Classified Staff Appreciation Week

“We love you!” read the notes decorating Ms. Odom’s monitor in the main office. They serve as a reminder that March 19th to 25th is Jordan’s annual Classified Staff Appreciation Week. Across school, students, teachers, and various JHS organizations have shown their support for classified staff employees, who include custodial, cafeteria, bus driver, and main office employees. The National Honor Society’s Teacher Support Committee hosted events for students to create cards, posters, and gift baskets for classified staff, and provided a dessert bar with treats brought by students. Other clubs and organizations, such as the Tri-M Music Honor Society, created and distributed gift baskets and cards to staff members as a show of support and gratitude.

Appreciation for classified staff members – who are an entirely integral part of the school community – has a significant history at Jordan and in DPS. It’s been over a year since cuts were made to classified staff workers’ paychecks and intense community pushback followed in response to the decision.

Here’s a summary of the events that occurred regarding pay cuts last year:

• In January of 2023, DPS classified staff employees were notified that a long-awaited “unfreezing” (raising) of their paychecks would occur, based on a new budget created by former DPS Superintendent Pascal Mubenga and former CFO Paul LeSieur.

• The budget was passed by the Board of Education and the raises were implemented later that year.

• However, Mubenga and LeSieur miscalculated while creating the new budget. Because of their mismanagement of funds, the district realized they could not actually afford to give employees the raises that had already been administered.

• In January of 2024, classified staff were notified that they had been overpaid, and were expected to a) deal with their paychecks being drastically cut (being paid less money than they were originally receiving before the new budget was passed), and b) pay back money they had incorrectly been given by the district from the raises.

Following this announcement, the Durham community launched into action. Protests, unofficial striking practices by classified employees, and demands by the Durham Association of Educators (DAE) union generated public support and 

demanded the attention of the district. 

Eventually, DPS stopped their clawbacks, or demands that employees pay back money, and reverted back to the original payment plan from before the cuts.

As of today, both Mubenga and LeSieur have resigned from their positions within DPS. While most of the DAE’s demands (modified after they realized how poor the fiscal situation of the Board of Education was) were met, their power to advocate for groups like classified staff remains strictly limited. “Nothing has changed,” Jordan English teacher and DAE member Mr. Stapleton said last week. The DAE is still fighting for “meet-and-confer policy,” a common practice by union organizations that allows them a seat at the decision-making table with district officials as they make decisions about issues like budget and payment plans. Without it, they remain vulnerable to the district’s ability to ignore their demands.

Overall, it’s been a chaotic and stressful process classified workers have been put through because of the district’s mismanagement – a process that has left them with unfulfilled promises and instability. The DAE’s need for meet-and-confer policy remains as urgent now as it did a year ago.

From the crowd that protested the pay cuts in front of the school last year to the handwritten cards students made for their bus drivers last week, it is obvious of the appreciation Jordan holds for the classified staff members, who do so much for Jordan as both an institution and a community.