CMS board member says superintendent Ernest Winston will be expelled WFAE 90.7

Board member Ruby Jones said Monday that superintendent Ernest Winston would leave the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school at the request of most councils.

“He’s leaving at a convenient time – a legal term – for the council, because there’s no reason,” Jones said.

Under a contract approved 8-1 in February 2021, which requires the council to pay Winston a two-year salary, or about $ 577,000. Jones said the council will hold a special meeting Tuesday to vote on the agreement.

Jones said she and three other board members oppose the move, which she said was taken at the request of board chairwoman Elise Dash. Dash did not respond to calls and texts from the WFAE.

Winston will be the fourth superintendent in the last decade to leave CMS without reaching the three-year mark. He was hired in August 2019 after Clayton Wilcox, who was hired on the national wanted list, abruptly resigned for reasons he and the school board agreed not to disclose.

The council should have obtain permission from the state hire Winston with no experience as a director and without a degree. Winston began his career as a journalist, including a reporter for The Charlotte Observer, before becoming a lecturer at CMS in 2004. He moved into the administration and worked closely with four executives before moving on to the job himself. He managed 26 employees as a district ombudsman when he was promoted to senior positions, in charge of approximately 19,000 employees.

Winston had been a warden for less than eight months when COVID-19 closed schools. The pandemic largely determined his leadership, as he and the council made conflicting decisions about how long to keep classes away and then demand masks. The district saw great academic failures when testing resumed in 2021, and in March he acknowledged that the decision to keep classes remote for safety reasons “had academic implications».

Including possession of Winston a surge of weapons in schoolsthat coincided with an outbreak of gun violence in society. CMS reported that this school year there were at least 25 guns on the school grounds, exceeding the previous record of 23 for the full school year. Winston announced plans to require all high school students to carry transparent backpacks to make it harder to deliver weapons to schools, but slowed the plan due to complaints from staff and students and then detection of warning labels at the last minute which may indicate hazardous chemicals in bags. He also initiated body scanners in high schools and a Say Something Program. allowing students to anonymously report dangerous situations.

Controversy over how CMS handles student reports of sexual abuse has also shaken Winston’s time as head. Following current and former students at Myers Park High expressed concern at board meetingsWinston reappointed the director and an operational group was set up look at the processing of such reports. Meanwhile, more controversial reports have surfaced in additional schools and Winston agreed to hire special investigators.

In recent months, the board has worked with consultant A.J. Krebil from the Big City Council on how to achieve better student results. Krebil called on the council to hold Winston and his staff accountable for developing clear, evidence-based improvement strategies.

“Staffing decisions don’t have to be a personal competition, and the conversations to date are more like high school participation in the election of a class president than professional leadership on the topic,‘ How do you get senior executives accountable? ’ Crab? said WFAE in December. “It doesn’t matter if you like the superintendent or not.”

In the spring of 2021, several county commissioners criticized the CMS for allowing it to maintain large racial differences in performance, saying the county had not made clear plans for improvement. At the time, commission chairman George Dunlap specifically reacted to the council’s decision to hire Winston without the traditional preparation for the job. Dunlap Said Charlotte-Mecklenburg to another political cactus in May, that board appointed Winston superintendent, “if no one else comes to CMS.”

Winston, the second black head of the county, was also known for his stance on racial justice and the need to fight institutional racism directly. After George Floyd was killed by police in the summer of 2020, Winston sent a message to the staff stating that the district should “actively fight racism and resist it”. He started the 2020 school year from the video urging teachers to oppose institutional racism. While controversy has erupted across the country over how schools address institutional racism, Winston has hired anti-racism author Ibrahim X. Candy talk to the CMS 2021 Summer Leadership Institutea move that provoked criticism from Republican legislative leaders in the Role.

Winston currently earns $ 288,400 a year, plus another $ 28,000 for vehicles and additional retirement.

The last CMS superintendent to stay for more than three years was Peter Gorman, who resigned only after his five-year term in 2011. Gorman left to get a job in private industry.

The council called an intermediate term of one year and conducted a national search that led to the hiring of Heath Morrison in 2012. Morrison came from Reno, Nevada, a much smaller area. He was named National Superintendent of the Year there, but remained only two years before joining CMS. In November 2014, Morrison resigned from CMS, agreeing that neither he nor the council would talk about the circumstances.

Deputy Superintendent Anne Clark, a longtime CMS employee, intervened to fill the gap for the next 2 and a half years. The council named her head in January 2015, but never gave her the traditional four-year contract. Instead, a heavily divided board embarked on a lengthy national search.

Wilcox started working with CMS in July 2017 and disappeared in August 2019. Once again, the board and the outgoing leader signed an agreement not to disclose the circumstances of the resignation.

The council then quickly proceeded to Winston’s appointment without a search. Council leaders have said they are looking for stability and someone who knows the area.