CMS superintendent, Facebook Live rant: What got Charlotte talking Sept. 21-27
Charlotte Observer readers had plenty to say this past week. Here are the most-commented-on stories from Sept. 21-27 — and the conversations still unfolding on charlotteobserver.com.
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The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education voted 5-4 Tuesday night to fire Superintendent Crystal Hill for convenience, a move that will cost the district one year of her salary — $340,770. Deputy Superintendent Melissa Balknight was named acting leader. The surprise vote came after a summer investigation that found no evidence of improper conduct. Board member Monty Witherspoon said the board had “spiraled into chaos.”
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The Observer’s Paige Masten argued the firing was unjustified and destabilizing, coming after a nearly $400,000 investigation that turned up nothing actionable. The five members who voted to fire Hill “couldn’t — or wouldn’t — even articulate a legitimate reason why,” the piece said, questioning whether Hill was pushed out for speaking up about board conduct in a scathing memo that alleged extortion.
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Dr. Charlitta Hatch, who represents District 1, wrote that her vote wasn’t a finding of misconduct but “an employment judgment about whether the Board-superintendent relationship remained workable.” She acknowledged the board’s own role in the turmoil: “I am part of that Board. I don’t get to write myself out of the story.”
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Former Charlotte city councilwoman Tiawana Brown appealed her 10-month prison sentence in a federal COVID fraud case after taking to Facebook Live to slam U.S. District Judge Kenneth Bell. “That judge did some bullshit in court today,” she told viewers. Brown and her daughters pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges tied to more than $130,000 in pandemic relief funds.
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Contributing columnist Gene Nichol argued that state election officials’ push to cut Sunday voting — dropping the practice from 40 counties to 17 — amounts to suppression of Black voters, who often participate through church “Souls to the Polls” programs. Of 15 counties disputing Sunday voting, the state board sided with plans eliminating it in all but two.
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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.
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