Charlitta Hatch, the chief data and analytics officer for the city of Charlotte, won the race for the District 1 seat on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education, unseating first-term incumbent Melissa Easley.
Hatch beat Easley and the Republican-backed candidate Bill Fountain with 44.83% of the vote, with nearly all precincts reporting. Easley had 29.14% and Fountain had 30.27%.
Three candidates ran for the seat: Easley, Hatch and retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and teacher Bill Fountain.
Easley has at times ruffled feathers, and found herself up against a well-funded challenger in Hatch and a more conservative candidate, Fountain.
The race is nominally nonpartisan. But Easley, who is the first openly LGBTQ member of the board and has said she's bisexual, said she was still hurt that the Mecklenburg County Democrats chose to endorse Hatch.
Easley said she was told the decision stemmed from concerns about her fundraising. She also acknowledged she recently stirred controversy with a post about murdered conservative activist Charlie Kirk that drew national attention. And she has a track record of voting in the minority against the board consensus, like when she voted against last year’s budget because she felt the board needed to ask for more money from Mecklenburg County.
Hatch, meanwhile, had no problem raising the funds — campaign finance records show she pulled in more than $56,000 compared to Easley’s $2,600. That’s higher than a typical school board race, by a big margin. Hatch credited the community connections she’s made through her work in the nonprofit space, her sorority and elsewhere.
The Republican-backed candidate, Bill Fountain, put $20,000 of his own money in the race. He said the presence of two Democrats can give him an opening to contrast his more conservative values. Fountain focused on improving student behavior, raising standards and teaching children more about character and resilience.
Hatch also took the endorsement from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Association of Educators, which endorsed Easley in her first successful run for office. She also received public support from Raki McGregor, a former advisor to CMS Superintendent Crystal Hill whose wife, Kimberly McGregor, owns an educational consulting firm called SYDKIMYL.
Last spring, Easley, along with board members Summer Nunn and Lisa Cline, voted against increasing a CMS contract with SYDKIMYL, and Easley questioned the firm's ties to McGregor. When McGregor appeared in a video celebrating Hatch's candidate filing, it raised questions that he was seeking political payback against Easley because of her vote. McGregor has denied this, but has suggested that "certain board members" aren't as supportive of Hill as others.
