Bennett named CCS Superintendent in fractured vote; contention over contract arises
By Chuck Thompson | The Shelby Independent
EDUCATION – In a special called 11 a.m. meeting on Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, the Cleveland County Board of Education voted 6-3 to hire Dr. Chris Bennett as the new permanent CCS Superintendent.
After Chairman Joel Shores called the meeting to order and asked for a motion, Board Member Ron Humphries made the motion to “proudly make the motion to hire Sr. Chris Bennett,” with a second by Vice-Chair Aaron Bridges.
But before this union could take place in educational matrimony, Board Member Danny Blanton spoke first, noting his disagreement with the decision, but his willingness to support and to work with Dr. Bennett, even though Blanton ultimately voted against both his confirmation as superintendent and also against his employment contract.
“I think he will do us a real job,” stated Blanton, “but I made a promise to the people that I would listen to them and I read every survey, every one of them, word for word and I don’t know if the choices have been made but I’m going to do everything I possibly can to work with this man.
“If I’m wrong, I want him to show me I’m and then I will correct and I will apologize to him if I made statements on him that it wasn’t,” Blanton said. “I just want him to understand that I’m going to work with him – but I did make a promise that I was going to listen to the people, our staff and the community. I just want that understood with my decision.”
With that being said the vote was taken by Chairman Shores.
Bennett was approved on a 6-3 vote, with Board Members David Fisher, Danny Blanton and Kenneth Ledford voting against / opposed to Dr. Bennett.
When Shores said congratulations to Bennett, all nine board members clapped for him.
But then, in the employment contract portion of the vote, Dr. Bennett’s contract was approved on a 5-4 vote, with Board Member Ronnie Grigg crossing the line to join Fisher, Blanton and Ledford in dissenting the employment agreement.
At this juncture, matters became somewhat complicated as the confirmation was almost derailed after the hiring vote had already passed.
Blanton then suddenly stated that in North Carolina General Statute § 115C-36, which Blanton never read out loud, but stated, “There’s nine board members and nine board members should be making all decisions instead of just the chair.”
Blanton then held up a paper, stating “In this contract,” presumably referring to Dr. Bennett’s employment contract but it was never clearly identified. “The Chair can give several authorizations without board approval. That is not right – there are nine of us,” he said, noting that all decisions should be a full board decision.
North Carolina General Statute § 115C-36 designates local boards of education with the general control, supervision, and enforcement of all public school laws and matters within their administrative units.
Blanton then stated his complaint about how there were no “goals” stated in his contract for him to obtain, adding, “There should be something put in there that he is striving toward a goal…” Blanton seems concerned that Bennett won’t show improvement with such.
Blanton then moved on to the money, referring to his pay contract of $205,000 per year.
“We’re hurting for money,” Blanton said, contradicting his comments from the Aug. 10, 2026 school board meeting where he noted that they had more money than what was stated as received by CCS in the county budget when he held up papers from the county budget given to the school system when he vehemently defended the county originally not giving the $500,000 gift again this year – something that was later reversed quietly in the last county commissioners meeting.
You can watch that August public meeting here and Blanton's comments begin at 7 minutes 3 seconds into the meeting. https://www.youtube.com/live/SMZePpu2ev4 At 11 minutes into the video he states that the county gave them "What we requested." to which he added, "We got more than we were supposed to get," he said at 11 minutes and 26 seconds into the August meeting video. "I believe we can get whatever we need to make it right for our students, our staff, and our buildings. I'm tired of seeing stuff on Facebook when you don't have the facts together," he added. "There's the facts!"
Back to the current Oct 5 meeting, Blanton spoke on a request for more money made a few years ago, defending his reasons for not supporting the current employment contract for Dr. Bennett.
“We’ve even asked that we didn’t have money for toilet paper,” he added. He then mentioned his concern and criticism for the pay amount which was above the state’s minimum level, but added, “I voted for above the level, don’t get me wrong there,” he said, just moments away from voting against Bennett’s pay level once the employment contract was voted on after board comments.
“This contract – and I believe in taking care of a person – but all of our staff, our employees, have to prove themselves a year,” he stated, mentioning a probationary period which he said is not in the contract for the superintendent. Blanton also stated that he knows Dr. Bennett cares about the students but, “It’s too much…” adding, “… I hope we made the right decision; thank you.”
Next, Kenneth Ledford spoke, expressing his disdain for the process and claimed the board did not follow protocol when picking a superintendent – a serious verbal charge in a very tedious process.
“I’ve never done a superintendent selection like this selection was done,” Ledford said. “This is totally different and what I was told was ‘times change’ and yes, I know times change – but still… we’re selecting and we needed to follow protocol I feel like, in order to elect a superintendent…” He said it twice, “We needed to follow protocol.”
Then, Walter Spurling immediately rebutted. He said he wasn’t going to say anything, but since he’s not running for reelection, what did he have to gain or lose?
“I am going to tell you the truth,” he said firmly to the audience. “This process, it was on the up and up. It was transparent. All the board members knew what was going on – the only way you didn’t know what was going on (board members) is if you stuck your head in the sand.”
He continued by noting that the board tried to keep the public informed, however also noting there are some things from a legal perspective that could not be revealed to the public by law.
“Yes, we all got the surveys,” he added, “and tried our best to abide by what this county wanted; the few that actually filled out the survey.”
Spurling then took a jab at the dissenting votes on the board, adding, “I’m not going to sabotage this county! I’m not going to do something blatantly that people in this county don’t want – why would I do that?”
He spoke on the contract, in regard to Blanton’s and Ledford’s comments, basically defending Bennett’s reputation and acknowledging the pressure that will be placed on him and his family, that he will do a good job out of the fear of having to face residents of the county everywhere his family goes. Spurling also noted that the superintendent is in charge of the largest ‘business’ in Cleveland County if you include the student population. He also claimed Bennett is one of the lowest paid superintendents in surrounding counties.
“We also think Dr. Bennett is invested in Cleveland County. He lives here. He has kids here. Why would he not do a good job for Cleveland County? He’s loyal,” Spurling argued. “(If) you hire someone from outside Cleveland County, the first time a job opportunity comes along, he’s going to take it – bye! But you hire someone from the inside that has shown that he loves Cleveland County – he’s going to do a good job, period.
“He doesn’t want to hear his neighbors, and his parents don’t want to hear his neighbors say ‘Oh that Dr. Bennett, we shouldn’t have hired him!’ And I believe you pay a man his worth.
“Dr. Bennett has the education, the training and the experience to do this job and other people don’t have that – and that’s why you pay a man his worth,” explained Spurling, as he turned his focus directly towards Bennett. “Dr. Bennett, I think you will do a super job…”
Gloria Sherman spoke next in support of Dr. Bennett, giving some of her history in education and her training in leadership and having a leading school. “I know, without a shadow of a doubt that Dr. Chris Bennett is who we need, or I would not vote(d) for him… I know a leader when I see it...”
She talked about the work he has done with raising test scores and noted, “You do not need to question the process we went through hiring the superintendent. We had a representative, a lawyer from Raleigh, and The North Carolina School Board Association (NCSBA) that lead this for that very reason because I did not want it to be questioned.”
Chairman Shores sighed as he apologized to Dr. Bennett.
“Dr. Bennett, this is your day, and I don’t want to take away from it and I apologize in advance for what I’m about to say,” Shores said as he spoke on the accusations that protocol was not followed.
“For a board member to sit up here and say we did not follow protocol is hard for me to swallow,” Shores said calmly. “I’m going to ask that board member to email the rest of this board on how we didn’t follow protocol – and I see people here, members of the media, and I promise you, I’ll send you that email that he sends telling us how we didn’t follow protocol.
“That’s the most ridiculous statement. As much money as we spent to hire this person (an attorney) out of Raleigh to come and every single thing was voted by the board – every single thing… For somebody to sit up here and say, ‘we did not follow protocol’ is unbelievable to me.”
Shores then moved into the topic of salary, responding to Blanton’s earlier comments.
He mentioned the 13,700 students at CCS, comparing them to similar-sized school districts across North Carolina and the salaries of their districts’ superintendents.
“Lincoln County has 11,000 and they pay $223,000. Craven 11,800 pay $235,000…. Moore County has 12,900, the superintendent has zero experience – they pay $219,000. Nash is 13,800 and they pay their superintendent $235,000. And I can keep going on, and on, that pays well over $200,0000.
“I believe Cleveland County needs to be competitive; we’re nowhere near these counties,” noted Shores. “This man right here is going to be the CEO of the largest employer of Cleveland County; I encourage you go see how much your president of your college makes. How much your county manager makes – this is nothing…”
The vote was then taken on the employment contract, with the usual suspects voting as expected with a narrow 5-4 vote. Spurling, Bridges, Shores, Humphries and Sherman FOR and Fisher, Blanton, Grigg and Ledford AGAINST. A common voting theme among this specific school board.
After the vote, Dr. Bennett took to the podium to make a few remarks as the new Superintendent of Cleveland County Schools.
He thanked the board for their confidence and spoke encouragingly of the current situation of the school system and the future. As a product of the school system, he basically committed to doing his best to accomplish all that is possible, praising the employees and again thanking the board for allowing him to serve Cleveland County Schools.
Dr. Brian Hunnell said of Dr. Bennett, "Chris will do a great job. He is solid instructionally; he's wise. He will take us to the next level. He's a good guy."
In a statement to The Shelby Independent, Dr. Bennett said, “I am honored to have the opportunity to serve Cleveland County Schools and grateful to the Board for their confidence and support. Cleveland County is home for me and my family, which makes this opportunity especially meaningful. We have tremendous students, outstanding employees, and a community that cares deeply about its schools. In the coming weeks, I look forward to listening and learning from people across our schools and community, building on what is already strong, and working together to make Cleveland County Schools the best school district in North Carolina.”
Chairman of the Cleveland County Board of Education, Joel Shores, spoke enthusiastically about their decision, reaffirming Bennett’s credentials and lauding his achievements.
“Under his leadership, Burns Middle School was designated a Model PLC School (2020) and earned Highly Effective Schools Accreditation (2021); the school was featured in Education Week and in publications by the NC Department of Public Instruction and the U.S. Department of Education. He won the Dr. Ken McEwin Award, recognized at the April 2026 board meeting,” Shores said in a statement to The Shelby Independent.
He continued, “Dr. Bennett has numerous publications and authored books. Published in NASSP's Principal Leadership and AMLE's Focus on the Middle; frequent presenter at local, state, and national conferences on MTSS, professional learning communities, adolescent literacy, and behavior/social-emotional strategies; nominated as an Education Week ‘Leader to Learn From.’
“Dr. Bennett has B.A. in middle grades education from UNC–Chapel Hill (as a NC Teaching Fellow), master's in school administration from Gardner-Webb University, and both an Ed.S. and Ed.D. in educational leadership from Appalachian State University.
“Dr. Bennett was going to be a Superintendent somewhere and I am glad we were able to keep him here in our district.”
Joel Shores, Chairman Cleveland County Board of Education
The next regularly scheduled school board meeting will be held on Monday, Oct. 12, 2026, at 6 p.m.
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Chuck Thompson is a reporter and columnist for The Shelby Independent.
The Shelby Independent.
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