Parents, students and staff urge board to address Carrboro High administration, request outside mediator
Summary
Multiple parents, students and district employees told the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education that Carrboro High School staff feel unsafe raising concerns and that special-education programs and classroom supports have been cut; speakers sought an outside mediator and clearer district action.
Speakers at a Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education meeting urged the board to address a pattern of staff fear and alleged administrative failures at Carrboro High School, and asked the board to bring in an outside mediator so teachers and staff can raise concerns safely.
The speakers — parents, a recent alumnus, and current students and educators — described recurring problems with communication and supports at Carrboro High and said internal channels have not resolved them. Melinda Manning, who identified herself as “the cochair of the Carrboro High School Improvement Team,” told the board “They want to be heard.”
Why it matters: multiple speakers tied staff working conditions to student outcomes and said cuts to programs and staffing are already prompting some families to move schools. The board heard requests for specific remedies — an independent mediator, restored staffing for special-education supports and clearer communications — and public testimony framed the concerns as districtwide problems that require board attention.
Several speakers detailed the issues they said teachers and staff have raised. Dr. Marissa Cathard, who said she has a daughter in the district’s adapted curriculum program, listed program cuts and staffing shortfalls in special education and urged the board “to prioritize better support for our educators, restore essential student programs, improve communication infrastructure, and create accountabilities that families can trust.” She said programs such as swimming, bowling and community-based instruction have been cut and that special-education teachers are “under resourced and overwhelmed.”
Jonah Cadence, an educator and Carrboro High alumnus, brought a jar holding 71 pencils and told the board each “represents a teacher at Carrboro High that would like to be here advocating for their school but is afraid to because of a pattern of harassment, retaliation, and refusal to acknowledge even minor staff concerns raised through official channels.” He added that more than a dozen faculty had left the school in the past two years, which he said was affecting students.
Student testimony included Oak Avery, a junior at Carrboro High, who described incidents they said amounted to discrimination and inadequate administrative responses, and said, “The solution to discrimination is not to remove the person being discriminated against, but to prevent the discrimination from happening in the first place.” Avery told the board a recent AP-test location sheet listed the wrong name and said the vice principal had not adequately investigated other reported incidents.
Other public comments reflected the same themes: parents expressed fear and frustration that volunteers and teachers are being treated as adversaries, and requested board action to investigate and repair relationships. One parent, Austin, raised specific questions about funding for adaptive-classroom (AC) programs and asked whether classroom caps (he asked if the current cap is eight students) and services could be cut if district funding is reduced.
Board response and next steps: the speakers’ requests were recorded during the public-comment portion of the meeting. Board members did not adopt a policy or a motion during public comment; several board members asked clarifying questions later in the agenda and requested follow-up information. The speakers asked the board to consider bringing in an outside mediator and to report back to the community on staffing, program restorations and specific steps the district will take to protect staff who raise concerns.
The board did not reach a formal decision on the mediation request during the meeting. Several board members signaled they wanted more information and follow-up at future meetings, and the school district’s staff and leaders said they would return with details on staffing, program status and possible remedies.
Ending: The board’s consent and action items followed public comment. The testimony will be part of the record for future board discussion; speakers asked the board to respond with concrete timelines and actions to address the stated problems.
