A new search committee will hold its first meeting Tuesday as Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools begins to look for a new superintendent.
Board member Anna London chairs the four-person committee. She says members will draw from past superintendent searches to establish a process and timeline. Once that’s established, the full board will see it through.
“We will, by looking at what we've done before, determine: Do we want to keep the process the same? Do we want to revise it a little bit? How do we want this process to go?” London said.
London said board members are committed to working together despite divisions that emerged in a surprise 5-4 vote last month to fire former Superintendent Crystal Hill.
“This provides us a really good opportunity with building back trust with each other, with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School staff, team, but also with the community,” London said.
London voted to keep Hill as superintendent, as did a majority of committee members. She reiterated the board’s promise to make the process transparent and gather robust community feedback.
“We have a shared commitment through this process to lead an inclusive and transparent process and include all key stakeholders along the way. But just saying that really means nothing,” London said. “We're going to have to act. We're going to have to show that through our actions.”
The committee will figure out what meaningful engagement looks like. But London says she envisions board members meeting with people — CMS staff, parents and students — throughout the county to develop a profile of the ideal superintendent.
The board will likely hire a search firm to help find candidates that match that profile.
For her part, London says she’d like to see a superintendent with prior experience in a similar district who can tap into district culture and lead their cabinet. She was initially concerned the ongoing turmoil at CMS would affect candidate recruitment. But she feels more confident now.
“I will say, over the last couple of weeks, we have actually heard from people who are saying, ‘No, I think you're going to get a lot of interest,’” London said. “And we are hearing, you know, people that are very close to this work nationally, that they think we will get a lot of interest.”
