Charlotte school board member: We have "spiraled into complete chaos" | Hour 3

What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepeatcalendarshow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support. If I sound a little different today, it's because we are once again live at a Jiffy Lube. It's a different Jiffy Lube than the last two weeks. We are now at the one on Monroe Road, 9210, I believe, Monroe Road, almost into Matthews here as part of the 7th Annual WBT Little Heroes Blood Drive. We'll be here until 6 p.m. broadcasting live. Winter Mobile will be taking his place at the comm after I am done. And if you come in and make a donation, our friends here at Jiffy Lube are going to give you a 50% discount on an oil change. just for supporting the Little Heroes Blood Drive. If you want more details, go to WBT.com. And thank you very much. All right, so W... Sorry, that's not where I wanted to start. Did I put it under here? I did. I put it in the bottom. This is from the Charlotte Ledger by Tony Messia. Moving to distance itself from an ongoing financial investigation, the Charlotte Mecklenburg School Board of Education fired Superintendent Crystal Hill... while school board chair Stephanie Sneed resigned under pressure as chair. The leadership shakeups are an apparent attempt to create a clean break between the board and recent allegations that the district hired a law firm and consultant without proper financial controls. The vote was five to four. This is why I've been talking about the majority block and the minority block, okay? You got five members in the majority. They've all been voting in lockstep. on all of these matters. And then you have the minority of four votes. They've all been voting together as well. They are concerned. They were opposed to terminating the superintendent. We don't know. Well, we do know that some of those board members, I believe three of them, had sought the action to remove the board chair, Stephanie Sneed, at last night's meeting. But that never happened in the open session... And it was removed from the agenda at the beginning of the meeting because they held a closed session prior to the open session. And in the closed session, apparently Sneed resigned as board chair. That then bumped up DeRankin from vice chair to chair. And then the five-member majority voted for Liz Monterey Duvall as the new vice chair. So that's the brand new clean slate leadership shift. on the Board of Ed. They fired the superintendent, and there are a bunch of other members of Crystal Hill's executive leadership team that have also submitted their resignations. They've announced their retirements or resignations. So the Board is now going to have to do a whole lot of headhunting for new employees. And you'll never guess what that means. Okay, you probably have guessed it. That means we're going to be spending money. Exactly. They're going to hire an outside firm to go get candidates, right? So like the CMS Board of Ed is blowing through hundreds of thousands of dollars because of their inability to basically get along and, you know, not engage in allegedly shady activity with crony contracting. That's what this looks like. They paid out Crystal Hill's severance, $ 341, 000. They paid another $ 379, 000 for the investigation into Crystal Hill, which didn't turn up anything, apparently. There were no action items. They did not fire her for cause. They fired her for convenience, why they had to pay out the severance. Don't know if she signed a nondisclosure agreement as part of that deal. But that puts the price tag at $ 720, 000, minimum. just for those two line items. Now you've got to go hire somebody, some outside firm, to do a search for a new candidate. So, all right, last night, let me get back to some of these audio clips, because I stayed up late pulling them, and by golly, you're going to hear them. Cynthia Stone, she's a member of the minority bloc, one of the four. She said she avoids the media like the plague, so she hasn't been the one talking to media, and she voiced her public support for Superintendent Crystal Hill. for the children, cut six. I came on this board as a retired educator with also 20 years in corporate experience, and I expected certain behaviors, certain rules of engagement, procedures, and policies to be followed. This experience has challenged every preconceived conception I had about how operations and business public office operates. Probably not for the better. I I think our board's overall effectiveness has been seriously impacted by many organizational changes that were made back in January and February. And I voted in favor of these changes, and I'm talking about the board staff. With the understanding that board leadership had developed a clear path forward, but that's not proved to be the case. We have a weakened and collapsing board structure, and that's very frightening. A collapsing board structure. This is a woman who comes out of corporate America. She looks at this stuff and is like, this is a poop show. She also said she has direct knowledge of the superintendent's plan to put more than $ 4 million into the budget for teacher pay raises. But then she said that money was not in Hill's budget. because she had been instructed to leave it out for the children. Cut seven. We've got non-compliance grievances. We've got SBI. We've got an audit coming from our state auditor. Just seems to me the wrong time to change horses. Just seems to me that what we are doing is creating our own problems. That's all I can say. I know what everybody else is going to say, but I'm very concerned about where we are and the actions we're taking right now. Yeah, I agree. They're not making things better. You firing the superintendent and having the chair step down amid an SBI referral and a state auditor probe, that's not going to make this go away. They're going to look into what has already been done. Then Shamae Haynes, one of the majority block, she then speaks again, this time in defense of Stephanie Sneed, the former chair who just stepped down, and how she's being deprived of due process for the children. Cutty. When I received emails about the removal of our chair, I was alarmed because I had not received a phone call about those things. And it wasn't just that I didn't receive the phone call. It was the fact that here it is. We have toyed for weeks and weeks and weeks trying to get due process right. Yet, when it came to our board members, chair, allegations, all of these things, we didn't take the time to weigh out what we were looking at. The things that we're speaking of has not been legally reviewed. It has not There's some of these people can say anything about you, and I'm sorry, but no one board member's opinion is going to weigh over mine. This is a democracy. We are supposed to be above making rash decisions and governing as such. And I didn't want to come on this board and serve and not have that discipline. Thank you, and I apologize. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So she's mad. She got an email, not a phone call. I don't know why that matters. Like, Hey, we're, we want to remove the board chair. And then she's complaining that, well, you know, we just did a $ 380, 000 investigation into the superintendent. And, you know, in order to make sure that we gave her due process and all that, then you should do the same for the board chair. Yeah. Slight difference. Um, The board chair is elected by the board. They determine that. The board picks the board chair, number one. Number two, the board chair is not an employee of the district. That position doesn't have protections like an employee would with an employer. So that's the difference. Those are political positions, as you probably well know. All right, for over a year now, you've heard me talking about Create-A-Video, great local company in Mint Hill that has helped more than 2 million families preserve their memories by turning old photos, VHS tapes, film reels, and slides into lasting keepsakes. 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That's the whole statement. So we are monitoring this situation. We are aware of what's happening. We have nothing to say at this time, but we are aware of what's happening, and we care about you. So we are going to keep watching what's happening without saying anything at this time, but we're aware. We're monitoring. Good to know, Chairman Jarrell. Appreciate that. Heads up on that. Don't know what we would have done without your input as such. Next up, school board member Monty Witherspoon, one of the members of the minority block, the four members who are, they don't have enough votes to outvote the five members who fired the superintendent last night. The four members, Monty Witherspoon is one of them. He's an at-large board member. He said he was very concerned by all of this, of course, for the children. Cut nine. This is a sad moment. in the history of CMS. Very sad moment. I think we have some issues. I know we have some issues that are not always obvious at the dais. Quite frankly, this board has spiraled into. Complete chaos. This board is dysfunctional. This board is broken. Point of order, is that germane to the motion? Go ahead. That's a personal attack. It's not a personal attack. The board is broken. I hope that the residents of this county hold this board accountable at every stop and turn I hope that the press continues to ask questions, ask for freedom of. Information. But I have a responsibility that whatever this board decides to do, to work towards a brighter future. for our students. That's why I came on this board to work for student outcomes and be student-centered. And I'm hopeful, I'm prayerful, even as a man of faith, that we'll get back to focusing on our students. But this is, in fact, a very sad day. And I think all of the residents of this county know why. Mm-hmm. It's pretty obvious. By the way, that was Liz Monterey Duvall sniping at him during his comments. Point of order. That's a personal attack. I don't feel safe. Again, just like with the last snipe that we heard from Shemay Haynes, if this is the kind of behavior, if these people are unable to control their emotions during the the statements that each of the board members are making, and you hear something and you get so triggered that you just cannot control your mouth. You have to interject with some point of order, point of order, and this is in public in front of the cameras. I can only imagine. I can only imagine the mountains of poop in that poop show in the closed sessions. And that's what he's alluding to. That's what Cynthia Stone alluded to when she first came on the board and coming out of the corporate sector, and she comes in there thinking she's going to see some board governance of a certain caliber and being completely shocked at the way these people are behaving. Not a surprise, though, as I've been saying. Then Monterey Duvall took another turn at the microphone for the children, cut tent, I just. Want to say that as employers, there's a lot that we can't say. And I just want to put to the public that there's an assumption here that the superintendent didn't want. I just want to put it out there. So we're assuming that that's just the board. I can't speak for her or her employment record, but we're just assuming that this person didn't want it as well. And so I just want to put it out there that there's both sides and we can't say a lot as employers. Yeah, but you kind of did say it, you know, that's the thing. You kind of just did say it. You're saying that Superintendent Crystal Hill wanted to be fired. Okay. Let's go with that. I will accept your point. Crystal Hill wanted the severance. She wanted out as well. Okay. I don't have any problem believing that. Quick follow-up. Why do you think that is? Why do you think that the superintendent... would be interested in getting out of CMS at this point? Could it be related to, I'm just spitballing here, but could it be related to the, like, 200 pages of memos and contracts and email evidence that she dropped last week? Could it be that? Maybe? A little bit related? Just a teensy-weensy little bit? I think it might be. I don't know, to quote Candace Owens. I don't know, but I know no. No, I don't know, but I would suspect it's a pretty hostile work environment at this point, right? You've got five members of the board that are voting in lockstep on all of this stuff, voting to fire her, and one of those board members in that majority block is the chair who you've just basically accused of funneling contracts to a political ally. Outside of regular board approval and outside of superintendent's oversight. And maybe there's some criminality going on to the point where the DA has referred it to the State Bureau of Investigation. Just spitballing. But I'm thinking that might have something to do with it. Maybe she doesn't want any of this stuff to get on her. You know, the poop show you guys are running in the closed sessions at the board level. She might not want any of it on her. A couple more sound bites to get to, then I will get to the texts. We did hear from Stephanie Sneed last night. And she spoke at the very end of the board members' comments. She was the last one to speak. And, of course, she spoke for the children. Cut 11. I know at this time is a time for self-reflection. Yes, for the children. And that self-reflection is... And I've said this in my remarks throughout the year. Are you focusing on students? For the children, right, yes. When you're whispering about things, is that focusing on students? When you are posting on social media, is that about students? Every person has to self-reflect on it, including myself. I know that every decision that I can honestly say is to move the district forward. And the decisions may not be popular. Then they may be hard. Shift work is hard. It might be illegal. But I think it is, again, I don't say I think. I know it is a time for every member of this board to reflect on what have they done? How have they participated? How are they going to help move students forward in the future? So it is an opportunity. It's the beginning of the school year. It's an opportunity for this board to reflect, lean in, carry their weight, and do those things that are for our students. So many platitudes. And that's the most important. And I can't help but to say that the frenzy of the public is shameful. Oh! Oh, okay. So you're to blame. Thank goodness. Okay. Because earlier, they were ripping on the media, and so now it's on you guys. Like us, I am part of the public, too. So we've been shameful for noticing. I regret to inform you all that we have disappointed Stephanie Sneed. What was the part about the whispering about things? What are the whispers about? Is it about cronyism? Corruption? Because I kind of feel like those things probably should be more than whispered about, you know? Cut 12. We don't have to agree about all the things, the things that even that the media reports. It's not as much frenzy about our student outcomes. It's not as much frenzy about how many students receive scholarships. That has to end. So that's my call to action for folks is for that to end. Even if you hate any person's. Guts on this board and do not agree with them, I still think they need to be treated with dignity and respect. I agree with that. To have people threatened. To have people to threaten me that I have to be afraid to walk out my front door, that's not being focused on students. Nobody should have. To endure that. I completely agree. I agree. Nobody should have to endure that. That is completely unacceptable. See, that's an easy thing for me to say because it's a consistent position that I have held No matter who's being threatened, it's always the same position. You should not be threatened with violence because of your political station or political views. It's unacceptable. But I do have to wonder, because as I mentioned earlier, these are all Democrats. So who's doing the threatening here? Is it friends or allies of the minority bloc? threatening members of the majority block. We played the soundbite in the last hour where a school board member of the majority block, Monterey Duvall, she interrupted one of the presentations and was like, I'm being threatened by text message by that guy in the audience right there. So she obviously knows who the person is, and he's sitting in the audience. And then one of them says, oh, Lenora knows him. Lenora Shipp, who is a member of the minority block. So what exactly is it? These are, when you're in a public meeting like this and you get these little peaks, because that's what they are. Because you never see what happens in the closed session. Maybe you hear about it. Somebody may whisper about it, whatever. But if you are there to cover a meeting like this and you're just seeing the meeting, these are the little breadcrumbs. And they indicate a much larger problem going on behind the scenes. And in the old days, when you had a Republican on the board, they would be able to call this stuff out because they're not allied with you and your party, right? They would be aware of the shenanigans going on behind closed doors, and then they would come out and say, this is what the majority is doing. They're engaging in these shenanigans. But we don't have that now. It's all kept internal because it's all about protecting the Democrat brand. You cannot blame any crazy MAGA right-wingers for any of this. You're getting threats from your own party, your own community. She also said that there isn't this much frenzy about student outcomes, which proves that she does not consume conservative media, okay? Because we've been pretty hacked off about student outcomes for a few decades now, okay? A few decades, okay? She then went on to say that every person plays a part in this. Cut 13. Including myself. Including all these cameras that are looking at me. Including every person that's sitting in this room. The work does not just lie with the board. It lies with the community as well and the tone that you set for children. For children. For children. We talk about all the fights that maybe the discipline issues that CMS. Has, that may have. Oh, quick correction there. But look at the adults. Look at the adults. Yeah, yeah, we have been. How can there be an expectation for our students to be different? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, she definitely does not consume conservative media, right? Because, again, these are things that we've been saying for decades. But better late than never. Welcome to the Republicans. All right, from the text line, Trent says, Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools is... Oh, wait, hang on. Oh, this is a very lengthy one. Hang on, hang on, hang on. Okay. What are you expecting with the CMS board... How many times has the school board been in chaos? How often do test scores barely make any improvement or drop? When you have a group of people in leadership on the school board or a superintendent, and they have the same ideology, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and then this is what you get. Mecklenburg County is a political machine. It could care less about the needs of its students or the people of Mecklenburg County. The focus on CMS is not on parents and students. It's on the people in charge. Everyone thinks hiring a new superintendent or putting another Democrat into the school board is going to change and make the schools better. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and getting the same results. We need to get back to reading, writing, and arithmetic. Yes, the three R's. Let me go back to the text line. Lots of text here to get through. And these people are entrusted with our children's future, says Scott. Yeah, kind of, sort of. John says, do you remember the awkward exchange between Superintendent Hill and the board when they were discussing the proposed budget? And she kept saying she would not change her recommendation, and now that all makes sense. Yes, exactly right. It was a bizarre scene that unfolded when the board was asked to vote on the proposed budget, and the board majority said no. And the superintendent was like, well, what exactly are we supposed to do? Like, we've got no direction. And the board chair shut it all down, basically said, stop talking, shut up, we'll discuss it later. And everybody was like, that's so weird. What just happened? Well, now we have an idea of what actually just happened. Richard says, does anybody wonder why the schools are such a shambles? A bunch of mind-numbingly stupid board members, no real leaders there. Yankee Steve says, between CMS board and the Charlotte City Council, this is comedy gold. Gold, I tell you, Jerry, gold. Yes, he's Seinfeld reference. Let me inform you, when you give contracts out to your relatives and friends, if you are a doctor and you refer someone, there is a word for that. It's called a kickback. I'm a frequent texter, and I will buy you dinner if that is not the case with the superintendent of CMS schools. Do you remember me saying this to you a month ago? Yeah, but here's the thing. It may not be the superintendent. It might have been the board chair who went around the superintendent. That's what the superintendent was implying in her memo last week. Have we verified the academic credentials of these thieving morons? Can they spell S-B-I? Steve says everything about them is so contaminating. Tom says CMS reminds us of Mark Twain's quote about the school boards. Yes, I actually... I referenced that very quote at the very beginning of the show. Mark Twain famously said, in the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards. Kevin says, I have a dream. One day our board of education can get their crap together so they can again focus on our children's education. Yeah. Well, this is all for the children, people. This is the beauty of being a school board member. Everything you say, everything you do, you get the automatic built-in slogan of for the children. And that's why you may have caught on to my little snarky joke that I would use before virtually every one of the sound bites, which was for the children. Everything they say and do is for the children. Even the crap show. Seth says, listening to all of this with CMS makes a person wonder how many other districts have corruption going on in them. Doge may need to start auditing school districts. Well, the state auditor is already aware of the situation, so we'll see what he turns up. I've been on deacon boards, etc. Even when we fired a pastor, you don't make that big of a decision to fire the school superintendent on a 5-4 split. Yeah. This is one of the other things. The Charlotte way was always that you hash all of this stuff out in closed session, and then you present a united vote to the public. And they couldn't even get that last night. Um. CMS spent $ 380, 000 investigating Crystal Hill, found no improper conduct, and then fired her, quote-unquote, for convenience. I believe for convenience is also how they chose their accounting procedures, says Corey. Mm-mm, for the children, says Mick. Yeah. Seems that the proverbial poop is hitting the fan, and most are soiled like a goose's diaper, says Bob. Oh, thanks for that visual, Bob. Appreciate it. And let me see. I'll get another one in here. Yeah. Poop show. The only thing these people are teaching students is to not take responsibility for their actions. Yeah. Think of the children. Bored. Think of the children. All right. That'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them, too, and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to ThePeteCalenderShow.com. Again, thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.