Dr. Pam Baldwin has resigned from her position as superintendent of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools system.
The CHCCS Board of Education said in a release it approved Baldwin’s resignation at its meeting Thursday night. Her resignation will be effective June 30.
“The Board of Education thanks the Superintendent for her hard work and dedication to the District’s students, staff, and families,” the board said in a statement. “From the start, Dr. Baldwin was charged with focusing on our traditionally underserved students. During her tenure, persistent opportunity gaps in overall school and student performance have lessened.”
Baldwin and the school system came under criticism from the community in February after documents revealed the district was involved with a contract not publicly approved by the school board. Emails between Assistant Superintendent of Business and Finance Jennifer Bennet and the consulting company Education Elements revealed more than $250,000 of payments were structured to prevent a board vote to approve a larger contract between the two.
Contracts worth more than $90,000 are required to have a public school board vote, according to district policy. Early contract drafts showed a $767,070 partnership planned between the CHCCS district and Education Elements.
The school board suspended the contract in December 2019, citing violations of district policy. Bennett resigned from her position on February 24.
Since then, parents, students and faculty have publicly criticized the Education Elements. At a specially-held school board meeting on March 6, some community members directly criticized Baldwin for not being transparent about the relationship of Education Elements to the district and for not realizing the violation.
The district has since said it aims to implement policy changes to improve transparency to the public and to update the threshold of spending on contracts to come before the school board for approval.
CHCCS placed Baldwin on medical leave effective immediately on March 25, shortly before the system began online instruction amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Thursday’s release said Baldwin will be returning from leave on April 27 to finish out her role.
“I am excited and committed to continuing to serve our district for the next few months as the system makes this transition,” Baldwin wrote. “I wish our school system continued success and most importantly, I wish the children of our community every accomplishment and all of the blessings they work so hard for every day, now and forever. These young people are who give me hope for a just, equitable, and kind world. It has been my honor to serve them.”
The CHCCS school board said it will work with all stakeholders to identify needs and priorities before selecting its next permanent district leader. The board will first begin to identify candidates for the interim position.
Photo via the Town of Chapel Hill.
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$106K severance pay for what should be termination for cause? Disgraceful. Board is protecting its own.
So this is what passes for reporting? A discredited school board side only?
The police should now gather evidence of what has been going at the highest levels in as the onsvjool system as well as investigate whether the school board is colluding to hide misdeeds.
The police seem more than capable of action when it comes to dragging citizens out of school board sessions to silence their voices against the school board.
If the police wish to remain respected in Chapel Hill they need to stop being a polical correction force and start being a police force again.
The story does not end here. It is time to clean house and open a complete independent investigation into the misuse and theft of school funds from top to bottom of the CHCCS system.
Otherwise it is time to bring in the federal authorities.