Durham Salary Study Statement

HIL Consultants has successfully completed 58 salary studies across North Carolina.

Our methodology has proven to be very successful when districts have taken our recommendations. Of course, district administrators have the final say on how the studies are implemented and do so as their budgets allow.

The Durham salary study did not include implementation in the contract’s Scope of Work. Implementation was left up to district administration. We presented an estimate of $10.8 million for implementation based on our recommendations of boosting salaries of classified staff based on the years of longevity they worked with Durham Public Schools.

DPS did not implement HIL’s recommendations resulting in a much larger implementation cost. It is evident that there were communication and process issues at DPS that resulted in the confusion and missteps.

When the DPS superintendent asked us to review their budget in late 2023, we identified that the district could not sustain the salaries they implemented. The Tharrington Smith investigation and analysis presented on Feb 7, 2024 confirmed that the district had implemented a salary schedule that its budget could not support.

Feb. 23, 2024

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