CMS superintendent scheduled to get $22,000 raise during district investigation
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Crystal Hill is slated to get a 7% pay raise while on leave.
CMS board members approved the raise in December, increasing Hill’s base annual salary from $318,270 to $340,700. They also extended her contract through June 2029. The contract amendment stipulated that Hill would not get the pay increase until the state legislature passed pay raises for teachers. It would be retroactive to Dec. 1, 2025.
Gov. Josh Stein last week signed a long-awaited state budget, which included raises for state personnel including teachers. However, teachers will not get back pay for the 2025-26 school year when there was no state budget.
The passage of the state budget means Hill’s raise is now in effect. However, Hill was placed on paid leave June 17 pending an investigation into “matters involving administrative and operational oversight,” the CMS board said in a statement.
“Although Dr. Hill has been placed on leave, she is an employee of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools,” a CMS spokesperson said last week after The Charlotte Observer asked for confirmation that Hill would still get the raise while on leave. “As all employees, she is entitled to a raise in alignment with the adopted North Carolina state budget and based on her earnings as of the end of June 2026, subject to CMS Board of Education approval.”
The Observer asked for clarification about the raise specifically passed by the board of education — not the state — and when Hill would receive back pay. CMS has not provided further information.
WSOC-TV, the Observer’s news partner, reported the CMS board investigation involves hundreds of thousands of dollars in contracts paid to three former colleagues of Hill’s. However, a CMS spokesperson told the Observer the district “cannot comment” on the allegations.
Hill gets paid in monthly installments, and the raise will increase her monthly check from $26,522.50 to $28,397.50, according to the contract amendment that The Observer obtained through public records.
The board is scheduled to discuss amendments to the 2025-26 budget at a special meeting July 22, but no specific item related to modifying Hill’s raise is currently on the agenda.
