CMS fires Superintendent Earnest Winston
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education voted 7-2 on Tuesday to end the employment of Earnest Winston, effective immediately.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education voted Tuesday to terminate the employment contract of Superintendent Earnest Winston, effective immediately.
Since the school district decided to terminate Winston "for convenience," he will be paid a severance of about $24,000 per month for the next two years, as required by his contract. That total amount of about $576,000 is the equivalent of two years of full pay for the outgoing superintendent.
"Ernest 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," CMS Board of Education Chairperson Elyse Dashew said during the emergency meeting Tuesday. "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 matter most.
Board members voted 7-2 to terminate Winston's employment agreement. District 3's Dr. Ruby Jones and vice-chairperson Thelma Byers-Bailey voted against the motion.
"Earnest gave us his best," Byers-Bailey said.
Jones accused Dashew of orchestrating and "ramrodding" this.
Winston was named superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools on Aug. 2, 2019, following the suspension and resignation of Clayton Wilcox that same year.
Winston's current employment contract, which was extended in February 2021, was set to continue until June 2025.
Contact Shamarria Morrison at smorrison@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Tensions within the school district
INTERNAL CMS TENSIONS
Documents released Tuesday, alongside emails previously obtained by WCNC Charlotte, show growing concerns about Winston's communication and leadership over recent months.
"We are struggling in [communicating] even the simplest things to the public, to our teachers/staff and to our families," an unidentified school board member wrote on Winston's 2020 employment evaluation, which was released Tuesday as part of his termination.
His evaluation shows board members gave the former journalist average scores of around 2 out of 4, considered "developing," when it comes to communication and community relations.
"Communication with the public seems to continue to be a work in progress," an unidentified board member wrote.
Concerns had also been raised in other areas, including school safety and how the superintendent and school district responded to reported sexual assaults on campus.
Next steps for CMS
ACTING AND INTERIM SUPERINTENDENTS
The CMS board voted in favor of Scott McCully, the first chief compliance officer for CMS, to serve as acting superintendent for the remainder of the week.
Former CMS interim superintendent, Hugh Hattabaugh, will return to act as interim superintendent again starting Monday, April 25 and will be in place no later than June 30, 2023.
The WCNC Charlotte Verify team checked and Hattabaugh meets the requirements for an interim superintendent. Article 18 of North Carolina law requires interim superintendents to have the same educational requirements as full-term superintendents.
All superintendents are expected to have previous experience in North Carolina public schools in leadership, management, or administrative role.
Hattabaugh served as superintendent of CMS in 2011 and 2012.
History of CMS superintendents
In the past 10 years, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has had five different superintendents.
Heath Morrison
From 2012 through 2014, Heath Morrison held the CMS top office following the departure of Hattabaugh. Making a base salary of $288,000, he unexpectedly resigned claiming he needed to care for his ailing mother after an internal CMS report recommended his termination. CMS paid his compensation and benefits through his resignation date, as outlined in his contract.
Ann Clark
Upon the resignation of Morrison in 2014, Ann Clark was named interim superintendent for the district. She made an annual base salary of $262,000 before retiring in 2016.
Clayton Wilcox
When Clayton Wilcox became superintendent in 2016, he was making a base salary of $280,000 a year. By the time he resigned in 2019, his salary had increased to $307,000. He was paid compensation and benefits through his resignation date.
Earnest Winston
Earnest Winston started with a base salary of $280,000 when he became superintendent in 2019. As of his most recent contract, he is making a base salary of $288,400.
Upon his termination Tuesday, he will be paid a severance of $24,000 a month for the next 24 months.
Contact Jesse Pierre at jpierrepet@wcnc.com or follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Earnest Winston's history, response
EARNEST WINSTON'S WORK HISTORY
A review of Winston's personnel records shows his career growth and promotion in the district over the years.
MORE ON WCNC: Faced with hundreds of staff shortages amid COVID surge, CMS school board meets for first time this year
The school district first hired the former Charlotte Observer reporter in 2004 as an English teacher at Vance High School, which today is known as Julius L. Chambers High School. At the time, Winston's salary was roughly $37,000. He taught journalism and served as an adviser to the school newspaper.
Just two years later, Winston moved from the classroom to administration as an external communications supervisor. By 2008, his salary had almost doubled to about $73,000 after his promotion to executive coordinator/communications liaison for the then-chief operating officer.
Four years later, records show Winston received another promotion to chief of staff which came with a nearly $60,000 raise. He was now making about $130,000 a year.
In 2017, after five more years, the superintendent promoted Winston to chief community relations and engagement officer/ombudsman. At the time, his salary was $175,000. It was raised $10,000 more in the years after due to annual increases.
He was chosen as superintendent in 2019 after the resignation of Wilcox.
As of his most recent contract, Winston was set to make an annual salary of $288,400.
STATEMENT FROM EARNEST WINSTON
Following the announcement of his employment termination, Winston released the following statement:
It has been my honor to lead Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) the past two and a half years.
When the Board of Education asked me to serve as superintendent of CMS in July of 2019, I considered it the ultimate call to service. I accepted the call and made it my commitment to prioritize students and their needs above all else in every decision that I would make.
In my role as superintendent, I have witnessed the tireless dedication and hard work of countless leaders at every level in this organization. I have seen strong leadership demonstrated throughout CMS during a period in which our community, our state, our country and the world have changed more rapidly than in almost any in history.
I particularly salute the extraordinary work of our teachers. Their commitment in responding to and recovering from the pandemic is unmatched. Our educators rose to the challenge of serving our learners.
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.
My intention as a leader has always been to lead with integrity, compassion and gratitude. As I reflect on my time as superintendent, my best leadership lessons have come from students. They have demonstrated extreme resilience during uncertain times, the power of honest feedback and courage to ask for the help they need.
They have asked for support for their mental well-being. Now more than ever, our children need us to give them what they have asked for, what they need: support for their overall psychological well-being.
COVID-19 has forced us to prioritize what is most important. Grades, test results, and academic performance is a one-dimensional view of what it means to educate children who have survived a pandemic in the 21st century. Our children’s mental health and well-being should be the priority.
Only when we can reach them, can we teach them.
So, I end my service as superintendent the way I began it—centering student needs. I will continue to be an advocate for young people, an active and engaged parent in CMS and a staunch supporter of public education.
WINSTON'S CONTRACT
If Winston had chosen to resign, the school district would only have owed him his salary through his last day of work, according to his contract. Since Winston was terminated from his employment, his contract dictates he gets paid for 24 months or through the remainder of his contract, whichever is less. In this scenario, it is the former.
A clause in Winston's contract forbids him from appealing the board's decision upon termination. The contract also allows the board to release documentation, including Winston's previous employment reviews, upon his termination. The district released those documentations Tuesdays.
Issues facing the board of education
ISSUES FACING CMS
During his time as superintendent, Winston has faced some high-profile issues.
In February 2020, Winston announced the district would be severing its agreement with Cetegix, the company hired under the previous superintendent to install a new crisis-alert system through schools.
"We did not get, and will not get, what we were promised and what we paid for," Winston said at the time.
The district said it would not pay the remaining $600,000 due to Cetegix.
In December 2020, Mecklenburg County leaders approved an additional $4.6 million for an updated security plan for the district.
At the same time, the district was juggling the complexities of virtual learning implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the students in CMS attended remote learning until the start of the school year in August 2021.
That fall, the conversation about guns and weapons on school campuses continued. In November 2021, six students at Hopewell High School were arrested following a large fight at the school. That day, two guns were discovered on campus.
On March 30, students at Hopewell High School became one of seven schools piloting new body scanners. The $1.6-million project at those schools is intended to find guns and other weapons as students enter the school buildings.
A plan to distribute clear backpacks to students is on hold after officials discovered some of the bags contained Proposition 65 warnings. Proposition 65 is a measure California passed in 1986 requiring businesses to show warnings if their products have chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive problems.
The clear backpacks cost the school district nearly $500,000.
In the past months, the district has also been criticized for its campus security, including the way the district handled reports of sex assaults.
Contact Nate Morabito at nmorabito@wcnc.com and follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
BOARD OF EDUCATION ACCOUNTABILITY
The school board votes on most of the policies for the school districts and employs the superintendent, but it's voters who put the board members in the position of power, and there’s potential for change in the upcoming election.
There are nine Board of Education members, and the six district seats will all be on the November ballot. The six members who fill those seats currently are Thelma Byers-Bailey, Rhonda Cheek, Dr. Ruby M. Jones, Carol Sawyer, Margaret Marshall and Sean Strain.
“I think your story is actually just confirming what we say, all elections are important. Get out and vote,” Mecklenburg County Director of Elections Michael Dickerson said.
Board of Education members serve a four-year term, and there are no term limits, which means all six current board members could potentially run for their seats again. But it’s a non-partisan race which means it doesn’t require a primary, so the filing period doesn’t open until July 25.
“Since filing has started yet for any of these folks, I do not know, none of us know, if they’re indeed going to run or not going to run,” Dickerson said.
It also leaves time for people who may not be happy with the decisions made to run for one of the seats. A candidate must be 21 years old, a registered voter and live in the district they want to represent.
“It’s a lot of work,” Dickerson explained. “Not just serving on the school board, but registering and running on the school board, it takes a lot of work to get out and campaign.”
The three at-large members will be on the ballot again in two years.
Dickerson said this really highlights the need for people to research who is on the ballot. Races like these are mixed in with some of the bigger senate races but as experienced on Tuesday, these positions can have more of a direct impact on the community.
Contact Chloe Leshner at cleshner@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
County response
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS REACT
Mecklenburg County Commissioners reacted to the dramatic vote just hours after it was cast.
The board of county commissioners gives millions of dollars from their annual budget to CMS. Last year, commissioners voted to withhold funding until the district provided a measurable plan to close achievement gaps. The two parties later sorted things out in mediation.
"Well I'm not disappointed and I'm not shocked," Commissioner Vilma Leake said. "When you put a man in a job who has no idea what the job is, what success do you expect?"
She and Commissioner Pat Cotham said they agreed with the school board's decision and hope change comes with a more experienced leader.
"I'm always rooting for things to be right and so I hope this is a good thing," Cotham said. "I hope that they really take the time to find the right person."
Leake said she wants to see results and wants the district to understand which programs or methods work in educating kids while providing better outcomes.
"Don't come begging me for money -- show me that it can happen," she said. "I want to see some results immediately. Some changes. You need to go into HR and get busy."
It's not clear if there will be a national search or a local one for a permanent superintendent. Leake gave her opinion on the matter, noting the history CMS has with superintendents.
"I'm not sure you can take anybody from CMS cause they didn't do anything yet," she said. "There's no sugar in that pudding."
Contact Hunter Sáenz at hsaenz@wcnc.com and follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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