CMS board member: Why I voted to fire Superintendent Crystal Hill | Opinion
Tuesday night, I voted to terminate Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Dr. Crystal Hill’s contract for convenience. It was a consequential decision, and I did not make it casually.
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Earlier that day, Stephanie Sneed decided to step aside as CMS Board of Education Chair while continuing to serve in her elected seat. I supported her decision because I believed the Board also needed an opportunity to reset.
I respect the service both women have given to CMS. I can respect that service and believe change was necessary.
I did not run for school board because I wanted to get into the politics of public education. I ran because public education is personal to me.
I grew up in CMS, and today I am raising the third generation of CMS students in my family. I know this district as an alumna, a parent and now a Board member. Long after any one of us leaves our positions, CMS will still belong to the children, families and community we serve.
That is why I keep coming back to the roles we have been entrusted to play.
The Board has a responsibility to govern and exercise oversight. The superintendent has a responsibility to lead the district. There must be a functional relationship between employer and employee. And the Board has a responsibility to the community that elected us.
Those roles and relationships are bigger than any individual person including me. I know I have work to do to continue to evolve in my role.
My vote was ultimately about whether I believed those relationships were functioning in a way that allowed us to serve CMS well. I concluded they were not.
The investigation did not find improper conduct by Dr. Hill, but it identified areas where the district could strengthen its practices, including workplace culture, certain personnel decisions, the handling of vacant positions and district contracting.
My vote was not a finding of misconduct or a termination for cause. It was an employment judgment about whether the Board-superintendent relationship remained workable and whether we still had the conditions necessary to lead this district together.
The investigation answered one question. My vote answered another.
That does not require me to diminish Dr. Hill’s service or the academic progress CMS made under her leadership. It does not require me to assign every problem to one person. And it does not absolve the Board of our own responsibility for how we got here.
I am part of that Board. I don’t get to write myself out of the story.
A hard reset that only requires everyone else to change isn’t much of a reset.
My vote also does not resolve or diminish the financial questions Dr. Hill raised. The District Attorney has requested a formal SBI investigation into alleged financial irregularities involving CMS. Those allegations were new to me. I will not prejudge them. That independent process should follow the facts, and I will consider its findings on their merits.
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What we do next is what gives these decisions meaning.
CMS has real progress to celebrate. In 2025–26, proficiency increased across every tested content area. Grades 3–8 reading reached 56.7% and math reached 62.7%.
Those gains matter. And better is still not good enough for too many children, particularly when persistent disparities remain for Black and Brown students, students with disabilities and multilingual learners.
And while data is presented to me as a Board member as percentages, as a CMS parent I see children. If I would not accept “good enough” for my own children, I cannot accept it for yours.
Better for whom? Who remains furthest from the goal? Are they improving fast enough to close the gap? What are we going to do differently if they aren’t?
Those are disagreements worth having. That is where I want our urgency now.
I made a difficult vote. I own it. I know everyone will not agree with it, and I am not asking them to.
What I owe this community is an explanation for my judgment and accountability for what I do next.
I am not going to sit here and tell you that things aren’t as bad as they seem or pretend that rebuilding trust will be easy. It won’t be. This is messy.
But I also know what is possible when families are connected and communities are truly engaged not simply informed, but invited in, listened to and given a meaningful role in what comes next.
There can be beauty in the mess.
We can disagree and still find our way forward. We can acknowledge where trust has been broken and still rebuild it. We can learn from what happened without allowing it to define what happens next.
I believe we can get through this. Not because one person has all the answers, but because no one person was ever supposed to.
This district belongs to all of us. And rebuilding it will take all of us.
I intend to do my part to leave it stronger than I found it.
Hold me accountable for my part in what comes next.
Dr. Charlitta Hatch represents District 1 on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education.
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This story was originally published September 24, 2026 at 9:24 AM.
