CHARLOTTE, N.C. – While the FBI, the SBI, the State Auditor, and the Department of Public Instruction all investigate Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, the board says it’s working to restore public trust and hire a new superintendent. The FBI and State auditor’s office are looking at how CMS s pent millions of dollars of funding. Former school board member Lisa Cline says the road to redemption could be a long one. “You have to follow the funding,” Cline said. “You can’t put it in a pot and dole it out to whomever needs it. You have to be careful about how you spend money.” Cline served on the school board as chair of the finance committee until December 2025. She understands many in the community are upset with the district right now. Cline points to the nearly $400,000 investigation into superintendent Dr. Crystal Hill then the surprise termination of Hill along with conflict of interest concerns. “We all pay taxes. Our tax money goes to educating our children. And are our children getting what they need to be prepared for?” Cline asked. “I’m not so sure that they were getting all of the things that they should have been getting.” John Doherty from School Liability Expert Group is an expert witness and former superintendent. He is not part of the probe but gave insight on what investigators could be taking a closer look at in this case. “I think the piece that people will look at is who were the contracts awarded to? What was the purpose of those contracts? Was it necessary to spend that amount of money for whatever the program is,” Doherty asked. Doherty says there is a fine line between criminal violations and bad spending. “It can be criminal if it’s spent for illegal reasons,” Doherty said. “If it’s spent, on areas in the district that it wasn’t meant to be spent for, then it’s not criminal, but it could lead to loss of grant funds or something like that.” These investigations are happening while the board is working to regain the trust of the public and find a new superintendent. “I think the parents are watching the, the school system’s under a magnifying glass,” Cline said. “I don’t know if [the board] can get [trust] back right now, it’s gonna take hard work.” There’s no timeline on how long the state and federal investigations could take, but we do know the Mecklenburg County manager is meeting with the state auditor to get an update on October 21st. ...read more read less