‘In over your head’: Investigation, performance review give insight into Winston’s firing
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CMS Superintendent fired by school board
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education voted 7-2 on Tuesday to fire Superintendent Earnest Winston, effective immediately. Here’s everything you need to know.
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A poor 2020-21 evaluation and a school-board-requested investigation into former Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Earnest Winston’s performance revealed concerns that led to his firing, according to documents released Tuesday.
The CMS board in a 7-2 vote fired Winston during a special meeting Tuesday with board members insisting it was time for a change. After the vote, the board also chose to release some of Winston’s personnel records.
“As the documents spell out, serious missteps happened and lack of execution on specific initiatives led us to this point,” said board member Jennifer De La Jara, who voted for Winston’s firing. “However, this negligence did not rise to the level of immoral or disreputable conduct to allow for termination for cause.”
Winston’s 2020-21 performance evaluation came back late last year “significantly lower” than the previous year. An investigation the board requested and received last month also found staff-raised concerns regarding Winston’s slow implementation of safety measures such as safety wands and clear backpacks, questions in judgment related to media statements about Title IX issues, and his “failure to implement” a plan to support and improve the district’s lowest-performing schools for this school year, according to the investigation’s findings.
“Board members and staff raised concerns over Mr. Winston’s judgment, decision-making ability, the time it takes to make decisions, and the staff members that are counseling Mr. Winston’s decision-making process,” K. Dean Shatley of the Asheville law firm Campbell Shatley PLLC wrote to board members in a memorandum dated March 23. “Board members were almost universally concerned with one specific issue: student academic performance.”
Title IX response
In the fall, a case stemming from a reported sexual assault on the second day of school at Hawthorne Academy of Health Sciences received its first media attention. The case involved a student who alleged that a 17-year-old boy touched her breasts and attempted to put his hands down her pants. The boy was later criminally charged, but an internal school investigation — which was reopened a second time — concluded the female student lied about what happened. The school told the girl and her mother she was suspended for one day and asked her to take a class. Neither happened.
Shatley’s report said board members asked Winston to provide a timeline of what happened at Hawthorne. Both the principal and assistant principal of the school were suspended in early November and reassigned to other positions in CMS. Winston asked a staff member, who wasn’t named in his report, to go to Hawthorne to find school board-requested information.
Shatley wrote that evidence exists the staff member interfered with two internal CMS investigation: “Specifically, this staff member is alleged to have directed the Title IX coordinator to stop her investigation.”
Despite the interference, he wrote, there’s no evidence Winston directed the staff member to interfere with the Title IX investigation.
But details of the Hawthorne case again raised questions about how the school district has carried out its Title IX duties — the subject of previous Observer investigations — and treats girls who come forward about being harassed or raped at school.
Obstruction of public records law
Shatley’s report said concerns arose about the district’s contract with Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau author Ibram X. Kendi, who spoke at the CMS summer leadership conference. The contract signed in March 2021 was described as “one-sided” and “led to serious consequences when the video and contract were requested by members of the public, including a state legislator” and the Charlotte Observer.
“There is evidence to support that executive staff members obstructed the General Counsel’s office in responding to the public records requests,” the attorney’s report states, “and the Superintendent was aware of the obstruction and instructed his staff not to turn over the video.”
After staff members were advised the video was public record, an executive staff member not named in the report also refused to turn over the video.
“The Superintendent was made aware of this and allegedly took no action to assist the General Counsel office in complying with the public records law,” Shatley wrote.
Board member Sean Strain told the Charlotte Observer on Tuesday he was not surprised at the findings of the investigation.
“It was an independent summary of findings, in fact a subset of findings, of the superintendent’s performance — of which the board was aware,” Strain said.
Struggles with vision, communication, leadership
In comments in the 2020-21 evaluation, board members questioned Winston’s vision and said his staff struggled to understand his vision. Board members also criticized his leadership when it came to communications and community relations.
One board member whose name wasn’t provided wrote, “Our entire communication platform is failing. We have terrible relationships with most local media outlets. We are struggling in (communicating) even the simplest things to the public, to our teachers/staff and to our families.”
Another member wrote, “Earnest is very connected in the community and that is a great thing. I do see that there is a community concern around specifics around what we need to do to make up for pandemic gaps.”
Under an instructional leadership category, a third board member wrote: “There is a growing sense that you are in over your head — and rather than finding your footing, the overwhelm seems to be increasing. What is it that we can do as a board to help you find the support you need?”
This story was originally published April 19, 2022 at 6:50 PM.
