A message from Erika about the DPS crisis

Durham is going through an incredibly challenging time. 

Over the past year, DPS worked to enact a policy to equitably compensate and retain employees. But a series of costly mistakes have created turmoil and great distress for classified employees, and confusion and disruption for the entire DPS community.  Yesterday, 12 DPS schools closed as educators and workers have called out from work to attend a protest organized by the Durham Association of Educators. 

In the midst of the turmoil, we are seeing our community rally around our DPS workers and students. Never has it been clearer: Durham families love their public schools. 

Throughout this crisis, DPS Foundation’s top priority is supporting our students and the staff that ensure students have what they need to learn and succeed. We will be sharing and supporting community resources for DPS families and workers as they navigate challenges due to school closures and other staffing challenges. This is a time for everyone to stay connected, help where you can, and support each other.

We join calls for the district to listen to the voices of our DPS workers and to prioritize transparency as they work to rectify the situation. We strongly support the Durham Association of Educators’ ask that the school board “commit to regular meetings with union members to discuss how to create excellent working conditions and most of all, the learning conditions that our students deserve.” (quoted from DAE’s 1/30/24 post). Ensuring that our DPS workers are at the table will make our district a better place to learn and work now and in the future. 

We recognize that this current crisis, and our district’s ongoing struggle to equitably compensate our workers, is a symptom of a decades-long effort by the state legislature to defund and dismantle our public schools. For years our school district has been doing more with less as the state has decreased spending on public schools. This crisis has been years in the making: chronic underfunding and understaffing of our schools, a global pandemic that has disrupted public education and driven many school employees from the field, and a national youth mental health crisis impacting students and the workers that support them, have all contributed to this moment. 

As an independent education foundation that brings community resources to our public schools; we know the power of dedicated communities–individuals and businesses–giving resources to champion equity and foster innovation in our schools. But that support is no substitute for adequate public funding. This crisis is a call to action for all of us to be more involved in advocating for the funding our students, and the workers that support them, deserve. 

In the coming days, we will share more ways to support and advocate. The most effective solutions for our community's challenges often come from those most affected. We invite you to share your thoughts and ways in which DPSF can support our DPS community during this critical time. Durham is a community renowned for taking care of one another, and now, more than ever, we need each other's support.

Erika Wilkins

Executive Director

DPS Foundation