On Tuesday, the New Hanover County school board voted down a proposal to switch a teacher workday from Monday, May 4, to Friday, May 1, ahead of a planned rally by educators.
NHCS Superintendent Dr. Christopher Barnes suggested the move because there might be a loss of instructional time due to staff calling out to attend a march scheduled for May 1, called “Kids Over Corporations Rally,” planned by the North Carolina Association of Educators, in concert with the New Hanover County Schools chapter. NCAE has been decrying the lack of a state budget (North Carolina is the only state in the country that doesn’t have one for this fiscal year), the recent NC Supreme Court Leandro decision, and the legislature’s expansion of the Opportunity Scholarship program, which gives families subsidies to attend private schools.
In essence, because students don't have class during the workdays, moving it to the day of the march would mean students wouldn't miss out on instruction time even if teachers were absent to attend the event.
Democratic member Judy Justice was the only vote in support of switching the days; her colleague Tim Merrick was absent.
"Teachers are not political. I know that more of that they need to be, though, because they have been, in my opinion, taken advantage of. It's time that we stood up for our kids. We can't continue to be 51st in the nation in per-pupil expenditure,” she said. Justice noted that "some parents would be inconvenienced" — i.e., by the need to secure childcare or make other arrangements — but said, "they got two weeks to figure it out."
Republican Josie Barnhart had a statement prepared to read about the proposal, which read in part, “These decisions have real consequences, and I'm not going to step aside and acknowledge that. The North Carolina Constitution prohibits striking, which is exactly what the New Hanover North Carolina Association of Educators is encouraging teachers to do on May 1. So the idea that we would even consider adjusting our calendar to accommodate politically motivated protest is deeply troubling. It sends a message that political pressure is more important than educating students.”
Barnart said, "we've seen the impact of school closures before," drawing an analogy to Covid-related shutdowns and remote learning, which she called "the wrong decision for students and families" and said they "led to the biggest decline in public school enrollment that we've ever seen" (pandemic-era declines were, according to NC Newsline, the steepest since WWII). Some of that can be attributed to parental dissatisfaction, how much is debatable — and, in any case, it's not likely one day of lost instructional time would compare meaningfully to the scope and duration of the pandemic.
Libertarian David Perry said he was looking out for students and families, too, questioning what the quality of the instructional day would be on Friday if more staff were absent. While he didn’t vote with Justice, he signaled that he agreed with the idea of providing a day in the future to allow staff to travel to Raleigh to advocate for public schools.
Republican Melissa Mason said she understood staff concerns about pay, but that the board has advocated to the legislature for increased school funding and teacher pay.
“It may not have made a huge impact yet, but it takes progress,” she said.
Mason also added that this would place an undue burden on parents for child care, sentiments echoed by Barnhart and Republican Pat Bradford.
Bradford said that the legislators would be gone by Friday, as they would only be there "Tuesday through Thursday for the short session that week." She also expressed concern about what she said was the political content on websites associated with the May 1 march.
"I went on the websites, and I looked, and the activism they're saying, it's just a warm-up day for a full teacher walkout day in June. And I saw anti-MAGA, anti-Pete — somebody. I don't think it was our chair [i.e. Republican Pete Wildeboer], it's probably the Pete in U.S. government — but there's a lot of statements that are very political on their sites that are wrapped around this day," she said. "So for those reasons, I will vote to keep the calendar the way it is.”
Conservatives have frequently framed NCAE marches like the May 1 event as strikes — which are illegal for government employees under North Carolina law. There's been considerable debate about whether 'sick outs' or other coordinated use of employee leave to attend rallies and marches constitutes a strike. Republicans, including Senate leader Phil Berger, have been critical of the protests, but have stopped short of pushing through legislation to explicitly prohibit them.
For his part, Barnes later told the public that he didn’t see this as an advocacy issue, nor necessarily a “safety issue,” but rather as a matter of addressing the reality of how many personnel would use their personal time to travel to Raleigh.
“I just am awfully concerned about the amount of instructional time we could lose if we have a preponderance of subs on the 1st and then also a day off on the 4th. However, it's also important to know that right now, our fill rate is at 90% for that day,” he said.
He cited at least two schools, which he didn’t name, where he had to “lean into with support.” Barnes’ next steps are to direct human resources to issue a call to all their substitutes to possibly work on May 1 and to talk with principals this week about the rules regarding staff taking personal leave.
Staff are required to submit personal leave requests at least 5 days in advance, so more could be added as May 1 approaches. NHCS staff get only two personal days a year — any that accrue beyond five days convert to sick leave. Asked by Perry what he would do if, hypothetically, staffing reached a critical point, Barnes said he would "start denying personal leave."
NCAE/NHCAE Requests
When this NCAE rally was first announced, WHQR reached out to NHCAE leadership in early April about their list of grievances they want the legislature to fulfill. Lisa Espy, a member of local NCAE chapter leadership, responded that NCAE is asking for some of the following:
- Invest at least $20,000 per student by 2030 — the highest funding in the Southeast.
- Fund modern facilities, free school meals and more health professionals in schools.
- Recruit and retain quality public school teachers and staff with affordable healthcare, better retirement benefits and a raise of at least 25% for all school employees.
- End corporate tax breaks and redirect that money to public schools and healthcare.
- Eliminate private school vouchers.
- Lift the ban on collective bargaining for public school workers.
Discipline of Perry to come?
The board also hinted at addressing the fallout from the argument between Libertarian David Perry and Republican Pat Bradford.
Chairman Pete Wildeboer said he wanted to postpone the discussion of board committee assignments until their agenda review meeting on April 28. Barnhart had asked why, and Wildeboer responded that he had “talked to several board members, and they think that it would really be a better discussion for at that time, because we also may have students arriving [today], in case it does get a little heated, it would be better to do it at a later date.”
The board was interviewing NHC student candidates for its four $28,000 scholarships to become teachers.
Bradford told Wildeboer that agenda review was two weeks away and that she wanted to deal with “this serious matter as rapidly as we possibly can. We as a board can't afford to postpone accountability.”
However, Bradford and Barnhart were overruled by Mason, Justice, Perry, and Wildeboer.
