In firing superintendent, CMS board makes a reckless, embarrassing decision | Opinion
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education already looked like a mess. Then it held a meeting Tuesday and managed to make it worse.
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The board made the galling decision to fire Superintendent Crystal Hill — an item that was not on the agenda prior to the meeting. It happened quickly and unexpectedly and without a clear explanation. And the board was not united in its decision — it was a close vote of 5-4.
“There have been a lot of distractions in the media and in the news, and this board needs to take a stand and say enough is enough,” board member Charlitta Hatch said. “We need to have bold changes to focus on what matters … This is a step that we need to take in order to eliminate the distractions.”
The distractions that Hatch is referring to are of the board’s own making, yet board members seem eager to blame anyone or anything but themselves.
Back in June, the board abruptly suspended Hill and launched an investigation into “matters involving administrative and operational oversight.” The investigation ended with relatively little fanfare — and little explanation — before the school year began. It cost nearly $400,000, but it apparently didn’t find anything actionable. So she kept her job, and it seemed like that was that.
Apparently not.
The five board members who voted to fire Hill on Tuesday couldn’t — or wouldn’t — even articulate a legitimate reason why, which suggests they don’t actually have one. It’s a seemingly reckless decision, one with enormous consequences, and none of them could explain why it wasn’t reckless. That’s inexcusable. The public report the board finally released about its investigation of Hill did not provide any reassurances, either. It was vague, and the little information it did provide only reiterated that Hill did nothing improper or wrong.
Since the board did not have cause to fire Hill, it had to fire her for convenience. It means that CMS will have to pay out the remainder of Hill’s contract, which will cost roughly $340,000, on top of the hundreds of thousands it already spent investigating her. A decision that expensive warrants an explanation. Why did the board choose to reinstate Hill, only to fire her a month later? Why even bother spending money on an investigation, if the board was just going to fire Hill anyway? Is there even any evidence to suggest that Hill is the problem?
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One can’t help but wonder if board members moved to fire Hill because she dared to speak up. In a scathing memo to board members last week, Hill raised a number of concerns about actions taken by the board, including secrecy, questionable and potentially illegal spending, and extortion. She also suggested the investigation was merely an attempt to find a way to terminate her employment or make her sign a confidentiality agreement. So far, nothing the board has said or done has proven her wrong.
Firing Hill is likely to have a destabilizing effect on the district. CMS now has no superintendent, and thanks to a recent leadership exodus, the deputy superintendent, chief financial officer, chief human resources officer and chief operations officer will soon depart, too. What’s especially frustrating is that, before this, things at CMS were actually getting better. State data showed academic improvements for the second year in a row. There was an increase in overall grade-level proficiency in every content area, and the district surpassed its pre-pandemic performance on state tests for the first time.
Remarkably, the board has managed to ruin that progress and goodwill in just one summer.
At one point, board member Monty Witherspoon correctly pointed out that the board had “spiraled into complete chaos” and become “dysfunctional.” Another board member tried to stop Witherspoon from continuing, calling it a “personal attack.” It’s hard to believe that this board is capable of finding a solution when it can’t even agree that there’s a problem.
In essence, the school board is asking everyone to blindly trust that it is making the right decision, even though it feels reckless and unjustified. It’s trust the board has not earned, not even a little bit. Between Hill’s memo, a pending criminal investigation into “financial irregularities,” and the lack of transparency about the board’s investigation, how can the board expect the public to have confidence in its leadership right now?
Now, CMS finds itself in an uncertain, embarrassing spot once again, thanks to a board that’s decided to focus on all the wrong things. This board was supposed to be different than the ones that came before it. New leadership and fresh faces were supposed to lead things in a more positive direction. Somehow, they’ve led us to a place that’s perhaps even worse. The board seems to be trying to make Hill the scapegoat. But once again Tuesday night, it was the board that showed shockingly poor leadership and embarrassed our city.
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This story was originally published September 23, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
