The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board today will consider an unprecedented "marriage" with Project LIFT that would let the philanthropy group play a leading role in running eight westside schools.

The group is trying to raise $55 million to improve West Charlotte High and the seven elementary schools that feed into it. If the board approves the agreement Tuesday, Project LIFT would pay the salaries of three administrators charged with crafting turnaround strategies, including the recruitment and reassignment of staff.

Board members voiced a mixture of enthusiasm and wariness Friday, during the first day of a planning retreat.

They'll meet with Project LIFT officials this morning to continue talks.

Member Rhonda Lennon said national investors stand ready to join the effort if CMS endorses the plan: "The eyes of the country are watching us."

Local philanthropic leaders launched the project a year ago, vowing to pump $11 million a year for five years into the struggling schools, which serve mostly African-American and low-income students. They had raised $46 million at the most recent update and hope to have the rest by summer. The LIFT schools have struggled with low academic performance, and only 54 percent of west Charlotte's students graduated on time last year.

Interim Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh urged the board to approve the proposed contract, which would result in Project LIFT Executive Director Denise Watts moving into a newly created zone superintendent's post overseeing the eight schools. She and two other administrators would be CMS employees, with their salaries paid by private money. Details about the other two employees were not released Friday.

Watts, a former CMS principal, was a zone superintendent making just under $135,000 a year when she left this past summer to head the private project. The board's five current zone superintendents supervise larger groups of schools - Watts used to have 24 - grouped by geography or poverty levels.

"This is an opportunity to have a huge impact into west Charlotte," Hattabaugh said, adding that the goal is to create summer programs, boost technology and create education strategies that can be cloned for other struggling schools.

Hattabaugh said private money could be used to help recruit and reward top teachers. The draft contract also authorizes the new zone superintendent to "approve selection of all staff recommended by principals" and to "request immediate reassignment of any school employee in the feeder area not aligned to the mutual goals of the parties' collaboration."

Hattabaugh said CMS will retain a strong role in the partnership: "We are not handing the keys of eight schools over to anybody."

It was not clear Friday what Watts' relationship with the Project LIFT board would be under the new arrangement.

Earlier in Friday's retreat, after hashing out personal and political rifts, the nine-member board agreed unanimously to seek a "change agent" for the next superintendent. They also endorsed the existing goals for the district.

Some questions are raised

But Chair Ericka Ellis-Stewart said agreeing on specific actions may prove more difficult, and that proved true as they discussed the Project LIFT partnership.

Board member Richard McElrath said he'd have difficulty supporting the plan because it doesn't address the root problem of poverty in the west Charlotte neighborhoods: "This, to me, is nothing but another program," he said.

Some members raised questions about the nature of the partnership, especially the potential for the private group to lobby legislators on behalf of CMS. But other members said this is exactly the kind of innovative approach the board unanimously endorsed for the superintendent they want to hire.

"This is an example of what a change agent's going to bring us," said Tim Morgan.

Even the facilitator, West Charlotte alumna Mary Kendrick, jumped in. She told McElrath she understands his concerns about underlying causes, but, "How do we leave $55 million on the table?"

"Amen!" Lennon said.

Ellis-Stewart said she's intrigued by the possibilities for children, but said the board needs to explore all the aspects of the proposed partnership. "This is a marriage for us," she said.