BREAKING: CMS documents detail reasons for firing Earnest Winston
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◼️ Board votes 7-2 to fire CMS superintendent
◼️ Says new leader is needed ‘to shore up this district’
◼️ Handling of sexual assault reports, student performance, Ibram Kendi speech cited
◼️ Former administrator Hugh Hattabaugh signed to 14-month contract
by Cristina Bolling
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board voted 7-2 today to end the contract of Superintendent Earnest Winston, effective immediately, and appoint former CMS administrator Hugh Hattabaugh to lead the district as the board searches for its next superintendent.
During the meeting, board members cited the district’s inability to keep students academically on track as a reason for dismissing Winston, an 18-year CMS employee whom they hired in August 2019.
But documents released after the meeting provided a fuller picture of what caused them to dismiss him, showing that the board last month hired an independent investigator to examine Winston’s performance. That investigation by an Asheville law firm cited concerns over Winston’s decision-making and his handling of recent high-profile CMS issues, including the district’s response to reports of sexual assault allegations at Hawthorne Academy high school and a controversial speech by “How to Be an Antiracist” author Ibram Kendi.
In a move toward transparency, the board also released portions of Winston’s performance evaluations, which are normally not available to the public but can be released if the board finds that releasing them “is essential to maintaining the integrity of the board.”
[READ the investigator’s memo and Winston’s performance evaluations.]
Replacements named: CMS chief compliance officer Scott McCully will serve as acting superintendent until April 25, when Hattabaugh will take over. Hattabaugh’s contract with the district ends June 30, 2023, with an annual salary of $265,000.
Winston was fired in what is termed a “termination for convenience,” which grants him a severance of $576,800 — the amount of two years’ salary — over the course of two years, in accordance with his most recent contract, which the school board approved 8-1 in February 2021. Winston wasn’t present at today’s meeting, and his name placard was missing from the dais.
‘I have never fled’: However, in a subsequent email to The Charlotte Observer, Winston wrote:
Leading an organization responsible for educating children through the pandemic has been the ultimate challenge, and one from which I have never fled. No other time in modern public education history have leaders been required to navigate a convergence of factors of such significance.
Mounting concerns: Among the areas of concern in the investigation were:
A finding that an employee interfered with an investigation of reports of sexual abuse at Hawthorne Academy high school.
The fact that Winston and his then-chief of staff, LaTarzia Henry, signed a speaking engagement contract with author Ibram Kendi that didn’t allow for a video of the speech to be publicly released, which is a violation of N.C. public records law. (The speech was later released, but only after it was requested by a school board member, the investigation notes.)
That Winston was slow to make decisions about issues including staffing hires, implementing safety measures and creating a plan to address low-performing schools.
The decision to dismiss Winston was cast by most board members as an unfortunate parting with someone who they felt had worked hard but wasn’t able to achieve what the district needs.
Board chair Elyse Dashew read this statement at the start of the meeting:
We have not arrived here easily. It has been a difficult decision to end the contract with an individual whom we hold in such high regard. Earnest Winston cares deeply for CMS — for our students, our employees and our community, and he has given his all in his 18 years in this district, especially these last three years as superintendent. And he is a good man, and nobody can dispute this. As a new superintendent, he persevered through the cataclysmic Covid-19 pandemic and what has proven to be the most difficult chapter of public education in the history of the United States.
However, we believe that a different leader is needed to shore up this district and place our students on track to achieve high goals in literacy, math and career and college readiness. Student outcomes are what matters most. We are confident this decision is the right one at the right time for the CMS staff, the community and most importantly the students. So while he is not the leader for the future of CMS, we acknowledge his character and his skills and we thank him for his service.
Criticism of removal: Board members Ruby Jones and Thelma Byers-Bailey were the two “no” votes in the motion to terminate Winston’s contract, and there were tense moments as Jones defended Winston.
Jones said:
I see that this has been a spectacle, ramrodded by Elyse Dashew, that was not thoughtful nor aimed to be productive for this district of 74% minority children, and certainly not respectful of this superintendent who has worked arduously during this unusual circumstance.
Unquestionably, this is a rough year for the school district, which is reeling from low test scores caused by pandemic school closings, an increase in school violence and questions over how the district has handled accusations of sexual assault on campuses.
The CMS superintendent post has a history of high turnover. Winston is the fourth superintendent in the last 10 years to last fewer than three years in the job. Winston’s salary was $288,400 a year, plus another $28,000 in transportation allowance and supplemental retirement.
Board members today said they were hopeful Hattabaugh would be a steady hand to lead the district as they look for a new superintendent.
Hattabaugh background: Hattabaugh came to CMS in 2007 as an area superintendent, and he was chief operations officer for CMS from October 2008 through June 2011, when he was named interim superintendent after former superintendent Peter Gorman resigned.
“He’s going to stabilize things for us while we get ready for a search,” Dashew said.
It remains to be seen what the board will look for in its next leader. When hiring Winston, then-board members said they wanted the stability that would come with hiring a veteran of the district, even though Winston had no experience as a principal or advanced degrees in education.
Winston joined CMS as a teacher in 2004 after a career as a newspaper reporter, with his last journalism job being a writer for the Charlotte Observer. He started in education as an English teacher at Vance High School (now called Julius Chambers High School) and rose through the administrative ranks to become CMS chief of staff in 2012. He was named interim superintendent after former superintendent Clayton Wilcox’s suspension and resignation in July 2019, and board members made the appointment permanent a month later.
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Read the documents for yourself:
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Executive editor: Tony Mecia; Managing editor: Cristina Bolling; Contributing editor: Tim Whitmire, CXN Advisory; Contributing photographer/videographer: Kevin Young, The 5 and 2 Project