The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board is set to vote Tuesday on removing the board chair, amid a criminal investigation into “financial irregularities” and an ongoing leadership dispute over board contracting practices.
Board members Cynthia Stone, Monty Witherspoon and Lenora Shipp moved earlier this month to remove Stephanie Sneed as board chair.
If approved, Sneed would remain a board member, but would no longer lead the board as chair.
In an email to fellow board members over the weekend that was obtained by WFAE, Stone endorsed Witherspoon and Shipp to serve as the board’s new chair and vice chair.
“There will be many future opportunities to serve in leadership in the coming years, but right now, it is imperative that we demonstrate our commitment to transparency by ensuring our leadership has no controversy attached,” Stone wrote.
Shipp and Witherspoon didn’t respond to emailed requests for comment. Stone didn't specify which of them she would propose for chair and which for vice chair.
Stone also criticized her colleagues on the board who continued to support Sneed as chair despite, she wrote, having “the same information” that led the three board members to seek her removal.
“Instead of reviewing evidence, some board members elected to publicly malign those who raised the need for a change in leadership,” Stone wrote. She didn’t specify the evidence.
When reached by WFAE on Monday, Stone didn’t comment beyond what was in her message and emphasized that she hadn’t told Witherspoon or Shipp she was sending it.
In the days after the three board members filed a motion to remove Sneed, a majority of the board continued to support her leadership. Board member Shamaiye Haynes and Vice Chair Dee Rankin both said they were disappointed with how the effort to remove Sneed was handled. The motion was disclosed to the media before Tuesday’s agenda was published. Haynes and Rankin said that grievances with Sneed should have been handled by board processes.
“Our chair, just like any other board member, just like the superintendent, just like any person who’s working in the school system, deserves due process and they deserve respect,” Haynes told WFAE at the time. “And they deserve to have their day and an examination of what is really taking place. I think it’s extremely unfair to make allegations of any kind against somebody and then try to thwart the due process that they deserve.”
Rankin told WFAE Monday that he’d responded to the email and had spoken with Stone, but he did not specify what those communications entailed. Haynes declined to comment.
Sneed last week appeared to have a majority of the board’s nine votes to remain chair — with Haynes, Rankin, Liz Monterrey Duvall and Charlitta Hatch all backing her. However, that was before revelations about Sneed’s ties to a controversial consultant and news of the criminal investigation came to light.
Superintendent Crystal Hill sent a memo to the board last week outlining concerns about contracts with a law firm that was routing money to Raki McGregor, a controversial ex-CMS consultant who Hill had previously cut ties with but who is reportedly close to Sneed. Hill claims she was unaware of the arrangement and believes most of the board was unaware.
WCNC also reported on an employee grievance that claimed Sneed pressured the employee to continue making payments to the law firm despite staff concerns that they might violate district policy and state law.
On Friday, Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather announced he requested a criminal investigation by state law enforcement into Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools due to “financial irregularities.” The state auditor’s office has also said it’s looking into the district. Neither have offered specific details or named a specific person or entity as a target of the investigation.
The board was also set to hear a report on the superintendent investigation Tuesday, but as of Monday afternoon, no such report was listed on the agenda.
