CMS school board to vote on removing chair Sneed amid swarm of controversy
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education meets Tuesday, with a single line on the agenda under action items: “Vacate the Position of the Board Chair.”
Read more Sneed steps down as Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools chair before vote to oust her
The motion — requested by three members — could remove Stephanie Sneed as leader of the nine-member body that oversees one of the nation’s largest public school systems.
The vote will occur amid a collection of controversies and arrives at the end of a summer that has cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. A $379,000 outside law firm investigation of Superintendent Crystal Hill turned up “no findings” against her, by Hill’s account. A CMS employee separately alleged the district paid a consulting firm $30,000 a month for months without a board-approved contract. And District Attorney Spencer Merriweather has asked state agents to determine whether any “financial irregularities” might be criminal.
The following timeline, drawn from Charlotte Observer reporting, tracks how the district arrived at Tuesday’s vote — and where the public dollars went along the way.
CMS entered a contract with law firm Poyner Spruill for legal services related to the district’s plan to build affordable housing for educators. On the same day, Poyner Spruill attorney Katie Cornetto sent a letter to Board Chair Stephanie Sneed confirming the agreement. The letter added a detail not in the contract itself: CMS would be billed against a $60,000 retainer for the first month, which included a $30,000 monthly consultant fee, the Observer later reported.
Poyner Spruill entered a strategic services agreement with Qonnect LLC, a consulting firm owned by Raki McGregor, the district’s former chief executive in residence. Under the arrangement, CMS would pay Poyner Spruill a $30,000 monthly retainer, which would be passed through to Qonnect. There was no direct, board-approved contract between CMS and Qonnect. McGregor’s wife, Kimberly McGregor, separately owns SYDKIMYL Educational Consulting, which previously held a $500,000 contract with the district that had drawn conflict-of-interest questions.
The board voted to spike Hill’s first 2026-27 budget proposal following a tense budget cycle in which some members said Hill presented information they wished they’d seen sooner and others described feeling talked down to.
On May 12, the board unanimously approved Hill’s revised budget, which included more money for teacher raises and a new social and emotional learning program. One day later, on May 13, the board’s first billed phone call with outside law firm Brooks Pierce about a probe of the superintendent took place, invoices later obtained by the Observer show. Brooks Pierce was hired at $275 an hour.
According to a memo Hill later sent to board members, she was told June 9 the board received “several serious allegations” and would investigate her — but would withhold the information from the public if she resigned by the end of the week. “I consider this extortion,” Hill wrote in her memo.
The board announced Hill had been placed on paid leave pending an investigation into “administrative and operational oversight,” providing few other details. Deputy Superintendent Melissa Balknight assumed additional responsibilities. Observer news partner WSOC-TV reported the probe was triggered by contracts with some of Hill’s former colleagues; the Observer determined those contracts totaled more than $1.7 million over three years.
After hours in closed session, the board voted to return Hill to her role. Sneed read a statement saying the review “identified issues that will require ongoing attention as it relates to leadership and operational practices,” but did not disclose specifics.
At a back-to-school media briefing, Hill said she was “100% confident” the district was ready for the first day of school. CMS staff told reporters she would not answer questions about the board investigation.
Hill emailed the board raising concerns about payments and contractual arrangements involving Poyner Spruill and consulting services being provided on behalf of the board, according to a later HR complaint. The complaint said Sneed replied that the payments related to the teacher housing initiative but did not address the lack of a contract.
Read more Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools board votes to fire Superintendent Crystal Hill
A CMS employee filed a human resources complaint alleging Sneed had insisted the district pay Qonnect LLC $30,000 a month despite the lack of a board-approved contract. “We don’t need a contract,” the complaint alleged Sneed told her. “We are the board.” The employee said acting General Counsel Anna Hehenberger and Chief Financial Officer Kelly Kluttz advised her a contract was necessary for compliance.
Former CMS board member Rhonda Cheek, who served from 2009 through 2022, told the Observer: “Checks being written without a contract – that’s a violation of board policy, and that’s taxpayer money.”
Board members voted to release a report detailing the investigation into Hill — including process, lessons learned and recommended improvements — by the end of September. “Confidentiality does not have to mean silence,” board member Charlitta Hatch said. “Accountability is not just about completing an investigation but also relating what we learned.”
Invoices obtained by the Observer through a public records request showed CMS would pay Brooks Pierce $379,429 for work between May 13 and July 31 — 1,233.4 hours by 11 attorneys. For comparison, Hill, the district’s highest-paid employee, is set to make $351,000 this school year.
Hill told WFAE the investigation yielded “no findings” against her. She said the probe was prompted by allegations of misuse of federal funds, potential conflicts of interest with vendors and hostile work environment complaints from “disgruntled employees” who were not her staff. “There were no findings of violation of board policy, no violations of general statute, no violations of a conflict of interest with any vendors,” she said.
Sneed emailed fellow board members telling them a motion to remove her as chair would be on the Sept. 22 agenda, presided over by Vice Chair Dee Rankin. The request came from three members: Cynthia Stone of District 5, at-large member Monty Witherspoon and at-large member Lenora Shipp. Sneed asserted she had been “subjected to unlawful targeting, bullying, discrimination, harassment and retaliation in connection with my service on the board.”
Three developments hit the same day. The board paused the Poyner Spruill compliance audit — subcontracted to Qonnect LLC — over conflict-of-interest concerns, WFAE reported. The Observer reported on the HR complaint alleging $30,000 monthly payments to Qonnect without a contract. And Hill sent board members a 14-page memorandum with more than 200 pages of exhibits, alleging the board had tried to extort her and questioning ties between board members and CMS contractors.
Hill wrote that the scope of McGregor’s duties in the compliance audit was “nonsensical” and “not measurable” and noted his $13,000-a-month audit pay matched his previous compensation as CMS executive in residence before the district declined to renew his contract.
Also that day, the North Carolina Secretary of State’s office administratively dissolved Qonnect LLC, citing its failure to file an annual report.
District Attorney Spencer Merriweather announced he had asked the SBI to open a formal criminal investigation into “alleged financial irregularities within transactions involving Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools” in the current and previous fiscal year. “A request for an investigation is not itself a confirmation of the existence of wrongdoing, nor should it be understood as the State’s tendering of a formal allegation of malfeasance,” Merriweather said. The SBI “does not confirm, deny, or comment on any matters investigated by our Office of Special Investigations,” spokesman Chad Flowers said.
The board meets Tuesday evening. A majority of the nine-member body must vote in favor to remove Sneed. Rankin, Hatch, Shamaiye Haynes and Liz Monterrey Duvall have signaled support for keeping Sneed — enough votes, if held, for her to retain the chair.
This report was produced with the assistance of a proprietary tool powered by artificial intelligence and using our own originally reported, written and published content. It was reviewed and edited by our journalists. To learn more about how The Charlotte Observer is using AI in our newsroom, see our policy here.
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