Speakers at a Chatham County Board of Education meeting pressed the board to prioritize pay and working-condition improvements for the district’s classified employees, asking the board to include a sustainable $2-per-hour raise in its funding proposal to the county.

Max Harmon, a carpentry and construction teacher at Jordan Matthews High School and a local union organizer, told the board that a $2 hourly raise for classified staff would cost the average Chatham County property taxpayer about $2 per month and would be “game changing” for workers who struggle economically. “We believe that that is something that we must do given the negligible amount for our taxpayers and the game changing amount of raise for our workers,” Harmon said.

Other public commenters described day-to-day costs and scheduling pressures that they said make current pay levels unsustainable. Angela Redd, an instructional assistant at Pittsboro Elementary who said she is soon to be a bus driver, told the board she works roughly 50 hours a week when combining bus and in-school duties, that required DOT physicals and CDL permit costs sometimes come out of employees’ pockets, and that monthly pay frequency worsens budgeting problems. “If we were getting paid biweekly, you could offset that problem,” Redd said, asking the board to consider pay frequency, reimbursement timeliness and differentiated pay for EC/TA roles.

Jennifer Goins, who said she worked as a treasurer at Jordan Matthews for more than 20 years, urged the board to narrow the supplement gap between certified and classified staff and to include classified staff in decision-making that affects their jobs. “We are asking for a sustainable $2 an hourly increase,” Goins said. She provided examples from district supplement tables, noting that entry-level certified supplement amounts are higher than entry-level classified supplements and asking the board to reduce that gap.

Bus driver and instructional assistant Deborah Sanford described early start times, combined bus/IA shifts and lost paid minutes because of separate clock-in practices, and asked the board to examine timekeeping so staff are not effectively working unpaid time. Parent Greg Meyer and teacher Brandy Varner spoke in support of the request, with Meyer saying homeowners would likely view the added tax impact as modest and that the raise would aid recruitment and retention.

The board did not take formal action on the demand for a $2 raise during the meeting. Multiple speakers said the request should be reflected in the board’s upcoming funding proposal to the county during budget season. Board members acknowledged the comments and the superintendent said the board will continue work related to budget planning and staff support.

What happens next: Commenters repeatedly asked the board to bring the request forward in the district’s budget proposal to county officials. The board’s next scheduled meeting was announced for 2025-01-12, and the public can follow budget developments as the district prepares formal recommendations to the county.