CMS Superintendent Crystal Hill Can Return To Work

It wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement. Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board Chair Stephanie Sneed announced Tuesday night that Superintendent Crystal Hill can return to work. Hill has been suspended with pay since June.

In a brief session with reporters, Sneed did not say, however, that Hill has been cleared of any wrong doing. Instead, she said that the investigation by an outside law firm revealed there are problems with Hill that need close supervision by the board.

“We believe with some oversight and discussion, we can do what’s best for the interest of children,” Sneed said.

But Sneed continued to refuse to say specifically what areas need more oversight. And she would not disclose what an outside law firm learned about Hill’s job performance.

Concerns About Hill’s Spending Decisions

WBT has previously reported that the CMS board was concerned about Hill giving lucrative contracts to friends. In one case, she awarded a $500-thousand dollar contract to Christopher Lowder, a man she once worked for in Cabarrus county. He got that money to supposedly coach principals. But one former school board member scoffed at the contract, saying said that working with principals is a job that should be handled by the superintendent herself or and her staff, but not given to an outsider.

The bad blood between the school board and Superintendent Hill became public back in the spring, when board chair Stephanie Sneed publicly rebuked Hill for the proposed CMS budget during a testy exchange and ordered her to make changes. Then, in June, came the suspension with pay.

Sneed told reporters Tuesday night, “the community should trust that we did everything we should do as employers, and that we are obligated to look into allegations when they are serious enough.”

But Sneed will not disclose the specific allegations against Hill. She also refused to say how many on the board voted against Hill’s return. But it was not a unanimous decision.

As for Superintendent Hill, she hasn’t talked, except to say in an earlier statement that she doesn’t know what she did wrong.  But now she can return to work — on a job that pays 340-thousand a year.