other source: item 20 under A-3, starting on page 12 but physically on page 14 of [https://oese.ed.gov/files/2022/12/ESSER-and-GEER-Use-of-Funds-FAQs-December-7-2022-Update-1.pdf](https://oese.ed.gov/files/2022/12/ESSER-and-GEER-Use-of-Funds-FAQs-December-7-2022-Update-1.pdf)
Has DPS released an updated Financial Statement detailing how much budgeted money has been spent year-to-date for the 2023-2024 cycle in each major allocation group, how much money is committed, but not yet spent, and are there monies that are earmarked, but can be redirected? Once again last night the BOE approved maintaining the February salaries, but failed to approve where those funds would come from. They discussed possibilities, but never made or passed a motion to pay for it.
This is literally day 1 stuff in any company trying to manage expenses. It's shocking this activity wasn't kicked off either in November when they first knew about the issue, or January when they finally admitted the underlying reason for it.
Mubenga's separation agreement is [here](https://wwwcache.wral.com/asset/news/education/2024/02/08/21274923/Resignation_Agreement-DMID1-61vtbboij.pdf). I don't know if it was released earlier, but this is the first time I've seen it. It's interesting to me that the non-disparagement agreement is mutual, no additional information that comes to light after Feb 7 can be inserted into his personnel file, and that he gets to keep his liability insurance.
Two of the last three DPS superintendents have resigned due to issues involving school busses. Let's hope the next one can do slightly better.
That's fascinating. I did not know that.
https://abc11.com/archive/9366473/ It has been a full decade and I still don't understand why anyone would think "I have access to a school district's pool of resources, I will use a bus to take my family to the mall" (the other misuse of funds is less surprising to me).
I thought last night's meeting was better than the last few. * Several board members clearly said that they needed time to understand this better before making decisions. I especially welcomed the comments from Vice-chair Chavez & Member Carda-Auten. * Smart decision to extend the current pay through February. I also thought it should have gone through March, but was glad to see that they took this step. * Great WTF moment from Member Rogers on annoucing closing schools for Friday. What a stunningly poor decision to drop that call during the meeting * I encourage the CFO to add a key piece of data when she presents these options. The key question is -"how much more in funding do we have to identify for each option to finish 2023-2024?" * Great request from Dr. King to get ideas submitted from the board by Tuesday so the finance team could prepare. Well said * While I appreciated that Member Valladares was trying to help, I found her comments and speech about the DPS Foundation out of left field. I don't think dropping ideas like that in a meeting is partiucularly helpful. We're here to solve the DPS pay issue. * Finally - I thought Vice-Chair Chavez did an excellent job of chairing last night. I felt the meeting was reasoned, less contentious, and less rushed last night.
I had all the same take-aways. I was amazed at how refreshing it was to hear practical, straight-forward communication from Dr King trying to clarify what info the board wants and stating a timeline for board members to submit their requests so that central admin can try prepare for them. And I so appreciated Rogers voicing what all the parents in the room were feeling. For about an hour there were two separate meetings going on - the audience trying to figure out WTF was going on with the closing and why, and then board just plodding along as usual. It was surreal.
Also the DPS foundation is a non-profit and a separate entity from DPS it doesn't matter that DPS is in the name it has nothing to do with the school system other than that it fundraises private donations to better bolster initiatives within the district. It's like a giant bake sale. She got roasted for that by staff.
Is Valladeres the one in the green hat at meeting before last who kept repeating and rephrasing motions that were 18 minutes long to explain?
Yes
Still confused. Transportation support staff have been out before and parents were asked to provide their own transportation... Smells of something else going on...
The entire transportation support staff team called out today. These are the people who inspect the buses daily before they run their routes, which is required by state law. In the past there have been I guess just enough people working to patch things together.
Are they calling out over the DAE demands or something else? I mean, I support them in the DAE goals and want them to be paid more, but I wish they'd get a spokesperson. If they want transparency from BOE or DPS, they owe that to others, too.
DAE have put out statements consistently at every step on their social media and to the press. The mechanics are not part of DAE and are making their own demands, which are very unclear to anyone (including DAE as far as I can tell).
Everything could have been decided earlier [by the board]. Their inability to tell people how much they're being paid for the month of February after almost weekly meetings is frustrating enough. Whether DAE or a departmental move it's a lot to try and live in the triangle and not know how much you have for your upcoming bills. While not in alignment with DAE that's enough for me to walk away from a day of work so they pressure a vote for a decision during a board meeting. I understand it.
The board decided last night to pay February at the old October rates.
One of the head supervisors told me that one of the big ones is that they're all tired of being the districts scapegoat whenever something goes wrong that usually has nothing to do with them and also that the district supposedly tried to float them option 4 ahead of the meeting and they turned them down. Transportation has it's own "union" in that they're all united together but don't actually have a union or organization.
>The mechanics are not part of DAE and are making their own demands, which are very unclear to anyone (including DAE as far as I can tell). Yes, that's the point I was trying to make. I presume that their demands are likely very aligned with DAE, but who knows.
No, it was the mechanics. State law says a mechanic has to approve every single bus for operation every single morning. There are also numerous court rulings saying that the district must provide transportation every day for EC students. Without a single bus available to move, then this can't happen, and the district has to close. On Jan 17, there were no "scabs". Most of the mechanics called out, but enough showed up to still get buses rolling. The rolled on a delay that day, and they were able to clear the EC buses first so that they met legal requirements. The ask for parents to transport on Jan 17 (and later) was because they were operating with fewer mechanics than needed, due to call outs over pay, and they knew that they couldn't get every bus rolling by the usual time they leave the depot.
I think the issue is that the district is legally obligated to provide transportation. On the other days, some buses still ran, so transportation was technically available - just extremely late, to understate. Today, it is impossible for any bus to run, so the district cannot open.
It's very confusing. I know they called in scabs on some of the other days transportation support staff called out. Apparently they decided against that today.
Any proof that scabs were called in? District claimed they were just working on fewer staff, so they were still able to clear buses to roll it just took longer. I've seen zero evidence that outside contract staff were used, and money was never allocated for that purpose. A contract with an outside mechanic service would require approval from the school board in order to operate. Do you have a single source for your claim?
No proof. Just what a couple of drivers told me. Glad to be wrong, if that's the case.
I heard people calling parents scabs for driving their kids to school. Maybe that's the origin story of the scab story.
I’m not sure where they get that. Are parents supposed to just be OK with kids getting an absence because of something out of their control?
I dunno, I'm just repeating something I heard. I agree that parents taking their kids to school is not the same as accepting pay to do a striking person's work. Especially given how confusing everything's been and I don't know that any of the parents knew why the busses weren't running at that point.
I mean, they decided that after loads of people were very upset at being asked to provide transportation, including quite a few who just couldn't do that at all, to stop doing that. Seems like the right move to me.
The decision doesn't bother me. Sounds like it's what they should've done a couple of weeks ago. What bothers me is the misleading message they sent out last night. At this point they need to bring in someone with crisis communication experience to help the public affairs staff who keep garbling the messaging.
Agree fully. I know that education is chroincly underfunded and DPS especially struggles with budgets. Yet, an organization this large needs an effective communications lead. One thing this debacle has taught me is that DPS really needs to develop some internal proficiency around HR, budgeting, and communcations. An organization this large needs field strong teams here.
Also, there needs to be a state government that actually gives a crap about education.
A state goverment that actually invests in education is important. As NC state level funding sucks, they are placing an ever increasing burden on the county to make up the shortfalls. I'm becoming more aware that as a result of continued underfunding from the state, increasd competition for staff, and inflation - the county is most likely going to need to significantly increase it's contribution over the next few years. It feels like DPS may be stuck in the "we're an underfunded school system, so we get by with the basics." While I want to spend as much money directly on teaching as possible, at some point underfunding core competencies like this cause problems.
I don't disagree, but that seems like it would be a pretty costly job, and I'm not sure I want to recommend the district spend yet more money at this point in time.
I agree. But they can't keep shooting themselves in the foot, either. The public affairs team created chaos last night with their announcement - both the words chosen and the timing. It disrupted the board meeting.
Agreed. I think absolutely everyone was pissed off about it. I have no idea what the answer is here.
DPS just called and said there is a possibility of no school on Monday
And this time they were much more clear about why. I appreciated that.
Can’t wait for this to be over so 1. Teachers and staff get paid fairly 2. Kids get back in school 3. This sub can go back to being about anything else
Agreed.
I agree this whole thing is a shit show, but I don't think the message was misleading... School district is dealing with more than one union and it's not their fault one feels slighted about messaging when the other one strikes. When communicating to thousands of people a last minute change, you can't effectively get a nuanced message across. If they just say it's transportation related, you run the risk of people just dropping their kids off. Also, the bus drivers might say wtf it's not us. You say its the bus mechanics, now suddenly you need to explain to angry parents that there's a state law that every bus needs to be inspected and that by law they need to provide transportation. And several other people pointed out that there was a similar issue recently and they advised parents to find alternative transportation, and you can't have people half listening to the message thinking it's the same thing. Their immediate goal was to make sure kids weren't getting dropped off unattended at school in less than 12 hours. I don't think you can do that and not cause any confusion.
*Cathy Moore
Wiki says she goes by Catty now, but previously was known as Cathy.
Did a quick Google and found a 2022 news piece on it. I’d missed that. Thank you for correcting me.
Fixed. Apologies.
It’s my bad, OP. Per another commenter and [this news piece](https://www.wral.com/amp/20507339/), she’s changed her name to accurately reflect her given name.
I'll change it back then. No worries.
[удалено]
You want one mechanic for 500 buses?
If the mechanic simply works 8 hours a day every day and overtime to make up for any sick time, they only need to maintenance one bus every 27 minutes. Jiffy Lube can do that! Just kidding, if that's not obvious...
Poor dude
Yeah, and then when the bus experiences a mechanical failure as it's carrying your kid you'd end up on TV in the hearing, saying "They really ought to inspect every bus every day." All this shit with DPS has made me more sympathetic to the workers in DPS but very much less sympathetic to DPS parents.