Shortly after the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board passed Superintendent Crystal Hill’s revised $2.1 billion budget in a late night school board meeting Tuesday, the board announced an emergency closed meeting for Wednesday to discuss personnel matters for early the following morning.
It’s prompted speculation about the status of Hill’s job, following a tense two weeks of budget negotiations.
The board met openly at 7 a.m. Wednesday for about two minutes before going into closed session. They did not speak publicly afterwards. It was the latest of several closed personnel meetings that the board has held since voting down Hill’s first budget request last month.
That vote appeared to catch Hill off guard and led to a series of tense meetings where board members questioned the budget and expressed frustration with the budget process and CMS staff.
But when asked after Tuesday’s vote if the board still had confidence in Hill, board chair Stephanie Sneed suggested they did.
“The board has confidence, there’s nothing been expressed here at the dais. We know this is a difficult cycle, and just because we had a difficult cycle doesn’t necessarily mean any particular thing,” Sneed told WFAE.
Still, the budget drama exposed tensions between the board and Hill that weren't apparent before. On Wednesday, a CMS spokesman was unaware of any changes to her job, and Hill presented at a joint county meeting to present the approved budget to Mecklenburg County Commissioners.
The board extended her contract to 2029 back in December.
