Questions remain after investigation into CMS superintendent

CHARLOTTE — A former Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools board member is demanding answers into the investigation of Superintendent Dr. Crystal Hill, and many people say they want to know more about the $100,000 investigation.

Hill was suspended nearly eight weeks ago until Tuesday night, when the CMS Board of Education reinstated her 13 days before the start of school. After the nearly two-month-long leave, Hill returned to her post Wednesday morning.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE:

School board chairwoman Stephanie Sneed says the last two months haven’t destabilized the district.

“The focus is always going to be students first, so they should be confident that that’s what our focus is and will always be,” Sneed said.

Former CMS board member and current county commissioner Arthur Griffin agrees that reinstating Hill was the right thing to do.

“It’s cheaper to keep her, continuity is always better than separation because separations create instability,” Griffin said.

But Griffin is skeptical of how long the investigation took.

“That’s unusual, I’ve been around not only with five superintendents, but chairmen of the board,” Griffin said.

He said it’s hard to know whether the investigation was taxpayer dollars well spent.

“I don’t know what the elements were that caused the investigation, and without having a better sense, a general sense of what those elements are, I can’t see the value that the taxpayers received at this point,” Griffin said.

Griffin spent 17 years on the board, and he weighed in on what he would do to move forward if he were still there.

“I would have greater transparency, I’m not sure what I would be able to say, but it would be more than, ‘I can’t say because state law prevent me from saying,’” Griffin said.

Sneed said she understands the concerns.

“But we are bound by the laws of North Carolina, and so we are limited because it is a personnel matter,” Sneed told Channel 9.

We’ve been asking if it was legal for the school board to vote in private on reinstating Hill. They said CMS didn’t violate the state’s open meeting law. CMS was authorized to go into closed session to investigate a personnel matter; since the board chose not to terminate her, the law doesn’t require the board to vote in public.

We’ve requested an interview with Hill now that she’s back on the job; we expect to see her back in the public eye over the next week as CMS gears up for the new school year.