CHARLOTTE — On Tuesday Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools met for the first time since a superintendent shakeup that placed Dr. Crystal Hill on paid leave and under investigation.
The deputy superintendent is handling her duties.
Channel 9’s Jonathan Lowe was there as Melissa Balknight addressed the board.
During the meeting, no one made any mention of the current drama facing the district, nor Dr. Hill’s status.
We told you last week that the school board hired an outside firm to investigate serious allegations regarding the superintendent’s actions when it comes to administrative and operational oversight.
Deputy Superintendent Dr. Melissa Balknight is running the district in the meantime.
On Tuesday she was focused on positives happening around the district, such as the number of students that graduated, how much money they earned and historic improvements in academic growth among students.
“Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has achieved historic, historic success in our academic growth, not just in students’ growth, but also in more students meeting and exceeding grade level proficiency which has been driven by this board expecting us to meet our goals in college and career readiness. So, we have more students today meeting proficiency by the end of the school year instead of us waiting on growth data from the state over the summer,” said Balknight.
That investigation is expected to last at least three weeks.
We spoke briefly on Tuesday with School Board Chairwoman Stephanie Sneed. She told us she expects school board members will get updates from that firm conducting the investigation at certain stages of that process.
Whether those updates or the final report will be made public remains to be seen.
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