Joel Brown, ABC 11
Facing the prospect of 39 percent of its teaching staff taking a districtwide “personal day” on May 16, the Durham School Board scrambled to debate whether to close all 53 schools that day.
Minutes before the school board meeting began, teachers from the Durham Association of Educators rallied on the steps of DPS headquarters calling on district leaders to cancel classes to mitigate the fallout from their planned protest at the General Assembly in Raleigh when lawmakers reconvene for the legislative short session.
Nearly 800 Durham teachers have pledged not to come to work May 16 and instead travel to the Raleigh to lobby the legislature for what they say are desperately needed new state dollars for an underfunded Durham school system.