A group of Durham Public Schools social workers and supporters urged the school board during public comment to use available fund balance to provide retroactive master's pay for school social workers and to fund bus‑monitor supplements, saying the district made and then reversed promises earlier in the year.

"It's been six months, half a year later, and still no fulfillment of that plan. I'm gonna be honest, harm has been done and trust has been broken," school social worker JB Allen said, describing repeated promises that were not delivered. Multiple speakers asked the board to provide retro pay estimated by speakers at roughly $80,000 for social workers and a bus‑monitor supplement estimates ranging from about $130,000 to $200,000, paid from the available fund balance.

DAE and social‑work advocates framed the request as restorative practice. "If we're truly a restorative district, we must also address the harm that was caused," social worker Bridal Frost told the board and asked members to approve back pay for the current school year. Several speakers warned that failure to honor the disputed pay would lead to attrition and loss of critical student supports.

Later in the meeting staff presented a prioritization tool and two iterations of a proposed local budget recommendation. Jeremy Teeter, who led the presentation, said the county manager had proposed an additional $10,353,550 for the district; approximately $6,353,550 of that would fund continuation items and the remaining roughly $4 million could be allocated to expansion priorities. Teeter explained the cabinet and the board each used an interactive prioritization exercise to allocate available funds and said both groups landed on similar priorities.

"Out of the $4,000,000 that was above and beyond that, in the recommended funding stream for Durham Public Schools, we're required to share $840,000 of that with our charter schools," Teeter said. Among the items that found broad support in both the board and cabinet exercises were a bus‑driver supplement (modeled at $2,000 per driver per year), an expansion of local master's pay for certified positions, and increased funding for exceptional‑children (EC) services. The board’s chosen teacher supplement in the exercise was modeled at $300 per year; cabinet and the board aligned closely on many items, Teeter said.

Board members said they would continue to press for the state restoration of master's pay but also wanted locally feasible options. Several board members said they favored expanding local master's pay to include school social workers and other certified staff if funds permit. Board and cabinet agreed to return with additional modeling; staff said they would rerun the tool with updated options and provide those results to the board before final budget submissions.

Ending note: Public commenters asked the board to prioritize immediate restorative payments from the fund balance; staff said the district would continue iterative modeling of the county budget recommendation and present updated scenarios in June.