Therapist Pay, Discipline Reform, and Old Lowe’s Grove
The Durham Public Schools Board of Education hears emotional testimony from school therapists about low pay and vacancies, then receives a deep discipline update on restorative practices, suspensions, and student belonging. The board also weighs a feasibility study for the historic Old Lowe’s Grove School and reviews budget plans that prioritize classified pay, federal funding risks, and more transparent community engagement. 44mins
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Original Meeting
Thursday, January 15th, 2026
10220.0
#DPSCommunity | DPS Board of Education Monthly Work Session | 1/15/26
Video Notes
#DPSCommunity | DPS Board of Education Monthly Work Session | 1/15/26
Wes Platt
Durham, NC
In This Video
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A representative from Preservation Durham expressed strong support for engaging the UNC School of Government’s Development Finance Initiative to conduct a feasibility study on the historic Old Lowe’s Grove School before any demolition, emphasizing careful, collaborative decision-making and community values.
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Superintendent Dr. Anthony Lewis introduced representatives from the UNC School of Government’s Development Finance Initiative and explained that they had been engaged to conduct a development feasibility analysis and community engagement process for the former Lowe’s Grove School site, with the possibility of similar work for Old Northern High School and Durham School of the Arts.
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A representative from the UNC School of Government’s Development Finance Initiative explained how DFI was created to help local governments manage public‑private partnerships and described its development feasibility approach, which mirrors private developers’ analysis while prioritizing public interests.
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Chair Umstead asked how feasibility study fees might change if additional school sites were added, and a representative from the Development Finance Initiative explained that costs would vary with scale and complexity but could be more efficient within the same market, prompting discussion of using phase‑one work to inform upcoming capital and bond decisions.
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Assistant Superintendent Sidbury reported that while there were strong but uneven examples of inclusive, intersectional practices and holistic programming in areas like athletics, arts, wellness, and STEM, the district still needed better systems alignment and clearer definitions of access and participation so that every student could benefit.
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Assistant Superintendent Sidbury highlighted that while schools could track broad discipline trends and gather strong student survey participation, they still lacked consistent use of detailed offense and student group data to address disproportionality and clear feedback loops to show students how their input informed decisions.
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Assistant Superintendent Sidbury reported that Durham Public Schools had strong, ongoing professional learning around mental health and social-emotional learning, and explained that the next step was to clarify how classroom practices would change and how implementation would be monitored and used to guide support.
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Assistant Superintendent Sidbury described Durham Public Schools’ multiple SEL curricula and implementation tools and explained that the district now aimed to improve schools’ consistent use of the SEL implementation rubric and reinforce fidelity to the existing curriculum rather than changing it, while possibly reducing the number of programs in the future.
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Assistant Superintendent Sidbury described efforts to build a proactive culture of attendance through school-based attendance teams, noting that current work was still largely reactive with uneven implementation and emphasizing the need for professional learning to translate into measurable improvements in student outcomes.
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Assistant Superintendent Sidbury and district staff reviewed Priority 2 discipline benchmarks, noting they met their goal to reduce suspensions for equity focus groups—especially students with disabilities—while missing attendance and SEL fidelity targets due to gaps in data monitoring and accountability, and emphasized a new, systemwide approach to using data for continuous improvement and governance.
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A district data official reviewed multi-year discipline trends showing annual reductions in long-term suspensions for students with disabilities and Black females, as well as preliminary quarter-one declines in short-term suspensions for Black males and Black females, while emphasizing that recent data were still unofficial and subject to change.
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Board Member Jessica Carda-Auten questioned declining student sense-of-belonging survey results, and Assistant Superintendent Sidbury explained that lower participation made the data hard to interpret while noting that counselors, SEL coordinators, Restorative Practice Center staff, and administrators had already begun using the October Panorama data in impact meetings to plan responses.
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Assistant Superintendent Sidbury clarified that Restorative Practice Center data in the discipline report reflected only alternatives to suspension tied to specific incidents, noting that broader restorative supports were tracked separately in Panorama, that RPC assignments could span multiple days, and that implementation across schools still varied as the district worked toward more consistent, intended use.
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A district leader reflected on how Durham Public Schools had funded restorative practice positions without initially changing discipline policies, explained that updating the student code of conduct was key to making restorative practices an expectation rather than an option, and acknowledged the ongoing transition away from in-school suspension–style approaches and terminology.
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Board Member Chávez questioned why white female students appeared as outliers with far fewer short-term suspensions and Restorative Practice Center referrals, noting ongoing disparities for Black male students and asking if positive bias played a role, while Assistant Superintendent Sidbury pointed to subjective categories like “insubordination” as a factor to examine in the data.
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Board Member Chávez asked whether Durham Public Schools tracked repeat suspensions and total suspended days, and Assistant Superintendent Sidbury and Superintendent Lewis explained that the Educators Handbook platform and impact meetings allowed schools to monitor repeat offenders over time even though that information was not included in formal state or board reports.
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Chief Finance Officer Jeremy Teetor reported that community input and meet‑and‑confer discussions overwhelmingly prioritized staff pay, highlighting calls for teacher and classified raises, a living wage, addressing pay compression, extra duty pay, bereavement leave, and expanding transportation supplements to include bus safety assistants.
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Chief Finance Officer Teetor warned that rising retirement, health insurance, and utility costs, and potentially endangered federal funds that directly support classroom learning and social-emotional health made continuation costs and improving classified staff pay central priorities for the superintendent’s upcoming budget and board feedback.
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Chief Finance Officer Teetor reported that the district would bring forward new salary models to address living wage and compression concerns, acknowledged pay issues raised by occupational and physical therapists, and shared that advisory groups and advocates had emphasized facility needs such as heating, cooling, and roof repairs for future capital planning.
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