Scores of school nutrition workers called out of work on Monday, staging a rally for better pay in front of the school administration offices on Eugene Street in Greensboro from early morning to mid-afternoon. The call-out prompted a scramble to feed students and the release of a district plan for additional pay raises late in the day.
However, as of late Monday, the workers weren’t satisfied with the plan and were expecting to continue the call-out of work on Tuesday.
Superintendent Whitney Oakley’s plan, released Monday afternoon, called for school nutrition assistants to make 4% more than last year, versus the 2.3% raise that had previously been put in place. It also called for most school nutrition managers to make 7% more than last year, versus the 2% increase that had already been implemented for most managers. Managers serving over 100 meals on average per day would qualify for a pro-rated quarterly bonus under the plan.
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Cafeteria Manager Kelly Shepherd, one of those helping organize the event, said that the sticking point was that the assistants were not happy with the increase. Assistants include staff such as cooks and cashiers.
School nutrition services are run as a self-sustaining enterprise, with funding determined by the number of paid meals the districts serves and by reimbursements from the federal government. School nutrition did not receive the 4 percent raise recently issued by the state for most other school employees.
Participants and organizers who spoke with the News & Record said that this is the first time, that they know of, that Guilford school nutrition staff had pulled together anything like this. They said the pay increases that school nutrition workers had received are significantly less than those for many other district workers and also less than they had expected to receive earlier this year.
“We work just as hard as anybody else, if not harder,” said Tawana Dockery, a nutrition assistant at Florence Elementary School who took part in the rally. “Everything is going up except our pay.”
The school nutrition workers said the Guilford County Association of Educators provided assistance to their organizing efforts, at their request.
Organizers estimated that about 200 people — the vast majority of them district school nutrition staff — took part in the rally. Cafeteria Manager Kelly Shepherd, one of those helping organize the event, said he thought it might be around a third of the district’s school nutrition staff participating, but he wasn’t sure of totals yet.
Meanwhile, Oakley said she deployed more than 200 central office staff to schools on Monday try to fill in.
“We can’t do that sustainably,” she said. “We need our school nutrition workers.”
Sixty-six of the district’s 124 schools reported impacts from the call out, according to the district. When, how and what students ate varied from school to school. In some cases, Oakley said, the district called in orders for pizza, she said, while in others they were able to pull together a combination of sandwiches and fruits and yogurts.
The district said it was making preparations to be able to ensure it’s able to provide meals to students on Tuesday.
The workers said said they had been talking with the district’s school nutrition department for the last few weeks but had not yet reached an agreement prior to the call out. They held an extended conversation with Oakley and a couple other top administrators earlier in the day on Monday, they said.
Guilford County Schools nutritional staff protest along Eugene Street in front of the school administration building in Greensboro on Monday. “We work just as hard as anybody else, if not harder,” said Tawana Dockery, a nutrition assistant at Florence Elementary School who took part in the rally. “Everything is going up except our pay.”
Guilford County Schools nutrition workers rallied in front of the school administration offices on Eugene Street in Greensboro on Monday.
Organizers estimated that about 200 people — the vast majority of them district school nutrition staff — took part in the rally.
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