A version of the following article appeared in the Wednesday, September 23, 2026, edition of The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with local business-y news and insights for Charlotte, N.C.
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A month before Tuesday’s CMS leadership shake-up, emails showed concerns building; Sneed looked to $1M in city money for reimbursement of contractor
Several CMS leaders under scrutiny include new school board chair Gregory “Dee” Rankin (left) and former chair Stephanie Sneed, seen with consultant Raki McGregor in April 2025 (photo: Dee Rankin on Instagram); and Superintendent Crystal Hill, who was fired Tuesday (photo courtesy of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools)
by Tony Mecia
On Aug. 12, her first full day back at work after two months on paid leave, Superintendent Crystal Hill received a troubling email from CMS’ chief financial officer, Kelly Kluttz.
At 2:06 p.m., Kluttz forwarded an email thread between her and board chair Stephanie Sneed, in which Kluttz had told Sneed earlier that day that she couldn’t process a payment to law firm Poyner Spruill because she was “unable to locate a contract and an associated purchase order supporting the expenditure.”
Sneed, who had checked on the status of the $30,000 invoice the day before, replied to Kluttz that she “did not know you did [not] have the necessary documentation” and would check with CMS lawyers.
Kluttz forwarded the email exchange to Hill and wrote: “Welcome back. Just keeping you in the loop.”
The decisions that led up to those discussions from mid-August now appear to be the focus of a criminal investigation into CMS’ hiring and paying a law firm earlier this year for work on a project to build affordable housing for teachers and to conduct a human resources and finance compliance assessment.
The CMS saga took another big and unexpected twist on Tuesday, when Sneed announced she was stepping down as school board chair and the board voted 5-4 to fire Hill.
The leadership shake-up comes less than a week after a memo from Hill to the school board suggested that Hill and many board members knew little about the arrangements with the law firm, including its $30,000-a-month hiring of a subcontractor, Raki McGregor, at CMS’ expense. McGregor is a former CMS contractor and Sneed ally who was a member of Hill’s leadership team until last year.
The emails among CMS leaders, which were contained in more than 200 pages of exhibits in Hill’s memo last week, explain some of the thinking as it dawned on senior CMS staff and board members that they might have a problem.
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