Hundreds have now joined petitions calling for Sneed, CMS board resignations
Hundreds have signed on to a pair of petitions calling for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools board members to resign following their move to fire Superintendent Crystal Hill.
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The CMS board voted 5-4 at its Sept. 22 to dismiss Hill “for convenience” days after a memo Hill sent the board alleging attempted extortion and other issues became public. Hill had been reinstated to her post in August after an investigation into her administration that triggered a suspension did not find any wrongdoing on her part.
Board member Stephanie Sneed stepped down as board chair at the same September meeting, where she was supposed to face a vote to remove her from her leadership position. But she retained her seat representing east Mecklenburg’s District 4 on the board.
A change.org petition launched the morning after Hill’s firing calls for Sneed’s resignation from the board entirely and had 250 signatures as of Monday afternoon. Sneed did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the petitions.
“Sneed has failed to provide sound governance oversight on the Board,” the petition started by a group called Concerned Eastsiders says. “Sneed’s continued presence on the board will further distract from — and contribute to continued complications in — the critically important work of finding a new superintendent to lead our district and the very real, very pressing ongoing operations of serving our county’s students.”
A second petition on the same platform calls for Sneed’s resignation too, and the resignation of the four other board members who voted to oust Hill: Shamaiye Haynes, Charlitta Hatch, Dee Rankin and Liz Monterrey Duvall. It had 591 signatures as of Monday afternoon.
The CMS parent who started that petition, Ann-Margret Gidley, told The Charlotte Observer she watched the meeting where Hill was fired and called the move an “absolute shock.”
“I decided to start a petition so they would hear our voices, because there are many of us who are frustrated. It’s a very broad coalition of stakeholders across the district, CMS parents, taxpayers,” said Gidley, who has two kids in CMS schools and frequently volunteers with the district, including serving on Hill’s Parent Family Advisory Council.
Gidley noted no CMS board members are up for reelection in 2026 and some of the five members who voted to fire Hill won’t be on the ballot again until 2029.
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“They must have felt very comfortable to just make a decision and think there would be no repercussions,” she said.
Gidley fears the district will lose “momentum” it gained during Hill’s tenure as superintendent, which included rising test scores.
“They will get a new superintendent, but they’ll come in and they’ll have their own agenda, their own priorities, their own trainings, things like that,” she said.
Gidley, a recipient of the district’s “Superstar Parent Award,” also questions how much CMS has spent on recent investigations and Hill’s firing. The board spent $379,000 investigating Hill, and the former superintendent is also slated to receive $340,700 in severance, the Observer reported previously.
“That just does not sit right with me as a taxpayer, as a parent or as an advocate for these students and an advocate for these teachers,” Gidley said.
The CMS board is scheduled to meet Tuesday to discuss the process for hiring a new superintendent.
In a statement after Hill’s firing, Rankin said the decision to fire Hill “was not a decision the board made lightly.”
“Throughout this process, our responsibility has remained clear: to make decisions that we believe are in the best interest of the students and families we serve and to ensure that Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools remains focused on its mission of providing every student with a high-quality education,” said Rankin, who took over as board chair when Sneed stepped down from the role.
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