The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board has called a special meeting at 8 a.m. Friday morning to consider a personnel contract.
That's the day Superintendent Clayton Wilcox's resignation officially takes effect. The board suspended Wilcox, who took office just two years ago, for unspecified reasons on July 15. He agreed to resign a week later, effective Aug. 2.
Earnest Winston, the district's chief engagement officer and ombudsman, stepped in at the board's request the day his boss was suspended. But he doesn't have a contract to take over the top job.
When superintendents leave, the CMS board generally awards a one-year interim contract. That gives the board time to plan and conduct a search.
The last time around Deputy Superintendent Ann Clark was tapped when Heath Morrison resigned under pressure from the board near the end of 2014. Her one-year contract was extended for a second year as the board grappled with how to conduct a search and what the timetable should be. Wilcox, who was hired from a smaller district in Maryland, spent three months shadowing Clark before officially taking office July 1, 2017.
School board members could not be reached for comment Monday. According to a post on vice chair Elyse Dashew's Facebook page, seven of the nine members are attending a board training session at Harvard Business School. The goals include learning how to shape conditions for success.
