CHARLOTTE — The Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board will gather for a special meeting tonight amid an ongoing seven-week investigation into Superintendent Crystal Hill.
The board is scheduled to hold its final regular meeting before the start of the school year while Hill remains on paid leave. Hill is currently under investigation by an outside law firm regarding administrative and operational oversight.
Since May, the school board has held at least five confidential meetings to discuss her leadership. The investigation continues as the district prepares to welcome students back in less than three weeks.
The outside law firm is investigating Hill regarding her administrative and operational oversight. Specific details that triggered the investigation or any discoveries made during the seven-week inquiry have not been made public.
School Board Leader Rankin addressed the board’s timeline for providing information to the public. “The goal is to have some type of update before we start school; that’s always the goal, but we can’t guarantee there will be,” Rankin said.
The district is currently less than three weeks away from the first day of school. Legal restrictions may limit the information released to the public if Hill is reprimanded but not terminated, as personnel privacy laws would apply. However, N.C. state law requires that any vote to terminate a superintendent must be conducted in a public session.
Hill is the sixth superintendent to lead Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools since 2011, a figure that excludes interim leaders. She took over the position from Hugh Hattabaugh, who served as an interim leader following the 2022 firing of Earnest Winston. Winston originally became superintendent in 2019 after Dr. Clayton Wilcox was suspended and resigned two years into his tenure.
The school board is scheduled to hold one more regular meeting before the start of school next Tuesday.
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