CMS Board of Education looks to rebuild public trust as they search for new superintendent

CHARLOTTE — It’s been less than a week since the CMS Board of Education voted to fire Superintendent Dr. Crystal Hill.

Channel 9’s Jonathan Lowe is hearing more about the next steps to find its new superintendent.

CMS Board Chair Dee Rankin says he understands frustration and mounting concerns among parents and CMS staff.

But he says the school board and central office staff are looking to rebuild confidence and public trust as they begin the search for the eighth CMS Superintendent in a decade.

Rankin wanted his first interview since last week to be “forward facing.”

That meant no questions regarding the former superintendent, the SBI investigation, or ongoing compliance audit were allowed.

“Now I think we can get to a space of, I call it a new day,” Rankin said. “We have a new day.”

On Tuesday the school board will meet to officially begin the process of replacing Dr. Crystal Hill, who the board voted to fire last week.

“We want this to be an inclusive process where we’ll able to hear what type of characteristics are you looking for in the next superintendent. We want to hear that,” said Rankin.

He says they’ll approve the charter for the superintendent search and HOC committee.

“The search firm will then need to hear back from us. What are the qualifications, the process of identifying community engagement, how we’re going to get feedback from our staff, from some students and parents,” Rankin said.

Hiring an outside search firm will follow the district forking over recently more than $800,000 on an investigation into Hill and her contract payout.

“Is this something that the district can do in house and save some money? Possibly, but if we want to do this the correct way, and do a full, what I believe should be a national search, that’s something that needs to be done by a professional,” said Rankin.

He says he doesn’t think the avalanche of controversies will discourage candidates from applying.

“If there’s a candidate out here that believes they can continue building on that success that we have, I don’t think we’ll have a problem recruiting someone to come here and continue that work,” Rankin said.

In the meantime, he says he is confident the district will stabilize under acting Superintendent Dr. Melissa Balknight, even though she was set to retire at the end of the year.

“Any effort to ask her to stay on past January, I would say I’m almost positive she’s gonna stay,” said Rankin.

Back in 2023, the district paid an Illinois-based search firm $48,000 to conduct a national superintendent search. After three months and nearly 30 community engagement sessions, Dr. Hill was named permanent superintendent that May.

You can find complete coverage on the CMS Shakeup here.

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