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Superintendent turns the tables on board chair Stephanie Sneed
◼️ Questions her role in contracts, legal work and payments to a consultant
◼️ Key meeting next week on board leadership
◼️ Says: ‘The Board owes employees and taxpayers an explanation’
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools board chair Stephanie Sneed (left) and Superintendent Crystal Hill appear to have clashed over a number of issues, according to a memo Hill sent to board members this week. (Screenshots from school board meeting on YouTube)
by Tony Mecia
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Crystal Hill has laid out a series of concerns about several CMS board members in a blockbuster 14-page memo she sent to the board on Wednesday.
The memo, which was accompanied by more than 200 pages of exhibits, was obtained by The Ledger on Wednesday, and it lays out a series of new behind-the-scenes facts from Hill’s point of view. It contains a 68-point timeline of events from 2024 to last week regarding CMS contracting and spending, under-the-radar decisions and her own suspension and reinstatement this summer.
It depicts board chair Stephanie Sneed as operating behind the superintendent’s back — and perhaps without the knowledge of her board colleagues — to hire law firms and to direct CMS staff who report to Hill.
CMS records show one of the law firms, Raleigh-based Poyner Spruill, billed CMS for $30,000 a month for six months for consulting services performed by subcontractor and Sneed ally Raki McGregor. Hill depicts McGregor as being a factor in her soured relationship with Sneed after she refused to renew his CMS consulting contract in 2025.
The memo provides a fuller explanation than what has previously been disclosed about why Hill and board members had a falling out that led to her being placed on paid leave in June.
In the memo, Hill says there is a lot she does not understand about the turn of events that led to the board’s hiring of law firms and the involvement of McGregor, who is said to be a personal friend of Sneed’s and who has traveled with her to out-of-town education conferences.
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