The poop show that is Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools | Hour 2

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So blood for oil, people. blood for oil visit wbt.com for locations and details all righty so as i mentioned in the last hour uh i was up very late last night uh slaving over a uh a hot computer uh editing audio after monitoring the charlotte mecklenburg school board meeting i do it so you don't have to because i am a giver So let's start with some of the audio. And Nick, back in the studio, will be firing these sound bites. This is school board member, District 1 school board member, Charlita Hatch, who made the motion to remove the superintendent, Crystal Hill, for the children, of course. Cut one. I think that there has been a lot of distractions that have been in the media, in the news. And I think that this board... This needs to take a stand to say enough is enough. We need to have bold changes in order to refocus on what matters in the media, in the news, in the group chats, and wherever it is. And that's on our students. And this is the step that we need to take in order to eliminate the distractions. Yeah, see, this is the media's fault. There isn't anything to see here. This is... It's all just a distraction. See? And if we just fire the superintendent after we put her on two months of paid leave while we investigated her and then put her back on the job because the investigation didn't turn up anything and then we turn around and fire her and the school board chairwoman, Stephanie Sneed, resigns her post, stays on the board, obviously, but steps down as chair because she is... implicated by the superintendent for potential contract cronyism and corruption. See, these are just distractions. If we just get rid of these two people, well, I mean, not Snead, she's staying on the board, but she's not going to be chair anymore. The superintendent, she's out. And so this is all just distraction ginned up by the media. It's our fault. It's our fault for noticing, you see. It's not that the board did anything. It's not that the board is dysfunctional. It's not that the board members have been engaged in activities that maybe crossed a line here or there. No, no, no. It's our fault for noticing and wondering, huh, why is this happening? Should you be doing that? That doesn't sound legal. Stuff like that. My bad. As a member of the media, mea culpa. Mea culpa, Charlita. Next up, The new... So, all right. Stephanie Sneed resigned in apparently a closed session, so we didn't see any of that happen. She resigns as chair. They apparently then elevate the vice chair, Dee Rankin. They elevate him to chair. So he came out of the closed session chairing the meeting. That was my first guess that he was now the chair. They were calling him Mr. Chairman. So he's now chairing. Well, now you need a new vice chair. Okay. Well... They elected, in a 5-4 vote, Liz Monterey Duvall, one of the at-large school board members. She also gave a very brief 30-second statement, again, for the children. Cut to. I think the next 90 days will be crucial as we work to rebuild trust and strengthen our organization. I don't want us to mistake organizational challenges for institutional failure. CMS is still doing important work. And we remain on a trajectory of progress. Our greatest infrastructure has always been our people, our educators, staff, students, families, partners, and community, and that foundation remains strong. We have challenges to address, but we also have progress to protect and build upon. Thank you. Yes, this is the trajectory of progress, people. Don't you recognize it? This is what progress looks like to us. Liz Monterey Duvall. And then there is District 2 Representative Shamae Haynes. She gave a defense of Stephanie Sneed, who selflessly stepped aside amid the allegations and investigations into cronyism and corruption for the children. Cut three. We, I, have had to make an incredibly difficult decision tonight. But that decision was not made in haste. It was a decision that was made in order to help us to move forward. A call was made for our chair to step down. We clearly are willing to make leadership changes where needed. Our Our chair voluntarily resigned because she understood how difficult it might be perhaps to move forward. And so she made that sacrifice. And I'm grateful for your leadership and your ability to think more about this board and not just about yourself. What was that vote, by the way? And likewise. What would have. Been that vote? We want to move forward. I personally want to. be able to have a strong relationship, and I'm only speaking for myself as a board member, a strong relationship with our superintendent, a strong relationship with my fellow board members. It's going to be a hard road ahead. We know that this vote was a 5-4 vote, but also it gives us a basis and a place of strength to move ahead and to move forward if we so choose to. I'm ready to work. I'm willing to do what it takes for us to become a unified voice again and for us to rebuild and for us also to give affirmation to our community that we're serious about children and families, that we care, and that when hard choices have to be made, even when we have to sacrifice ourselves, our positions, our standing, sometimes we're willing to do that in these crucial moments, I hope that these hard decisions are a strong sign to the community that we are very serious. Yes. Totally serious. And I'll end with this. Our chair has been convicted in the court of the public. And What I'm hoping for also is that we can get some closure to all of the questions, to the looming concerns, and we can just move forward as a board. And even as we're going through these rough channels, we have a strong commitment to move ahead. Thank you. All righty. So you feeling confident, everybody? Feeling confident in the board? Look, they're willing to sacrifice. I mean, they're not willing to do it in public. Whatever happened in that closed session when Snead resigned, I don't know what that vote whip was. I have no idea. The 5-4 vote was to remove Crystal Hill. That's a split board. And all throughout the evening, on all the different votes, it was always 5-4. Almost always 5-4. You've got two blocks on the school board. One making up five members, one making up four. So Snead resigning, was there somebody in the majority block of five? that was going to flip and go over to the block of four and turn that into the majority? We don't know. It all happened in closed session. But she selflessly sacrificed herself for the children, for the good of the board. Yes. You ready to move forward now? Thank goodness. Let's all just move on. Let's move forward. Let's put this all behind us. We don't need to focus anymore on any of this stuff. It's all just a distraction, right? which is exactly what you would want people to believe if you think that there's some stuff that could come out and hurt your majority. Because you've got one block of Charlita Hatch, Stephanie Sneed, Dee Rankin, now the chair, Liz Monterey Duvall, the new vice chair, and Shamae Haynes. That's the first block. What does the second block, the minority block, what do they think about all of this? Well. They're concerned, to say the least. We'll take a listen to it momentarily. 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. Now, Create-A-Video is helping families and groups... Create brand new memories while they're traveling. 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Check out GroupTravelVideos.com. That's GroupTravelVideos.com. Or call 704-846-7870, extension 206. And when you do that, ask for Katie. But Pete, can I just email? Well, yes, you can. You can email Katie. Katie at GroupTravelVideos.com. Group Travel Videos. From old memories to new adventures. Preserving life's moments for a lifetime. From the text line, Gary says what the school board member needs to call for is full transparency. That's what the public needs for trust. But they want to move on without transparency. From the outside, it looks like the investigation into the former school superintendent was to silence a black woman in power. Then they fired the black woman in power because she was going to whistleblow on the other black woman in power, engaging in corruption. Yeah, this is, again, I point out, nary a Republican to be found, okay? There are no Republicans on that board. And the majority of them are black Democrats. So this is all internal. All of this fighting is all Democrat on Democrat. It's hot D on D action there. OK, that's what's happening. But we don't know all of the personality conflicts and all of that stuff because you've got one party control. So all of this stuff happens internally in the Democrat Party. This is the problem with one party control. So I mentioned the first voting block. It's got five members. That gives them the majority. Stephanie Sneed, Dee Rankin, now the chair. Liz Monterey Duvall, now the new vice chair. Shamae Haynes, District 2. And Charlita Hatch, District 1. The other voting block. Cynthia Stone, District 5. Monty Witherspoon, at large. Anna London, District 6. And Lenora Shipp, at large. There are only four of those members. Lenora Shipp, you'll recall last week, was accused by former Black political caucus leader Colette Forrest of vying for the chairmanship. She wanted to be chair. She wants to be chair. That's what Forrest alleged. Shipp last night said she's worried about other departures from this administration now for, obviously, the children. Cut four. You know, in moments like this, I have to return to my why. Our children, their future, the quality of their education, and most important, the work we entrusted to do. For more than 35 years, see, I've served in Charlotte-McLeod schools as a teacher, an assistant principal, and a principal. And for the past seven years, I've had the privilege of serving on the Board of Education. I understand this work. I understand the responsibilities that come with this seat. And I understand what is at stake for our students and our community. I have been here for a superintendent that was terminated. And I know what that means when we do this. And so doing this, are we really thinking about our children, our community, our families? Because there's going to be a lot that we're going to have to do to ensure that this work continues. We have several cabinet staff that will also be leaving. It's going to be tough. It can set us back for the work that we have started moving forward with, improving student achievement. I'm very concerned. And to do this at this time, in this moment, I question, do we really have children In the center of all that we're doing. Yes. I didn't. Point of order. Excuse me. Excuse me. All right. So did you hear what happened there? That was Shemay Haynes who interjected. And then Monty Witherspoon, part of the minority bloc, he jumped on it with a point of order. Right. That kind of sniping like that. That is, in my estimation, in my experience, that is a bit of a peek. into the inner workings of the board. Those kinds of interactions that happen in the public, that's minor. But it is a peek into what must be going on in closed sessions, behind the scenes. It's an indication of the dysfunction. When you cannot even allow a fellow board member to make a statement like she was making, like, are we really doing this? Are we keeping the kids at the center of this? Oh, yes, we are. Like, you cannot even control your emotional outburst in public, on camera. What must be going on behind the scenes? Let's jump over and chat with Jeff. Hello, Jeff. Welcome to the program. Quick reminder, I am on location, so we're going to have a bit of a delay. Okay, so how are you, Jeff? It's okay. I'm doing great. Hey, thanks for taking my call. Sure. Hey, on the Charlotte Mecklenburg School thing, I don't have school-age kids anymore. So for me, this is just pure entertainment. It's like a front row seat at the comedy club. But, you know, looking at this, you're a journalist. If you are trying to write a fictionalized account, something that goes on that's just absurd. I don't know what else you could add to this scenario that would make it qualify for reality. I have something else I could add. Actually, it got added last night. How about threatening text messages from a member in the audience to a school board member during the meeting? How about that? Okay. Well, yeah. Hey, that's good to know. Yeah. Well, Hey, um, that adds something to the list for the SBI to investigate. So, yeah, but, uh, yeah. But my other comment was, um, I really don't hold a lot of trust, um, in, uh, uh, Roy Stein's SBI to, uh, investigate this whole situation and come up with any charges. I think it'll die quietly and then we'll just be left with, at least we have the hearken back to the Dre Robinson days of it's all for the children. The children, exactly. Yeah. Jeff, I appreciate the call, sir. Thank you so much. And look, I think I'm not willing to say at this point whether or not the SBI is going to come up with charges, because I don't know, right? And I have to have some bit of faith that the investigators are going to do their jobs, and if they find evidence, that they will then press charges. And I remember people not having confidence in not only the Democrat primary voters to knock out Tijuana Brown, and they did that, They unseated her from Charlotte City Council after she had been federally charged. And then I remember people saying, oh, she won't get any prison time. And then she did. She got 10 months in prison at her sentencing yesterday. So we just don't know how this stuff plays out. We have to wait and see. I did see this. Thank you, John, forwarded this over. I believe this is going to be off of the Facebook. Tijuana Brown posted up, today I had court. I was sentenced to 10 months in federal prison. My beautiful daughters received probation. These are all exclamation points. That's why I'm reading it like that. God is still in control. The judge wasn't fair. Oh, this is never a good idea. Never a good idea to start attacking a judge in your own case. Just free bit of advice to the formerly and futurely incarcerated Tijuana Brown. The judge wasn't fair and tried to divide me and my daughters. How do we sign a plea agreement for probation? And then he chose to give me an active sentence in prison for 10 months. Well, just because you and the prosecutors... agree to a plea agreement doesn't mean the judge has to accept it. That's what makes him the judge. He is the one who orders the sentence, not the prosecutors. They ask for a sentence, but they don't always get the sentence. Like, for example, if they were asking for 10 months and the judge gave you probation, then you would have no problem with the judge accepting not following the terms of the plea agreement, right? That's just what the two parties have agreed to accept. But the judge does not have to accept those terms. And so he gave you 10 months. She says, criminal justice system, you fail black women and men everywhere, every day. We will be ordering those court transcripts. Hashtag strong black women, hashtag the people's champ. This is a personality disorder, okay? The criminal justice system, if it failed you by giving you 10 months, and therefore it failed all black women, how do you explain the probation that your two black daughters received? They got probation. It didn't fail them, right? They got probation. See, here's the key. They didn't have prior records, including... Fraud. You, on the other hand, you did. You committed fraud before. So, you got a sentence of prison time. Also, that you were an elected leader at the time, and judges tend to, not always, but tend to try to make an example out of people who have the public trust, like an elected official. When you violate that public trust, there is harm just beyond you and your victim. It goes beyond that. It undermines people's confidence in the institutions. And so the judge, I would say, rightfully recognized the harm that you caused across a large swath of institutions. Hence, 10 months in federal prison. How much time I got? I got time. Let's go back to the audio clips here, Nicholas. Charlita Hatch. part of the majority block on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board. When Lenora Shipp was talking about all of the exodus that they're seeing now, they've got like, I don't know, half a dozen of the executive leadership team that's all turned in their resignations. They're all quitting. So now you not only have to hire a superintendent, you've got to hire all this other staff. And Charlita Hatch is like, no, no, no, no, no. Look, we have tons of leaders in the district, and they are going to get us through this. for the children, obviously. Cut five. I think we have to remember that the board has three roles. It is a governance role, it is an employer role, and it is a quasi-judicial role. And we're operating as employers. We have to look at the behaviors that we are. Incenting as an employer. Incentivizing. If a principal, which many of them have been, were suspended and came back in the media from what we have seen for weeks, what we are saying as a board is that that is okay. And that is what we expect. Our job as board members are to set the conditions and the culture for the district, not for an employee, but for the district. And it is under my ability and my view that as an employer and as a leader in this community, And the children are watching. My child is watching. That I want to say that what you're seeing in Washington is not acceptable here in Charlotte. And so we are making a decision to. Say that we need bold leadership changes, a reset across the board. Right. Yeah. Okay. So not the kind of leadership and bold changes across the board that say would knock out the vice chair, but rather one that would elevate that vice chair because he's part of the majority bloc. and elevates another member of the majority block, Liz Monterey DeVault, to be the new vice chair, and to allow the now former chair to remain on the board as part of your majority block. That kind of reset. That's the kind of reset that Charlita Hatch, I guess, is talking about. And when raising the issue of the culture for CMS, the kind of culture they're trying to incentivize, is the word there, I guess the culture would be that if you identify some potential corruption and some leader going outside of the lines, let's say, when doing contracts and the like, that when you blow that whistle, you'll get fired. That's the kind of culture, I guess, that the board majority, the five members of the majority block, that apparently is the culture that they would very much like to uh, have, uh, you know, promulgate throughout the, uh, the district. What could go wrong? Sounds like a recipe for success. As I mentioned, uh, earlier, uh, there was a bit of a disruption later on in the meeting and, uh, Nick, I'm going to jump ahead here to clip 14. Um, because this did happen. I'm not sure I've seen it being reported anywhere else. Cause I think a lot of reporters, uh, were gone by the time this happened. Um, They were doing a presentation about bus scheduling and stuff like that, making some changes on some bus routes and that sort of thing. And board member Liz Monterey Duvall interrupted the presentation, screaming that she was being threatened. This is cut 14. Why changes are necessary to maintain reliable and sustainable transportation services. Point of order, I'm getting threatened by text here. Somebody said that they can show me better than I can tell you. I would like them escorted or I will leave. That gentleman right there is texting me and he's bullying me and he's threatening me. I don't feel safe. If he can please leave, thank you. But you know who's sending you the text? He said, you think it's funny, but I know everything and the truth is coming out. I can show you better than I can tell you. I don't know what that means. I feel very unsafe. I don't know what he's going to show me. Oh. I feel scared. Wait for it. What was that? Lenora knows him? That's Lenora's ship. That's one of the members of the minority block. So this is somebody who is an ally of the minority board members, the minority block board members, that is sending a text message to a member of the majority block members saying, it's all going to come out. I can show you better than I can tell you. And she says that's a threat. And you can't really hear it there. But as they apparently, the police went over and were escorting this guy out. And you could hear somebody screaming, shut the bleep up. Except they did not say bleep. I'm bleeping that. Again, if this is what's occurring in the public meetings, I can only imagine the kind of stuff going on in the closed sessions. I told this story briefly the other day. 25 years ago or 20 years ago, a superintendent at the time had to be physically restrained from climbing over a table to assault a school board member. This dysfunction in CMS is not new. This is par for the course, unfortunately. All right, over on the text line. Danny says, where are all of the CMS teachers that went to Raleigh on Commie Day to protest, screaming and yelling about their wages while their very own board squanders a quarter of a million to a million dollars on scandals? That money could have done a lot for teacher salaries, but not a peep so far. Teachers, please call in. That's a good point. And remember what Superintendent Hill alleged in that memo was that she had earmarked 4.5 million dollars for teacher pay raises and uh board chair sneed somehow or another had that removed that she was told to remove that from her budget that was taken out somehow for the children obviously for the children Beth's favorite Russ says, everything will improve if we can end the distraction of you noticing our incompetence, maladministration, and possibly illegal behavior. Let's just get back to the status quo of keeping everybody in the dark. Yeah. Again, this is all our fault for noticing this stuff. 704 number says, now they get $ 300 million from the state for the... Oh, this is on the. That's on the 77 tolls. This is from the Hellions. Somebody hacked off someone in the CMS kingdom. We may never know exactly what it was. They all sound like they were caught doing something. They do have a bit of that sound to them, don't they? Gary says, what competent administrator would want to work for the poop show that is CMS and that school board? Yeah. See, just like a superintendent may get a reputation as not being good being difficult to work with or whatever so too does a board of ed right cms is earning its reputation and people if they want to even apply for the job maybe for the money or something like all right i'm going to go there but they know they're not going to last long like two three years maybe and then they're going to be forced out somehow um andy says uh since everything is race-based in this case, in most cases in Mecklenburg County, I think it's only fair that we know what race the prosecutors are. Oh, and the Tijuana Brown story, I don't know. Brown is lucky to only get 10 months since she's a repeat offender, said Scott. Rob says she should have gotten at least five years. Chris says, I am so black fatigued right now, and I am black. When Miss Brown gets out, Maybe she can be in charge of the DOT money, says Concord Billy. Don't give us don't give them any ideas. OK. William says, I think Tijuana Brown got off light. There are others in this community that got years of prison time for the same charges with no previous record. She needs to shut up and do her time. Yeah, I mean, it's just never a good idea, ever a good idea. to attack the judge in your own case publicly, especially when he could have dropped an even larger hammer right on your head. 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 the Pete calendar show.com. Again, Thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything while I'm gone.