A group of athletics directors employed by Prince George’s County Public Schools have filed a lawsuit against the Maryland county’s school system over charges of wage theft — accusing it of promising to pay them at one rate for taking on additional, full-time teaching duties, but then paying them the same amount substitute teachers earn.
The lawsuit, filed by seven athletic directors, describes what amounts to a bait-and-switch when it comes to compensation for the 2022-2023 school year. A time when the county was struggling to hire enough teachers to cover every classroom.
Before July 1, 2022, athletic directors split their AD and teaching duties 50-50, and got a 10% bump in salary for taking on both rolls. But after that date, the position of athletic director became a full-time job in and of itself, and the extra 10% pay went away.
Because of the teacher shortage, some ADs who weren’t full-time teachers previously, agreed to work as substitute teachers and receive the $30-per-hour rate to substitute. But the seven ADs who filed the suit said the county initially promised to pay them their previous wages for teaching classes — as opposed to just working as substitutes, before backing away from that in March 2023.
“A substitute (is) basically just covering a class. They’re handing out the work that the certified teacher, or the assigned teacher, has left for those students. All they do is take attendance, hand out the work, collect it, and that’s it,” said Julius Pinkney, one of the athletic directors in the suit and a certified teacher.
“We had to grade. We had to go to parent-teacher conferences, back-to-school nights — the whole deal,” Pinkney told WTOP.
Another athletic director, Makia Staves, said she felt ripped-off.
“You’re teaching. It’s not just sitting, you’re really engaged,” she said. “You’re doing what you’re certified to do. And to get it at a cheaper rate, it’s unfair.”
The school system provided a brief statement to WTOP in response to the lawsuit.
“Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) deeply values the dedication and hard work of our coaches, athletic directors and all employees within the district, and is committed to ensuring all employees are compensated fairly for their time, effort and contributions,” the unattributed statement said. “As this matter involves pending litigation, we are unable to provide further comment at this time.”
In a legal filing, the county went further and said it denied many of the claims made by Pinkney, Staves and others named in the lawsuit.
Pinkney expressed frustration with the situation.
“We had to submit grades. … We had to put in progress report grades, report card grades, also with the understanding if we were to miss class that day, we had to actually supply sub plans for the substitute that was going to be covering for our class when we were out,” he said.
“They got all the benefits of a full-time certified teacher in the classroom,” he added. “And they paid us the sub-rate at the end, after all the work was done.”
Under state law, if the athletic directors are successful in their lawsuit, they would be entitled to up to triple their withheld wages.
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