The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education voted Tuesday to release a summary of its outside investigation into Superintendent Crystal Hill.
The motion calls for the report be completed before the end of September.
The two-month investigation into Hill has largely remained confidential, even after she was reinstated. Board members have described the probe as a personnel matter protected under North Carolina law. A motion from board member Charlitta Hatch directs the board to release “the investigation process, key lessons learned and recommended improvements to governance, policy procedure and oversight” while withholding legally protected or confidential details.
Hatch said the board can provide more information to the public without violating state law.
“Confidentiality does not have to mean silence,” Hatch said. “There’s a space between releasing everything and saying nothing, and North Carolina law actually provides a process for navigating that space.”
Three board members abstained from the vote: Monty Witherspoon, Stephanie Sneed and Lenora Shipp.
Witherspoon and Shipp both suggested that they felt they didn’t have enough information on the motion.
Witherspoon said he did not believe there had been enough discussion about the motion. He argued the board could have issued a statement at any time and described the motion as “performative.” Still, he said he wanted to work with the board toward releasing more information.
“I 100% believe in transparency,” “I really want to fully understand what all is involved in this, even some of the language that we’re using as we’re sitting here is a little concerning. But I’m 100% for full transparency, but I would like to just have some further discussions on what exactly I’m voting on.”
Board Vice Chair Dee Rankin said he believes the language of the motion prohibiting the release of any confidential information covered those concerns.
“I want to make sure we’re not actually trying to put the report together right now here at the dais,” Rankin said. “That’s not the purpose of this motion.”
After the meeting, Hatch told reporters she believed that the motion and this report are necessary as opposed to just a general board statement or update.
“Now that the investigation is complete, in the spirit of transparency, I would not be satisfied with just a statement. And I would want to understand the level of detail that went into it to feel confident in the board as a collective that we did right by our taxpayer dollars – which is what you all elected us to do.”
