The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board paid $12,000 for an outside lawyer's report on former Superintendent Earnest Winston's performance, a recently released bill shows.
This spring, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board hired Asheville lawyer K. Dean Shatley to investigate concerns about Winston’s performance. Shatley’s report, released when the board fired Winston in April, documented mistakes and flawed decisions. But Shatley found no clear breaches of Winston’s contract that would have allowed the board to fire him without severance pay.
In response to a public record request from WFAE, CMS recently released the tab for Shatley’s work. His firm billed CMS $12,050.
The board voted to fire Winston for convenience and pay him almost $577,000 over the coming two years, as his contract requires. The board released parts of his personnel file, including Shatley’s report and Winston’s most recent evaluation, to explain that decision.
