CMS superintendent accuses Board of extortion and chair of steering contracts to friend

CHARLOTTE — A more than 200-page report from Dr. Crystal Hill alleges extortion, cronyism, and misspending by the CMS Board and its chair, Stephanie Sneed.

The damning and shocking report was emailed to CMS Board members Wednesday and obtained by Channel 9 on Thursday.

Sneed did not respond to a request for comment.

The questionable contract allegations center around a well-known community activist and the former CMS Executive in Residence, Raki McGregor.

They call into question payments to McGregor, whether Board members knew about it, and raises questions about the legitimacy of the recent investigation into Dr. Hill.

As Dr. Hill was being placed on leave, she said she was told she would be suspended by the allegations would “never be made public” if she resigned by that Friday. She wrote she considered this extortion.

All of this comes as the CMS Board prepares to vote on whether to remove Stephanie Sneed from the Chair position and ahead of the release of the Board’s findings from the two-month investigation into Hill that led to hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent only for the Board to return Hill from suspension.

In a 2024 story by Channel 9, McGregor spoke about his leadership of the “At Home in CMS” housing program.

He was being paid $13 thousand dollars a month to oversee it and a student mentorship program.

All while his wife, Kimberly McGregor, had a contract between her company, SYDKIMYL, and CMS to provide consulting and coaching.

McGregor did not return a request for comment on this story.

Dr. Hill said the first questions about the arrangement were raised in March 2025 when the Board was asked to approve a $175,000 increase for SYDKIMYL.

Dr. Hill wrote that some Board members and members of the public raised concerns that there was a conflict of interest since Mr. McGregor was working as Chief Executive and Mrs. McGregor was directing and benefiting from another contract.

Three board members voted against this. None of them are still on the Board.

Just a few months after that vote, Dr. Hill said she was concerned McGregor was looking for political revenge against the people who voted against his wife’s contracts.

So much so, after his contract as executive in residence expired, Dr. Hill said in her memo she didn’t offer him another one out of fears he would politically retaliate against the three board members who voted against his wife’s new contract.

“Although I had previously considered offering Mr. McGregor another contract, I was very uncomfortable with the potential and perceived conflicts of interest,” she wrote.

She said Sneed was not supportive of the decision. But money still flowed to the McGregors.

In August 2025, Academic Services entered into a contract with SYDKIMYL for $180,000. That’s below the threshold that requires a Board vote.

A few months later, Dr. Hill said Sneed and Raki McGregor presented at two conferences highlighting the work of SYDKIMYL and the impact on CMS.

This led to two more contracts for the company with other entities. Hill said she isn’t aware of the Board taking a vote allowing Sneed to endorse the company on behalf of the district.

The contract with SYDKIMYL expired this January. But two months later, things would change again.

Hill said the outside law firm Poyner Spruill, which was hired by the Board, entered into a contract with Qonnect for advisory services for the At Home in CMS project. Qonnect is owned by Raki McGregor. He was being paid $30,000. It was billed to CMS.

Hill said all of this was a mystery to her. “I do not know how, why, or when this program was turned over to Poyner Spruill, Chair Sneed and Raki McGregor,” she said in her memo.

She said other Board members appeared in the dark about McGregor’s involvement as well.

She suspected funding for Mrs. McGregor was a motivation behind the budget spat.

Dr. Hill said after the public disapproval by the Board of the budget, Board members made anonymous requests to staff with what they want to see in the budget.

One Board member asked staff to include direct-to-student social and emotional learning services, which Hill interpreted as a way to benefit SYDKIMYL.

When the new budget passed, the only substantial change was a new line item for $1 million for these services, which Hill said directly benefits Mrs. McGregor’s company

Four days before Dr. Hill was placed on leave, Poyner Spruill and Mr. McGregor’s Qonnect agreed to another contract, this time for a compliance assessment. It was for $132K, all billed to CMS.

Hill said there would later be issues with payments to the law firm. The CFO said proper policy wasn’t followed.

Dr. Hill said, to her knowledge, no one within CMS knew the purpose or scope of this firm’s contract with McGregor’s company except for Sneed and Rankin.

She accuses Sneed of intentionally circumventing policies to avoid disclosure of Mr. McGregor’s involvement

Dr. Hill said there are many issues with McGregor’s ties to the compliance assessment, including him not having public school administration experience in the areas of HR and finance.

She said the scope is nonsensical and said McGregor is motivated to identify problems with her leadership since she ended his relationship with CMS

She ended her letter to the Board questioning his involvement.

“There is a lot I do not understand about the events listed here,” she said. “If I don’t understand the Board’s decisions from my seat as Superintendent, we can’t reasonably expect employees or taxpayers to understand.”

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