The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education fired Superintendent Crystal Hill in a stunning 5-4 vote at Tuesday night’s board meeting.
The board had been set to consider removing Board Chair Stephanie Sneed from her chair position. But Sneed instead announced her resignation as chair in a statement to WSOC before the meeting, though she remains on the board as a member.
The shocking firing of a superintendent who had been widely praised before this year came as months of controversy erupted into chaos last week. It was capped off by Hill’s explosive memo to the school board, accusing Sneed of routing public money to a controversial consultant without Hill's knowledge and without the knowledge of most of the board.
The Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s office on Friday announced it has requested a state criminal investigation into “financial irregularities” at CMS, and the state auditor’s office has said it’s looking into the district.
CMS is now in a period of undeniable turmoil. Hill was the seventh superintendent in 15 years. The board reinstated Hill just last month, after a two-month suspension and $380,000 investigation by outside counsel, which the board has not explained in detail. Over the past month, five of the district’s other top administrators have also announced they are leaving.
“This board has spiraled into complete chaos. This board is dysfunctional. This board is broken,” said member Monty Witherspoon, who voted to retain Hill.
On Tuesday, instead of removing Sneed, the board made a flurry of last-minute changes to the agenda as soon as the meeting started. They added an agenda item to consider terminating Hill with convenience — meaning without cause. Hill had been in the meeting room while the school board met in closed session, but she was not sitting at the dais as the board began announcing changes to the agenda.
Vice Chair Dee Rankin took over the meeting as chair. The board elected board member Liz Monterrey-Duvall over Lenora Shipp as the new vice chair.
And then, after a tense discussion, board members Charlitta Hatch, Liz Monterrey Duvall, Dee Rankin, Sneed and Shamaiye Haynes voted in favor of terminating Hill. Board members Monty Witherspoon, Lenora Shipp, Anna London and Cynthia Stone voted against. Deputy Superintendent Melissa Balknight — who is retiring at the end of the year — was named interim superintendent.
Hill did not immediately respond to a request for comment from WFAE on Tuesday. Under the terms of her contract, she will receive a full year of severance, about $340,000, since she was not terminated for cause.
Hatch, who brought forward the motion to terminate the superintendent, cited Hill’s recent comments in the media. She said after months of controversy, they needed a leadership reset across the board. After Hill was reinstated Aug. 11, she spoke to WFAE’s Charlotte Talks about the investigation, disclosing more information than had been shared previously. Hill said the board told her it was investigating allegations involving misuse of federal funds, a hostile work environment and conflicts of interest related to vendor contracts. She said the investigation ultimately found no wrongdoing. Then, her memo last week was leaked to the media.
Hatch said the board's job is to set standards and ensure that employees follow them.
“If a principal were suspended and came back in the media...what we are saying as a board is that that is OK, and that that is what we expect,” Hatch said.
Witherspoon called the vote “a sad moment in the history of CMS.”
“I hope that the residents of this county hold this board accountable at every stop and turn,” Witherspoon said.
Monterrey Duvall implied that Hill may have wanted to leave the district—but that as her former employer, they can’t say.
“I just want to put it out there. So, we’re assuming that it’s just the board,” she said. “I can’t speak for her (Hill), or her employment record, but we’re just assuming that this person didn’t want it (to be fired) as well. So I just want to put it out there, that it’s both sides, and we can’t say a lot as employers.”
Stone criticized changes that board leadership had made to its governance structure in recent months, and suggested that given all the controversy, stable leadership was more important than ever.
“It seems to me that what we are doing is creating our own problems,” Stone said.
Sneed — no longer board chair — didn’t acknowledge the accusations Hill had leveled against her. But she maintained that every decision she’d made had been done with children in mind. And she chided the public for “the frenzy” about all the controversy that’s dominated headlines. She said she’s received threats.
“To have people threaten me that I have to be afraid to walk out my front door? That’s not focused on students,” Sneed said.
Later in the meeting, board member Monterrey Duvall interrupted a presentation on transportation to say that she’d gotten a text she interpreted as a threat. She pointed out the person texting her in the crowd, and he was escorted from the building.
"I feel scared," she said.
Officers removed the man, who could be heard yelling "Shut the f*** up!" before the meeting resumed.
