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CMS Chair: Interim superintendent will meet with group if no elected officials are present

CHARLOTTE — Interim Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh will meet with the African American Faith Alliance for Educational Advancement if no elected officials are present, according to an email sent by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Chair Elyse Dashew to Mecklenburg County Commissioner Vilma Leake.

Channel 9 obtained a copy of the email, which came a month after Hattabaugh abruptly left a meeting with the African American Faith Alliance.

“I have been speaking with the AAFAEA and have conveyed to them that Mr. Hattabaugh is agreeable to meeting with them again, as long as the meeting is respectful, constructive and focused on how CMS and the AAFAEA can collaborate on behalf of serving the children of Mecklenburg County,” Dashew wrote to Leake on July 14. “This meeting needs to be with the pastors only, not with elected officials. This is a ‘best practice.’ This is also the model he is following when he meets with other community groups.”

Dashew did not respond to an email seeking comment. In the email, Dashew told Leake she and Thelma Byers-Bailey, the CMS District 2 representative, would be willing to meet with her and Mecklenburg County Chairman George Dunlap.

Leake has been regularly attending African American Faith Alliance meetings and was the only elected official in attendance at the meeting Hattabaugh left. She says she is “offended” at the exclusion from future meetings.

“To single me out? Why? I haven’t done anything to her but fight for my children,” Leake said. “Very offended. It takes me back to the period of segregation.”

Charles Jeter, the executive director of government affairs, policy and board services for CMS, says the policy is the standard operating procedure and not specific to any elected official.

“As the superintendent does not handle Government Relations at CMS (the Office of General Counsel is assigned this responsibility), we have long maintained that elected officials should meet with elected officials and staff should meet with staff,” Jeter said. “We believe in the partnerships and collaborations we have with the other government entities in the area and appreciate their input and recommendations. However, much like our elected Board Members don’t have private meetings with the city manager, county manager, and/or town manager, we try to operate in a similar manner regarding the superintendent.”

Rev. Jordan Boyd with the African American Faith Alliance says the group voted and will not meet with Hattabaugh unless elected officials are permitted to attend.

“Our focus remains improving academic achievement for all students, especially those in the lowest performing schools and Black and brown children throughout CMS,” Boyd said. “We voted to remain united in our effort to fight for children and parents. We have invited the interim superintendent to honor our original agreement. He may bring whomever he would like to bring with him to our next meeting scheduled for the first Friday in August.”

Leake says she has never heard of this CMS policy, and she hasn’t heard directly from Hattabaugh since the meeting he left last month. She says she is “disturbed” that Hattabaugh will not meet with the group if she is present.

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“In serving the public, elected officials are part of the public. You are denying them an opportunity to participate in a process that has already been established,” she said. “No. 1, I am invited. They have a right to invite who they want to invite to their meetings. That is the freedom of speech.”

(Watch the video below: Community leaders say CMS interim superintendent slammed papers, walked out of meeting with them)