A clash that started two weeks ago with a school board presentation on teacher effectiveness continues to roil Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools leadership. Interim Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh, normally a mellow guy, sent a strongly worded memo to the board accusing two members of bullying faculty, "behavior so egregiously unfair that I cannot remain silent" (read it below).
During the Feb. 28 discussion of "hard to staff schools," board member Richard McElrath peppered teachers with questions about that label. Somali Davis-White, a teacher at Thomasboro Academy, attended the meeting as part of a teacher study group that crafted the report.
Afterward, McElrath and board member Joyce Waddell made unannounced visits to Thomasboro and other schools that are part of Project LIFT. I talked to McElrath the afternoon of March 1 about some of his remarks at the meeting, and he told me he was visiting LIFT schools to ask principals and teachers about the philanthropic program and its support of segregated schools. A few hours later, Hattabaugh emailed board members about complaints he'd heard from the Thomasboro visit.
Hattabaugh's memo sparked a heated discussion of school board behavior last night, one that's likely to continue at Friday's meeting on the superintendent search. Today I got a copy of Hattabaugh's email to the board.
From: Hugh E. Hattabaugh
Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2012 6:08 PM
To: Ericka Ellis-Stewart; Mary T. McCray; Eric C. Davis; Tom Tate; Richard McElrath; Joyce Waddell; Amelia Stinson-Wesley; Tim Morgan; Rhonda Lennon
Cc: George E. Battle
Subject: Action Required: Review of Board Policy Constituent Services
Dear Board members,
On Wednesday, two Board members visited Thomasboro Elementary. They spoke with several teachers, challenging the assertion put forth at Tuesday’s Board meeting that Thomasboro is a “hard to staff” school. One Board member suggested that racism was a factor in that description of Thomasboro. Both members asked questions but did not allow teachers to answer them, talking over teachers and the principal as they tried to answer the questions they’d been asked. The Board members spoke in a denigrating way about one of the teachers on a work team to her Thomasboro colleagues as they gathered for a meeting. The work team’s discussion of the challenges facing the school was characterized as “dirty laundry” that should not be aired in public. The Board members suggested to several teachers that they had been tricked or treated unfairly in matters of salary. They spoke in a critical way about Project L.I.F.T. to several teachers and the principal.
All of these actions violate the Board’s own policy governing how Board members interact with staff and the public. I have attached Policy BHE, Constituent Services, for your reference. It states in part: “Each Board member will avoid involvement in management activities or giving direction to staff … In making this commitment, Board members recognize that their involvement in management and administrative matters creates confusion among district employees, leads to dysfunctional management systems, undermines the authority of the Superintendent and the administration, and weakens the Board…”
To this clear and unequivocal statement of why the two Board members’ actions on Wednesday were in violation of Board policy, I would add the following:
What message has been sent to staff by these actions? How can teachers avoid the conclusion that speaking up can lead to a visit from Board members who will bully and belittle them in front of their colleagues? How will these actions affect teacher and staff morale?
What message does this send to the public about the Board’s role in governing CMS and its responsibility to work in the district’s best interests, helping all students and schools?
What message does this send to potential superintendent candidates about Board governance and a clear division of duties between the superintendent and the Board?
What message does this send about transparency of district operations and equitable treatment of employees?
I recognize that my speaking out in this way puts me at some personal risk. However, the behavior reported to me by the staff at Thomasboro was so egregiously unfair to our teachers and staff that I cannot remain silent. As the superintendent, I ask that Board members please follow the policies that you have set. We may disagree often about what the right choices are for CMS. Such disagreement is expected and even healthy. We are dealing with the future of children and all of us have great emotional investment in our work. But we must remain civil and professional in our dealings with one another. Open disrespect and abuse of the staff by Board members is wrong . It is damaging to CMS. It can do very serious harm. Therefore I feel I would be remiss in my duty if I did not share with all of you my very serious concern about this matter.
Respectively,
Hugh E. Hattabaugh
Interim Superintendent
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
Government Center
600 East 4th Street
Charlotte, NC 28202
Showing posts with label CMS board race. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CMS board race. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Thursday, January 5, 2012
The role of campaign cash
Wilhelmenia Rembert's $150 campaign donation to school board Chair Ericka Ellis-Stewart may have torpedoed Rembert's hopes of being appointed to the board.
Rembert, an at-large board member from 1998-2003 and former board chair, was by far the biggest name among the 12 applicants for the District 6 seat filled today. Rumors had been buzzing for weeks that the board's Democratic majority wanted to add her to the roster.
Going into this afternoon's meeting, word was that the eight members were split between Rembert and David Knoble. But if Ellis-Stewart had recused herself from voting for Rembert, Rembert likely would have fallen short.
There's no law or policy against appointing a campaign donor, and I don't recall that the question has come up in the four previous appointments I've covered. But suburban Republicans Rhonda Lennon and Tim Morgan were arguing that appointing a donor would undermine public trust in the board. Morgan had announced he would not vote to appoint Bolyn McClung, a Pineville Republican who donated to him, Ellis-Stewart and former board Chair Eric Davis.
Before Tuesday's meeting, McClung gave Ellis-Stewart a letter withdrawing his application for the seat, saying he became convinced that voting for donors would taint the process (Bolyn, if you're reading, I'd love for you to post the statement). Ellis-Stewart opened the meeting by reading McClung's letter and saying "while that is allowable, I will say for me personally that does not represent that our votes can be bought."
"I would like to support Dr. Rembert," Ellis-Stewart told the school board, but said she was swayed by the community service and focus on children demonstrated by the Rev. Amelia Stinson-Wesley, who got the votes of the five Democrats after negotiating that went to the wire. The move blindsided south suburban Republicans who had been taking aim at Rembert's political record. They were skeptical of the Democrats' assertion that the choice had nothing to do with the fact that Stinson-Wesley was the only other Democratic applicant.
Stinson-Wesley, a relative newcomer to Mecklenburg County, is neither a politician nor a party activist. She's been more focused on overseas work on violence against women and children, but says her "mommy friends" in Pineville urged her to apply for the vacant seat. She said even she was surprised to get the nod. Making her pitch to the board Tuesday, she had acknowledged the skills and experience other applicants brought to the board and noted that she might not be the best qualified among them -- a remark that was generating some smirking commentary among opponents afterward.
Stinson-Wesley now steps into the public spotlight as CMS tackles such tough issues as a budget and a superintendent search. She does it knowing some of her most prominent new constituents, including Morgan, are openly skeptical of her ability to represent them.
"It is what it is. I am who I am," she said.
Her time spent working in war zones of southeast Asia may just prove to be her best preparation for this job.
Rembert, an at-large board member from 1998-2003 and former board chair, was by far the biggest name among the 12 applicants for the District 6 seat filled today. Rumors had been buzzing for weeks that the board's Democratic majority wanted to add her to the roster.
Going into this afternoon's meeting, word was that the eight members were split between Rembert and David Knoble. But if Ellis-Stewart had recused herself from voting for Rembert, Rembert likely would have fallen short.
There's no law or policy against appointing a campaign donor, and I don't recall that the question has come up in the four previous appointments I've covered. But suburban Republicans Rhonda Lennon and Tim Morgan were arguing that appointing a donor would undermine public trust in the board. Morgan had announced he would not vote to appoint Bolyn McClung, a Pineville Republican who donated to him, Ellis-Stewart and former board Chair Eric Davis.
Before Tuesday's meeting, McClung gave Ellis-Stewart a letter withdrawing his application for the seat, saying he became convinced that voting for donors would taint the process (Bolyn, if you're reading, I'd love for you to post the statement). Ellis-Stewart opened the meeting by reading McClung's letter and saying "while that is allowable, I will say for me personally that does not represent that our votes can be bought."
"I would like to support Dr. Rembert," Ellis-Stewart told the school board, but said she was swayed by the community service and focus on children demonstrated by the Rev. Amelia Stinson-Wesley, who got the votes of the five Democrats after negotiating that went to the wire. The move blindsided south suburban Republicans who had been taking aim at Rembert's political record. They were skeptical of the Democrats' assertion that the choice had nothing to do with the fact that Stinson-Wesley was the only other Democratic applicant.
Stinson-Wesley, a relative newcomer to Mecklenburg County, is neither a politician nor a party activist. She's been more focused on overseas work on violence against women and children, but says her "mommy friends" in Pineville urged her to apply for the vacant seat. She said even she was surprised to get the nod. Making her pitch to the board Tuesday, she had acknowledged the skills and experience other applicants brought to the board and noted that she might not be the best qualified among them -- a remark that was generating some smirking commentary among opponents afterward.
Stinson-Wesley now steps into the public spotlight as CMS tackles such tough issues as a budget and a superintendent search. She does it knowing some of her most prominent new constituents, including Morgan, are openly skeptical of her ability to represent them.
"It is what it is. I am who I am," she said.
Her time spent working in war zones of southeast Asia may just prove to be her best preparation for this job.
Friday, November 11, 2011
CMS precinct map: Who won where?
Our new database reporter Gavin Off has created a map showing which school board candidates took first place in each precinct. Click on any precinct to see how all 14 candidates fared there.
Gavin and I are working on a story for Sunday looking at what it all means; I just figured I'd give the election junkies who read this blog a sneak preview. Not surprisingly, the four top finishers -- Ericka Ellis-Stewart, Mary McCray and Tim Morgan, who won the three at-large seats, and Elyse Dashew, who ran a close fourth -- claimed the top spot in most precincts. Aaron Pomis, who placed fifth, took one precinct, and Larry Bumgarner, who placed sixth, took three.
Gavin and I are working on a story for Sunday looking at what it all means; I just figured I'd give the election junkies who read this blog a sneak preview. Not surprisingly, the four top finishers -- Ericka Ellis-Stewart, Mary McCray and Tim Morgan, who won the three at-large seats, and Elyse Dashew, who ran a close fourth -- claimed the top spot in most precincts. Aaron Pomis, who placed fifth, took one precinct, and Larry Bumgarner, who placed sixth, took three.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
CMS board: Big change, little participation
The totals are in, and the overwhelming winner in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board election was "let someone else decide."
About 86 percent of Mecklenburg's registered voters opted out of a race that had 14 people vying for three board seats. To break that down: 609,941 people are registered, and 98,338, or 16.1 percent, voted Tuesday. It's likely that a significant number cast municipal ballots but skipped the school board race (230,451 board votes were tallied, but each voter could choose up to three candidates).
Ericka Ellis-Stewart, who won a decisive first place, got 35,000 votes -- less than 6 percent of all registered voters. Tim Morgan advanced from a district seat to a countywide one, allowing the board to choose his replacement for District 6, with just under 25,000 votes, representing the support of 4 percent of possible voters.
To make the will of the voters even more baffling, 10,400 voted for DeShauna McLamb, who said nothing and made no appearances after filing for office. More than 11,300 chose Lisa Hundley, a newcomer who announced in early October that she would be too ill with cancer to serve.
What all this means for students, parents and taxpayers remains to be seen, but it's bound to be significant. The current nine-person board has been led by a moderate tri-partisan coalition (Democrats Joe White and Tom Tate, Republicans Rhonda Lennon and Tim Morgan, and unaffiliated Eric Davis and Trent Merchant). The new board will have five Democrats, as newcomers Ellis-Stewart and Mary McCray join district representatives Tom Tate, Richard McElrath and Joyce Waddell. If they vote as a block, they could push the board significantly to the left.
It's the nature of school board work and a divided community that decisions spark complaints. There are plenty of tough issues ahead. It'll be interesting to see how quickly people start to howl about the choices they let their neighbors make.
About 86 percent of Mecklenburg's registered voters opted out of a race that had 14 people vying for three board seats. To break that down: 609,941 people are registered, and 98,338, or 16.1 percent, voted Tuesday. It's likely that a significant number cast municipal ballots but skipped the school board race (230,451 board votes were tallied, but each voter could choose up to three candidates).
Ericka Ellis-Stewart, who won a decisive first place, got 35,000 votes -- less than 6 percent of all registered voters. Tim Morgan advanced from a district seat to a countywide one, allowing the board to choose his replacement for District 6, with just under 25,000 votes, representing the support of 4 percent of possible voters.
To make the will of the voters even more baffling, 10,400 voted for DeShauna McLamb, who said nothing and made no appearances after filing for office. More than 11,300 chose Lisa Hundley, a newcomer who announced in early October that she would be too ill with cancer to serve.
What all this means for students, parents and taxpayers remains to be seen, but it's bound to be significant. The current nine-person board has been led by a moderate tri-partisan coalition (Democrats Joe White and Tom Tate, Republicans Rhonda Lennon and Tim Morgan, and unaffiliated Eric Davis and Trent Merchant). The new board will have five Democrats, as newcomers Ellis-Stewart and Mary McCray join district representatives Tom Tate, Richard McElrath and Joyce Waddell. If they vote as a block, they could push the board significantly to the left.
It's the nature of school board work and a divided community that decisions spark complaints. There are plenty of tough issues ahead. It'll be interesting to see how quickly people start to howl about the choices they let their neighbors make.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Tossed fliers, online comments and other campaign tidbits
Are Tim Morgan and his campaign manager subverting the voting system? Do Ken Nelson's online comments support white supremacy and violence? Is Elyse Dashew aligned with outside groups? And where in the world is DeShauna McLamb?
Now that the issue pieces and profiles are out of the way, it's time to delve into some of the other questions floating around the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board race.
As commenters have noted and TV stations reported, Morgan's campaign manager, Larry Shaheen, got caught tossing out campaign literature for Keith Hurley and Ken Nelson at an early voting station in mid-October. Shaheen says he believed fellow Republicans Nelson and Hurley had put their material on Morgan's table, which in his view made it fair game for the trash can. In fact, it was a Republican Party table, which the others had a right to share. Vice Chair Pat Murray saw the incident, salvaged the material and took Shaheen to task.
Shaheen says he goofed and has apologized to the party and the candidates. Morgan says he talked to Shaheen about the incident and has elected to keep him on board as manager. I finally caught up to Mecklenburg Party GOP Chair Gideon Moore today to get his take. He says Shaheen was banned from staffing the GOP tables but is free to continue campaigning for the two candidates he represents (Morgan and Charlotte City Council candidate Curtis Watkins).
Shaheen "made a poor choice in the heat of the campaign. It happens," Moore said. "I really don't consider it a big deal." Moore added that he was a bit disappointed that Hurley, who became a Republican too late to be in the running for an endorsement, opted to go public with the conflict after Moore thought it had been resolved.
Some have also chided Morgan for seeking an at-large seat when he already holds a district seat. There's nothing illegal or unusual about that; George Dunlap tried it in 2003. If he's elected, the board will launch the application process after Morgan is sworn in for the at-large seat Dec. 13. The eight members of the new board would vote on a new District 6 representative to serve until the 2013 election.
***
Commenters have also raised questions about the things Nelson posts in online forums as knelsud92.
I read through quite a few, and if you don't like Nelson's style and views, you won't like them much.
On illegal immigrants, one of his favorite topics:
No mas illegales, por favor
Get out the country, bar the door!
Start 'em marching to the border
Then we can restore order.
On academic achievement gaps:
It's the school's fault that "fathers" abandon their children before birth and end up in prison or dead. It's the school's fault that a culture values violence over peace. No amount of money can fix a culture. Hence, we do not have an achievement gap, we have a culture gap.
On the departure of conservative blogger Jeff Taylor: "You've always been a voice of reason in this city full of moochers and looters."
And on a story about 11 Garinger students, including the valedictorian, getting diplomas, only to learn belatedly they hadn't met the graduation requirements: "He thought he passed English, but when it was realized that Ebonics doesn't qualify as a substitute, he lost the credits."
Nelson says he's a guy who sees many issues in black-and-white terms, and who sometimes aims his online comments to get a laugh from supporters and a rise from opponents. He notes that he grew up outside New York City, which makes him "by nature sarcastic and bombastic -- that's just the way we are."
But Nelson vehemently denies that his comments show him to be racist or violent. He argued for the right of a white supremacy group to rent a room and meet in Charlotte, he said, but he does not support white supremacy. He said he would support "a second American Revolution" if the country "becomes like the Soviet Union," but says other commenters are wrong in saying he has urged shooting people over election results. And he says that if his comments have appeared on the White Nationalist web site Stormfront, it's because someone cut and pasted them from his comments on a Ron Paul site.
"I am certainly not a racist," Nelson says.
***
Some have also asked about links between Dashew's MeckFUTURE and philanthropies and advocacy groups. Dashew and fellow CMS parent Doug Swaim formed the alliance of families from about 40 schools in January to lobby for money to avert drastic budget cuts. The group, which is currently inactive, has no national alliances and no funding other than a collection members took up to pay for fliers, she says.
Dashew says she believes people are confusing MeckFUTURE with Mecklenburg ACTS, which is affiliated with Parents Across America, and/or MeckEd, which conducted a CMS budget information campaign using money that then-Superintendent Peter Gorman provided from a Spangler Foundation grant. All three "Mecks" were part of a "55 for 5" coalition that lobbied county commissioners and state legislators to provide about $55 million to avoid cutting five high-priority items from this year's budget.
***
Finally, the case of the missing candidate remains a mystery. Last winter and spring, when the debate over school closings and fairness to minority neighborhoods was raging, I got several emails from Prophetess DeShauna McLamb of Beyond Ministries promoting efforts to get people engaged with public education. She announced her board candidacy in March, filed in July ... and disappeared from the campaign.
Having failed to reach her by phone, email and a visit to the address she listed when she filed, I tried another address we found on a public-records search. A man who answered the door this morning said McLamb lives there but wasn't in. He gave me a new phone number that gets a voice mail for McLamb. I've left a couple of messages, but so far, no response.
McLamb has never withdrawn from the race, so she'll be on Tuesday's ballot.
Now that the issue pieces and profiles are out of the way, it's time to delve into some of the other questions floating around the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board race.
As commenters have noted and TV stations reported, Morgan's campaign manager, Larry Shaheen, got caught tossing out campaign literature for Keith Hurley and Ken Nelson at an early voting station in mid-October. Shaheen says he believed fellow Republicans Nelson and Hurley had put their material on Morgan's table, which in his view made it fair game for the trash can. In fact, it was a Republican Party table, which the others had a right to share. Vice Chair Pat Murray saw the incident, salvaged the material and took Shaheen to task.
Shaheen says he goofed and has apologized to the party and the candidates. Morgan says he talked to Shaheen about the incident and has elected to keep him on board as manager. I finally caught up to Mecklenburg Party GOP Chair Gideon Moore today to get his take. He says Shaheen was banned from staffing the GOP tables but is free to continue campaigning for the two candidates he represents (Morgan and Charlotte City Council candidate Curtis Watkins).
Shaheen "made a poor choice in the heat of the campaign. It happens," Moore said. "I really don't consider it a big deal." Moore added that he was a bit disappointed that Hurley, who became a Republican too late to be in the running for an endorsement, opted to go public with the conflict after Moore thought it had been resolved.
Some have also chided Morgan for seeking an at-large seat when he already holds a district seat. There's nothing illegal or unusual about that; George Dunlap tried it in 2003. If he's elected, the board will launch the application process after Morgan is sworn in for the at-large seat Dec. 13. The eight members of the new board would vote on a new District 6 representative to serve until the 2013 election.
***
Commenters have also raised questions about the things Nelson posts in online forums as knelsud92.
I read through quite a few, and if you don't like Nelson's style and views, you won't like them much.
On illegal immigrants, one of his favorite topics:
No mas illegales, por favor
Get out the country, bar the door!
Start 'em marching to the border
Then we can restore order.
On academic achievement gaps:
It's the school's fault that "fathers" abandon their children before birth and end up in prison or dead. It's the school's fault that a culture values violence over peace. No amount of money can fix a culture. Hence, we do not have an achievement gap, we have a culture gap.
On the departure of conservative blogger Jeff Taylor: "You've always been a voice of reason in this city full of moochers and looters."
And on a story about 11 Garinger students, including the valedictorian, getting diplomas, only to learn belatedly they hadn't met the graduation requirements: "He thought he passed English, but when it was realized that Ebonics doesn't qualify as a substitute, he lost the credits."
Nelson says he's a guy who sees many issues in black-and-white terms, and who sometimes aims his online comments to get a laugh from supporters and a rise from opponents. He notes that he grew up outside New York City, which makes him "by nature sarcastic and bombastic -- that's just the way we are."
But Nelson vehemently denies that his comments show him to be racist or violent. He argued for the right of a white supremacy group to rent a room and meet in Charlotte, he said, but he does not support white supremacy. He said he would support "a second American Revolution" if the country "becomes like the Soviet Union," but says other commenters are wrong in saying he has urged shooting people over election results. And he says that if his comments have appeared on the White Nationalist web site Stormfront, it's because someone cut and pasted them from his comments on a Ron Paul site.
"I am certainly not a racist," Nelson says.
***
Some have also asked about links between Dashew's MeckFUTURE and philanthropies and advocacy groups. Dashew and fellow CMS parent Doug Swaim formed the alliance of families from about 40 schools in January to lobby for money to avert drastic budget cuts. The group, which is currently inactive, has no national alliances and no funding other than a collection members took up to pay for fliers, she says.
Dashew says she believes people are confusing MeckFUTURE with Mecklenburg ACTS, which is affiliated with Parents Across America, and/or MeckEd, which conducted a CMS budget information campaign using money that then-Superintendent Peter Gorman provided from a Spangler Foundation grant. All three "Mecks" were part of a "55 for 5" coalition that lobbied county commissioners and state legislators to provide about $55 million to avoid cutting five high-priority items from this year's budget.
***
Finally, the case of the missing candidate remains a mystery. Last winter and spring, when the debate over school closings and fairness to minority neighborhoods was raging, I got several emails from Prophetess DeShauna McLamb of Beyond Ministries promoting efforts to get people engaged with public education. She announced her board candidacy in March, filed in July ... and disappeared from the campaign.
Having failed to reach her by phone, email and a visit to the address she listed when she filed, I tried another address we found on a public-records search. A man who answered the door this morning said McLamb lives there but wasn't in. He gave me a new phone number that gets a voice mail for McLamb. I've left a couple of messages, but so far, no response.
McLamb has never withdrawn from the race, so she'll be on Tuesday's ballot.
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