The Southern Human Services Center was packed Thursday, Jan. 19. Dozens of community members had come to a meeting of the CHCCS Board of Education wearing purple and carrying prepared material in support of superintendent Dr. Nyah Hamlett.
For a little over an hour, speaker after speaker took to the podium to share public comments. Along with personal statements, an open letter authored by members of local group Chapel Hill Organizing Against Racism (CHOAR) was read in five parts.
“We are very fortunate to have an exceptional school superintendent, Dr. Nyah Hamlett,” it begins. “Like other Black leaders before her, she is under attack.”
The letter, which garnered 713 signatures, came in response to a Jan. 11 article in the News & Observer by investigative reporter Dan Kane.
The article, based on an anonymous tip, pointed out 35 instances of improper citations throughout the 164 pages of Hamlett’s 2019 dissertation from the College of William & Mary, including misattributed information and paragraphs replicated verbatim without proper quotation marks.
Kane writes that two of three experts he interviewed were in agreement that these issues “suggest intentional plagiarism,” with the third ascribing them to “sloppy work.”
The article sparked immediate controversy. While some criticized Hamlett, others viewed the report as an unwarranted attack by Kane and his anonymous source. For their part, the school board expressed unanimous support for the superintendent.
“The Board knows Dr. Hamlett to be an effective, authentic leader,” said Board chair Rani Dasi. “As we look at continued attacks on public education, we are so thankful for her leadership, as she continues to focus us all on student outcomes for this district.”
CHOAR’s open letter also drew a connection between the investigation of Hamlett’s dissertation and “an all-too-familiar pattern” of Black educators and administrators receiving “exaggerated levels of scrutiny and suspicion regarding their academic backgrounds and their work.”
The anonymous tip that brought this situation to light four years after Hamlett completed her dissertation made many community members suspect an ulterior motive of dislike for Hamlett, whether it be due to race, policy or other reasons.
“Obviously this kind of thing doesn’t drop out of midair,” said one anonymous teacher at East. “The News and Observer didn’t hunt this down, someone told them. So clearly, this person has a problem or a grudge. I don’t know whether for sure it’s racial, but it wouldn’t stun me.”
Regardless, the controversy has generated strong responses in both directions from students and staff in the district.
“I think what she did was wrong and hypocritical,” senior Sabrina Shelby said. “I don’t understand why she can cheat and no one seems to really care in the administration, but the second a student cheats everyone seems to freak out.”
The anonymous teacher concurred that “a mistake was made” and emphasized “the importance of not plagiarizing,” but was wary of those demanding drastic action against Hamlett.
“I think everybody should just always stop and pause and think about what it means to call for someone’s resignation or firing,” the teacher said. “I don’t think this rises to that level, especially when the person has been up front about what went wrong.”
Indeed, Hamlett was proactive in addressing the situation, sending out a “Community Update” to CHCCS parents Jan. 6 in anticipation of Kane’s article. According to the anonymous teacher, “that level of upfrontness, rather than ignoring the story, was good.”
In this statement, Hamlett said she stands by the work she did on her dissertation, though “the placement of some citations and some word choices to summarize or synthesize information could’ve been done differently.”
Hamlett also questioned Kane’s reporting and motives, and emphasized that despite the attention on her academic background, her focus remains on the present business of the district.
“My title, accolades, credentials, years of experience and degrees only matter on my resume,” Hamlett wrote. “Now let’s get back to living out the core values (Engagement, Joy, Wellness, Social Justice Action, and Collective Efficacy) of our Strategic Plan in service to the children of Chapel Hill and Carrboro.”
Many community members also praised Hamlett’s leadership and highlighted her impact on the district during her two years in the job.
“I feel like she herself is a good superintendent regardless of the circumstances,” said one anonymous senior. “I don’t think it really matters how she got in there, I just know that she’s doing a good job and that people seem to really like her.”
Librarian Michelle Wright, who often instructs students on the use of proper citations, also expressed her “wholehearted support” for Hamlett and criticized the backlash against her.
“I think she’s doing a great job. I hope this hasn’t hurt her too much because there are so many of us who support her and love what she’s doing for us,” Wright said. “The district doesn’t need any more conflict.”
On the other side of the debate, a second anonymous teacher criticized Hamlett’s performance as superintendent, beyond the issues with her dissertation. Though they acknowledged the possibility of improvement, they said Hamlett’s current relationship with teachers is far from ideal.
“I haven’t felt particularly supported as a teacher [under Dr. Hamlett], and that’s not been the case with previous superintendents,” they said. “[Previous superintendent] Dr. [Pam] Baldwin knew me by name, but more importantly, supported teachers in a very measurable way.”
Baldwin was no stranger to scandal either, resigning under unclear circumstances in 2020 after it was revealed that CHCCS had spent over $342,000 on a consulting contract without the required school board approval.
Regardless of the current controversy, the Board’s unanimous support for Hamlett means it’s unlikely she will likewise leave the role of superintendent.
Following the public comments section of the Jan. 19 meeting, Hamlett addressed the crowd, thanking them for their support and urging the community to “put unnecessary distractions aside.”
In a Feb. 22 email interview with the ECHO, the superintendent further reflected on the positive messages she has received in the weeks since the story broke.
“From the day that I sent my Community Update and certainly after the article was posted, I felt the encouragement, love and support from our community and it strengthened me,” Hamlett wrote. “To date, I have yet to enter into personal or professional spaces on a weekly basis—from the grocery store to a meeting—where members of our community have not acknowledged the article and expressed their continued support of me. For that, I am forever grateful.”
Photo courtesy of CHCCS
