Newsletter 2/10: Rift widens at Charlotte Catholic

Plus: Belk to bring workers back to the office; Toppman reviews Three Bone Theatre's 'Mary Jane'; House fire kills 2 in east Charlotte; Uptown shooting; Belichick's girlfriend trolls Atlanta Falcons

Feb 10, 2025

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Meetings with parents last week failed to quell divisions over direction of Catholic school; videos show administrator referring to parents as a ‘culture problem,’ while pastor of Charlotte’s largest Catholic church backs parents

by Cristina Bolling

Frustrations that have been building among some Charlotte Catholic High parents over the school’s leadership and direction escalated last week, despite meetings designed to defuse parents’ concerns about transparency and the direction the school is heading.

It’s a situation that has divided members of the school’s community, with some parents going as far as to withdraw their students, and others remaining in support of the school’s administration and its leadership.

It has also received attention from leaders of the clergy, with the pastor of the largest parish in Charlotte speaking out during Mass on Sunday.

Some parents have been upset over what they call a transparency problem that came to light after an accreditation change made over the summer wasn’t communicated to families. And there have also been concerns that the curriculum is shifting to beef up the school’s Catholic identity in a way that has left some parents worried about other changes that may come in the future.

School administrators held both online and in-person meetings last week to discuss the issues with parents, and while some parents told The Ledger they were grateful for the communication, others said they’re still dissatisfied.

Some parents have seized on an administrator’s comment at a meeting last Monday that a goal of Catholic education is to “help our students get to heaven ultimately” and to “produce good husbands and wives,” and on the principal’s allusion that parents attending a Thursday meeting were part of a “culture problem.”

Charlotte Catholic, near the corner of Johnston Road and N.C. 51 in south Charlotte, is the largest religious school in the Charlotte area. It has about 1,250 students in grades 9-12 and is one of nine schools that is part of Mecklenburg Area Catholic Schools (MACS), which is overseen by the Diocese of Charlotte.

A change.org petition called “MACS Stakeholders Vote of No Confidence - Lori Phillips & Gregory Monroe” had more than 230 signatures as of Sunday evening, calling for a dismissal of the school’s principal and the Catholic school system’s superintendent.

“The lack of transparency, professionalism, and responsiveness to parental concerns jeopardizes the school’s integrity and the quality of education our children receive,” the petition reads.

The accreditation change moved Charlotte Catholic and other schools in Mecklenburg Area Catholic Schools from a widely known international Cognia accreditation to a new Catholic accreditation called Lumen, which is administered by The Catholic University of America.

On Sunday, Father John Allen, the acting pastor of St. Matthew Catholic Church, which is the largest church in the Charlotte diocese, told parishioners from the lectern that he has asked MACS officials “on many occasions” to pursue dual enrollment, and that he has asked that a school board made up of parents, teachers and clergy be “established immediately.”

Allen said he has heard from dozens of parents and teachers over the past 3 ½ weeks and that he has “raised my own voice with yours and have consistently and persistently made requests to the Catholic schools office that all our parents and teachers be heard and respectfully listened to.”

As of Sunday night, a video of Allen’s remarks on the St. Matthew Catholic Church Facebook page had more than 175 comments praising Allen’s remarks and more than 420 “like” or “love” reactions.

‘We missed the mark’: In statements to parents last month and in an online meeting held Monday night to address concerns from parents, Charlotte Catholic leaders apologized for not sharing the accreditation change with parents.

“We missed the mark, the administration did, by not informing you about our accreditation change, which took place July 1. I should have made you aware last spring as we were moving in that direction, and we certainly should have done that during the new school year,” former principal and current president Kurt Telford said during the Monday online meeting.

Contentious meeting: An in-person meeting with parents held Thursday on the campus of Charlotte Catholic became heated, one parent who attended told The Ledger, and a snippet of it became widely shared.

A short video clip from that meeting that made the rounds in text threads and on social media Friday shows Charlotte Catholic Principal Lori Phillips responding to an attendee’s comment about a “culture problem” leaving teachers feeling unappreciated.

“You said you’re telling the teachers that they’re loved, they’re appreciated, but they don’t feel that way. You can say that, but I can tell you, they do not feel that way. There’s a culture problem,” a speaker is heard saying in the video.

Phillips responded: “I agree with you. There is a culture problem.” She paused, then smiled and motioned to the room and said, “There’s a culture problem right here.” The comment was met with loud responses from parents, some of whom can be heard saying “whoa!” “what?” and “wow!”:

This 38-second video that was widely shared on Friday shows Charlotte Catholic Principal Lori Phillips in a meeting Thursday with parents at Charlotte Catholic High School. Phillips is in her second year as principal at Charlotte Catholic.

One parent who attended the meeting and asked to remain anonymous due to the potential for retaliation from other parents, said that the video has been taken out of context. She said the dialogue among parents that led up to the moment in the video was “very uncivil,” and that one man had what she characterized as “a tantrum.”

She added that she is “pleased with the administration and the direction of the school. … Most people I know feel similarly.”

Balancing academics and helping students ‘get to heaven’: In addition to concerns about accreditation, parents have been voicing concerns over curriculum changes such as a newly required philosophy course for 9th-graders and the elimination of an ancient world history course in 9th grade.

The school moved from requiring students to attend Mass during the school day once a month to having students attend once a week, which some parents told The Ledger they worry eats too much into instructional time.

Charlotte Catholic and school district officials have said they plan to keep the school academically rigorous and have said repeatedly that they have been assured that the change in accreditation won’t affect how college admissions officials view applicants from Charlotte Catholic.

In Monday’s online meeting, Phillips, Telford and MACS Superintendent Gregory Monroe answered questions about the reasoning behind the accreditation and curriculum changes and how the school balances its faith and curriculum components.

“You’re either going forward or backwards, and we are going forward, and we have to. We have to adapt to the time. Although keeping with our traditions of our Catholic faith and our mission is … to help our students get to heaven ultimately,” Phillips said in the online meeting.

She continued: “But how we do that? We educate them well. We educate them with the most rigorous and robust curriculum possible. And we want lawyers and doctors and teachers and engineers, but we also want them to be virtuous, and we want them to be good husbands and wives and citizens of the world.”

Parent choices: One parent who asked to remain anonymous to protect his relationships with people at the school said he withdrew his 11th-grader from Charlotte Catholic in the last couple of weeks and sent him to another private school in part because he sensed there is a shift at the school that is “definitely away from education into more of a church.”

He said he worried about weekly Mass taking away from class time and wondered why the new philosophy course is being added when students must already take required theology classes. He said he was concerned over the recent departures of two key teachers in the school’s science department and wondered if more staff would leave.

Some parents, however, told The Ledger that they are grateful for their kids to attend weekly Mass and that they trust the leadership of the school.

“At the end of the day, we’re a Catholic school. The Catholic faith is very important to me. It’s very important to our family. We make sacrifices to send our kids to Catholic school,” said Mary Catherine Surface, who has one student at Charlotte Catholic and three kids currently in the MACS system.

“The Catholic faith is the most important thing for us,” Surface said. “Flowing from that comes academics, extracurriculars and everything else. Putting God first, I think everything else is going to fall into line.”

Cristina Bolling is managing editor of The Ledger: cristina@cltledger.com. A previous version of this article was published online on Friday.

Related Ledger articles:

“Parents demand clarity on Charlotte Catholic’s accreditation” (Jan. 10 🔒)
“Charlotte Catholic apologizes for not communicating accreditation change, but frustration remains” (Jan. 15 🔒)

Belk, after embracing remote work, is ordering employees back to the office

Nearly five years after the Covid pandemic hit, workers in Belk’s corporate office are being called back to the office three days a week, the company confirmed to The Ledger on Friday.

Belk’s office employees largely had been allowed to work remotely since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020. While other companies were making moves to bring employees back to the office, Belk said in 2021 that employees “overwhelmingly” preferred working from home, and that remote work made them more productive and collaborative, The Charlotte Observer reported at the time. Belk said it would attempt to sublease its office building on Tyvola Road, where 1,200 people worked.

Now, though, the company is switching course.

Belk spokeswoman Jessica Rohlik told The Ledger in a statement on Friday: “We’re proud of how our home office associates transferred to remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic and are now excited to bring them back to the office three days a week. We’re looking forward to working together more frequently and enhancing collaboration and productivity amongst all of our talented teams.”

She didn’t elaborate on the reason for the switch. She also declined to say how many workers are now based in Belk’s corporate office and how many are working remotely.

An employee who asked not to be identified said workers were told in meetings last week that the substantial number of workers living outside the Charlotte area have until the end of February to decide whether to move to Charlotte or quit with no severance.

The employee said that for the last two years, Belk workers have had face-to-face interaction at monthly “impact weeks,” three-day periods in which remote employees come to Charlotte at the company’s expense. It is unclear if Belk succeeded in subleasing its building, as demand for office space has been tepid the last few years.

It has been a tumultuous last few years for Belk. It entered and quickly exited bankruptcy protection in 2021, switched CEOs in 2022 and restructured its finances in 2024.

The debate between remote and in-person work has played out across office workplaces since the start of Covid. The tide has moved toward more in-person work, though employers typically offer more flexibility than they did before the pandemic. Many of Charlotte’s largest employers require at least three days a week in the office. —Tony Mecia and Lindsey Banks

🎭 Theater review: ‘Mary Jane’ explores what happens when you give your self up

Ledger arts critic Lawrence Toppman took in Three Bone Theatre’s production of “Mary Jane,” which runs through Feb. 23 at The Arts Factory at West End Studios.

It’s the story of a resilient single mother raising a profoundly ill child in New York City, as she finds support and community through a network of women from diverse backgrounds.

In his review for The Ledger, Toppman writes:

Does suffering have a purpose? Does religious faith make it easier? What kind of joy can Alex find in his limited and certainly brief existence? Yet the play is less concerned with big ideas than with small actions: gauging the importance of a daily seizure, getting around apartment house rules to improve Alex’s view of the city, talking a reluctant boss into letting you work at home when everyone has been ordered back to the office after the pandemic.
Robin Tynes-Miller directs with maximum emphasis on sisterhood: All the women in the cast gather to touch Mary Jane reassuringly from time to time, and we never see Alex himself, though he’s visible in photos from the Broadway production. I can’t help but wonder whether the character has been named Mary Jane because those demure shoes were emblems of childhood for multiple generations, and she has some growing up to do.

Read full "Mary Jane" review

You might be interested in these Charlotte events

Events submitted by readers to The Ledger’s events board:

FEBRUARY 20: “Growing Global Business in South Charlotte panel” at the South Charlotte Partners monthly breakfast, 8-9:30 a.m. at Hestia Rooftop, 14819 Ballantyne Village Way, Charlotte. This event will bring together leaders from various international business chambers and organizations to discuss the opportunities, challenges and resources available for growing global businesses in the region. Tickets are $25 in advance and $35 at the door.

FEBRUARY 26: “Renaissance Voices: The Gesulado Six with Owain Park, Director,” 7:30-8:30 p.m., St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, 115 W. 7th St. The Gesualdo Six is an award-winning British vocal ensemble comprising some of the U.K.’s finest consort singers, Praised for their imaginative programming and impeccable blend, the ensemble has performed at numerous major festivals across the U.K., Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand, and this is their appearance in Charlotte. $30.

FEBRUARY 26: “Crack Up Code,” 7-9 p.m., The Comedy Zone, 900 North Carolina Music Factory Boulevard, B3. Get ready to crack up at Crack Up Code II! This year’s hilarious fundraiser is bringing comedy and technology together once again. Enjoy a night filled with laughter featuring 5 first-time comedians making their debuts. Proceeds benefit the Dottie Rose Foundation, empowering the next generation of women in tech. $46-74.

➡️ List your event on the Ledger events board.

In brief:

2 dead in east Charlotte fire: Two people died in a house fire Saturday morning in east Charlotte, the Charlotte Fire Department said, and a resident and a firefighter were injured. Firefighters were called to Donnefield Drive off Lawyers Road, near Albemarle Road, on Saturday at about 7 a.m. The attempted rescue of occupants was made difficult by “extreme hoarding conditions,” Charlotte Fire said. The cause is under investigation. (Charlotte Fire Department)
Uptown shooting: A person was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries on Saturday after being shot around 3:40 p.m. on South Church Street near Romare Bearden Park. Police have not released details. (WCNC)
Tiered premiums ahead for state health insurance: A state panel took a first step Friday toward setting health insurance premiums for teachers and other state employees based on salaries. Under the plan, higher-earning state employees would pay more than lower-earning employees – a move plan administrators say is needed to keep premiums affordable for the lowest-paid workers and help bridge a gap in the state’s insurance plan, which covers about 750,000 workers, dependents and retirees. (EdNC; The Ledger/NC Health News examined the issue on Friday)
ICE arrests in Charlotte: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents say they are making daily arrests in Charlotte and surrounding areas. ICE’s leader in the Charlotte area says agents are focusing on people who have committed violent crimes and that the agents are not going into churches, schools or other sensitive areas. WSOC’s Joe Bruno accompanied agents one day last week, when they arrested a Honduran man who had been deported twice already and who was arrested by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police last month on charges of assault with a deadly weapon, assault on a female and domestic violence. He had been released from jail before ICE got him. (WSOC)
Apartments come with Tesla use: NoDa apartment complex The Joinery is offering its residents free Tesla rentals and free e-bike and e-scooter use. Residents can get up to 40 hours a month of a Chevrolet Bolt or a Tesla Model 3. (Axios Charlotte)

Loves me some internet, Super Bowl edition: Belichick and girlfriend troll Atlanta Falcons for infamous Super Bowl choke job

From celebrity gossip website TMZ, which spotted UNC Chapel Hill football coach Bill Belichick, 72, with girlfriend Jordon Hudson, 24, on Saturday in New Orleans ahead of Sunday’s Super Bowl:

Bill Belichick and his girlfriend Jordon Hudson are getting their troll on in New Orleans — poking fun at the Atlanta Falcons. … Check out Jordon’s shirt: It’s a Falcons Super Bowl champions tee. …
Bill famously coached the New England Patriots to victory in Super Bowl LI ... with the Pats storming back from a 28-3 deficit to stun the Falcons and win in overtime. …
The troll job runs deeper: Bill interviewed to be the Falcons head coach last year but they passed on him, and now he’s the head coach at the University of North Carolina.

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