Guilford County School Board requests $77.6 million to raise pay for classified staff

The Guilford County Board of Education unanimously approved a budget request to the county on Tuesday.

It includes $77.6 million for classified staff like custodians and teacher assistants, which is more than twice the amount the superintendent recommended. 

During a public hearing on Tuesday, several Guilford County Schools employees said that funding is necessary.

“My mother loved her job but it has not been easy," said Samantha Patiño-Perez, a high school math teacher in the district. She spoke about her mother, Rosa, who worked as a custodian in the district for more than a decade and left due to low pay.

“Over the years she has worked second, third, or even fourth jobs to make ends meet," said Patiño-Perez. "Her feet ache and her hands are sore from the scrubbing and wiping and sweeping and crawling under the bleachers, all to put her three daughters through college.”

The school board heard from maintenance workers, special education teachers, and employees in the transportation and nutrition departments. They also shared stories of working multiple jobs and seeing good employees leave for better pay. 

Board Chair Deena Hayes-Greene asked the district’s Chief of Staff, José Oliva, for the percentages of employees that fall below 200% of the federal poverty line. 

"So one adult with one child, it would be about 83% of employees," Oliva said. 

That goes up to 93% for one adult with two children, and 97% for one adult with three children. Oliva says many employees qualify for welfare programs. 

"If they had wages that were at market rate, they wouldn’t have to rely on those services to be able to provide for their families," Oliva said. 

The budget request goes beyond matching the market rate and would make GCS a market leader. 

Guilford County Association of Educators President Kenya Donaldson asked the board to advocate for the budget aggressively with the county commissioners.

"Telling school workers to wait yet another decade to be paid reasonable wages is not good for Guilford County, or for our schools, or for our students," Donaldson said. "We need our board members standing publicly in support of the budget. We need you to be a voice with us, for our classified workers, because we know an investment in school workers is an investment in school children."

The county will hold a public hearing for the budget on June 1. 

Amy Diaz covers education for WFDD in partnership with Report For America. You can follow her on Twitter at @amydiaze.