Mecklenburg voters chose change. CMS school board opts to keep current chair
Voters chose change by ousting three of four incumbents seeking re-election to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education in 2022, but its members decided to stick with their current leader.
Elyse Dashew, chair of the school board for the last three years, again was voted chair Tuesday night.
Dashew simply told a chamber full of people, “Thank you.”
Her selection as chair comes after a change-filled election for six district seats in 2022, controversial decisions about pandemic learning, record-high numbers of guns found on campuses during the 2021-2022 year, poor test scores and the firing of former Superintendent Earnest Winston.
Four incumbents ran for re-election, and only one, District 2 incumbent Thelma Byers-Bailey, secured a seat. The other three — Rhonda Cheek, Carol Sawyer and Sean Strain — rolled off of the board on Tuesday.
Newly elected members included Melissa Easley in District 1, Gregory “Dee” Rankin in District 3, Stephanie Sneed in District 4, Lisa Cline in District 5 and Summer Nunn in District 6.
The school board picked Sneed to serve as vice chair Tuesday.
Dashew and other at-large members, Lenora Shipp and Jennifer De La Jara, weren’t on this year’s ballot.
A pair of tasks the new board faces immediately is naming a new interim superintendent before Hugh Hattabaugh leaves Dec. 31, and a permanent superintendent by the summer. The board met in closed session Tuesday, but didn’t emerge with an interim superintendent.
Who are Elyse Dashew and Stephanie Sneed?
After graduating from Brown University with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology, Dashew worked in the TV industry and later ran a publishing business. She has lived in Mecklenburg County since 1995.
Dashew currently serves on the executive committee for the Council of the Great City Schools; the board of directors for DreamKey Partners; the Charlotte Advisory Board for NC Outward Bound; advisory council for the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance; and she is a community advisor for the Junior League of Charlotte.
Sneed works as a labor and employment law attorney.
She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Arlington and a law degree from Howard University.
Outside of work, she has served as chair of the Black Political Caucus of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, the CMS Bonds Oversight Committee, and she is an active founding board member of the Charlotte Community Think Tank, a group that raises awareness of education issues.
CMS school board members make $1,574.33 per month. The board chairperson makes $1,967.91 per month.
This story was originally published December 13, 2022 at 7:49 PM.
