Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Search Community Engagement

Background

In late 2022, Civility Localized was contracted by the Charlotte Executive Leadership Council to lead the community engagement process to inform Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools 2023 superintendent search. The strategy of seeking public input for this process mirrored the recent efforts to create greater trust and provide leadership expertise in the form of their executives in residence program. The consultant team approached this project from a community engagement research lens, making sure to center the needs of the community through inclusive dialogue and tactics designed to heighten opportunities to give voice to those historically excluded from civic processes.

Challenges

Local challenges within the Charlotte Mecklenburg School District specifically included high superintendent turnover in the past. Between 2011 and 2021, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools had five superintendents; all of whom served under 3 years.

Additionally, the Charlotte Mecklenburg School District is massive in scale with 148,000 students, 9,000 employees, and 84 schools and facilities.

What We Did

Over an eight week survey period, Civility Localized developed a survey, built an online portal to educate and provide digital access both to the survey and real-time results. As a consulting firm we engaged stakeholders and key constituents from diverse communities to shape the job description for the ideal CMS superintendent. We collected the lived experiences of those most impacted by the hiring decision for the next CMS superintendent by gathering written and verbal feedback from all parts of the CMS community across Mecklenburg County and the City of Charlotte.

The survey Civility Localized built and disseminated garnered 25,864 responses from 1,783 participants in 8 weeks. Civility Localized conducted Focus Groups, Listening Sessions, and Stakeholder Interviews. The views of over 200 participants were gathered over three months. The Civility Localized team then distilled the input gathered into comprehensive reports, infographics, and presentations. Findings were presented to the CMS Board of Education in December, 2022 and the final report lives on the CMS Board of Education website.