District leaders met with nutrition staff Monday evening to discuss pay concerns but both sides were not able to come to a resolution.
GREENSBORO, N.C. — After two hour long negotiations Monday evening, GCS nutrition workers and school system were not able to come to a resolution.
Nutrition staff are calling out again for a second day out front of the GCS Administration Building.
A compensation plan was presented to nutrition workers in Guilford County Schools following a walkout Monday in regard to their salaries. After review of the compensation plan presented, demonstration leaders argue not much is different from the original compensation plan.
What they are fighting for is $16.60 for assistants and $20 for managers.
Other requests by demonstrators include implementing a financials department, and advisory committee to set agendas, and their pay steps system back.
The superintendent says they worked to come up with a plan and they will continue to advocate for the next budget plan.
“I believe it’s a reasonable solution. I do think there’s more work to do but we’re going to need to do it together as we move forward and how we advocate really does matter. But we also know that students deserve to be fed every day and we’re committed to doing that. Within hours today we were able to deploy 200 people from other jobs to go and be hands-on in schools. We can’t do that sustainably, we need our school nutrition staff,” said superintendent, Dr. Whitney Oakley.
The district said they are making preparations to ensure they are able to provide meals to students on Tuesday and posted the following message for parents on Facebook:
Good afternoon, GCS families.
You may have heard about a walkout of cafeteria staff today as a demonstration of their concerns over pay. We understand their concerns and we value these hard-working employees. We do not know how long the walkout will last. However; the district is making preparations to ensure we are able to provide meals to students tomorrow, including reassigning central office staff, deploying pre-approved volunteers, and securing meals from qualified vendors as needed. Our top priority remains the well-being of our students. We are in conversation with our cafeteria workers to address their concerns and hope to have a resolution soon.
This story is developing.