A Look Back at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' Revolving Door of Superintendents
With interim Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh set to step down in December, a review of CMS leadership shows tenures have grown shorter and shorter over the past decade.
By Ivan Petrov ·
Football fans know the annual shuffle of NFL head coaches. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has a version of its own, and the pace has picked up in recent years.
The district's longest-serving leader remains James Wilson, who became the first superintendent of Mecklenburg County Schools in 1944, before the county system merged with Charlotte's schools. He stayed for 16 years. Since 1962, superintendents have lasted roughly four years on average, but that figure has dropped lately. CMS has had five superintendents in the past decade, and the last to reach the three-year mark did so more than 10 years ago.
The latest change is already on the calendar. Interim Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh recently announced he plans to resign in December, eight months into a 14-month contract.
The recent run began with Peter Gorman, who took the job in the summer of 2006 and served until June 2011. He tried to change how teachers in the district were paid, an effort that ultimately failed. He left for a position with News Corporation's education division.
To replace him, the school board picked an interim leader. The choice came down to Ann Clark, then the chief academic officer, and Hattabaugh, then the chief operating officer. Hattabaugh got the role for a year, from July 2011 to June 2012.
Heath Morrison was selected in the summer of 2012. In November 2014, CMS announced he was leaving to care for his mother. Morrison and the board later acknowledged that he had been asked to go.
Clark, the other candidate for the interim job in 2011, then took over as acting superintendent in November 2014 and became superintendent in January 2015. She retired in June 2017, and the district did not offer her a long-term contract.
Clayton Wilcox was announced as her successor in the summer of 2017. In August 2019, after accusations that he made offensive remarks to staff members, he resigned. Neither the board nor Wilcox ever disclosed an official reason.
Earnest Winston took over in August 2019 and was soon given a long-term contract. His time in the job was short, though. The board fired him in April 2022 on a 7-2 vote.
Hattabaugh then returned from retirement to serve as interim superintendent a second time, 11 years after his first stint. His planned December departure will leave the district searching for leadership once again.
Originally published by News Media House · Source: WFAE
