Ahead of its first official meeting of the new school year on Tuesday, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education spent part of the weekend working to improve board relationships and leadership.
Board members met with Benetta Raby, a consultant from Runnvation LLC, who led discussions on conflict, board communication and relationships with staff.
The retreat comes as the investigation into Superintendent Crystal Hill enters its eighth week, with no public updates on its status.
While no one explicitly discussed the absence of Hill, board members alluded to tensions that surfaced during the contentious budget process this spring. Among the concerns raised: a belief that CMS staff had not always provided clear responses to board questions.
“Transparency is not just having the information out there, but it’s information that people can receive and understand,” said board member Charlitta Hatch. “Sometimes we get like a 500-page document, and it’s like, ‘we’ve given you everything you need.’ That doesn’t feel transparent to me.”
Board member Liz Monterrey-Duvall agreed, and specifically referenced this past spring’s budget process.
“If I'm asking you a question, I don't want the entire data file; I want the clear answer to that as a board member because that creates trust,” she said. “And thinking back to the budget season, when board members that are presumably, allegedly part-time people are given this amount of stuff and then the public has to see a small presentation, it becomes inequitable when you don't have transparency and clarity in what you're giving.”
The board discussed strategies to set clear expectations for how it likes to receive information and for board and staff roles.
“I know that sounds real basic, but if we had had that proactively? Who knows,” Raby said.
The board also discussed how it talks about students and student achievement, with board member Charlitta Hatch expressing frustration that the board and CMS as a whole are not putting enough emphasis on Black and other non-white children. They make up a majority of students and are lagging behind their peers.
“When we say students, and we operate under the guise of ‘students,’ we can all clap our hands, but the district is 65% Black and brown, and we have to be unapologetic about Black children thriving in this system, and that is where I don’t feel like we have alignment, because we say ‘students,’” she said.
She argued that there should be more conversation on how decisions impact those students specifically, and that focusing on closing those gaps would improve the whole district.
The board previously met with Runnvation in April as part of a makeup session tied to a three-day retreat in Winston-Salem in January. Runnvation, a firm that focuses on executive and leadership coaching for a variety of different teams and boards, has a contract with the district worth about $50,000.
