After a drastic change of leadership, the chairman of the CMS board talks about the search and next steps WFAE 90.7

Less than two weeks after the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board fired superintendent Ernest Winston, chairwoman Elise Dashyu says plans to find the superintendent have yet to come to the fore.

Serious work is likely to take place after the November school board election, she said Thursday. Six of the nine seats are on the ballot.

“You know, I think we can make a plan and be ready to implement it, but to really immerse ourselves in it, it might be wise to wait for someone to be on the board after November,” she said.

Hugh Khattabau, a retired administrator who worked five years with CMS, began working as a temporary worker this week. He announced plans to reorganize administrative and support staff to provide more support to schools.

Dashu says he disagrees that Khatabo cannot be a candidate for a permanent job. She said one of the first steps would be to talk to people about what they want from the next leader.

“I would like to assemble some kind of advisory team,” she said.

Winston is the fourth CMS superintendent to leave in the last 10 years. Two others were forced to resign, and one never signed a long-term contract. It all lasted less than three years.

But Dasha said she doesn’t think it will hurt the district’s chances of getting high-level contenders.

“This is a kind of prize district where you have to come to work,” she said. “It’s just seen as a real innovator, and Charlotte is a great place to live.”

Dash said the outflow of leadership is common in large areas, especially after the pandemic hit. She said she joined the executive committee of the Great City School in January, and four of the six heads of the committee resigned.

Khatabau’s immediate tasks include personnel changes and work with the council get an approved budget and complete this school year.

But two more big projects are waiting. One of them is preparing to vote on school bonds in 2023. Dasha says he can’t wait, so the district needs to start updating the list of priorities for construction and reconstruction projects in the near future.

The second examines the student assignment, which is one of the most contentious tasks any district can undertake.

CMS board policy requires a comprehensive review of student assignments every six years. Before leaving work on April 1, superintendent aide Akeshya Craven-Howell said it was a year.

Deschamps and chief operating officer Brian Schultz, who oversees the students ’assignment, say the details have yet to be determined.

“I believe we will go ahead and do a comprehensive review,” Dash said. “I doubt it will be as dramatic as what we did last time. I don’t think it’s healthy to just completely shake things up and invent things every six years.”

The last comprehensive review, which lasted almost four years, led to a complex new system of priorities for admission and attempts to diversify all schools according to socio-economic status. At Tuesday’s meeting, chief accountant Frank Barnes told the board that the maps on which the tags are based have not yet been updated with the 2020 census.

CMS is currently working on boundaries and magnetic plans for schools under construction or repurposed with bonds approved in 2017.