Raki McGregor is a consultant and former Novant Health executive who began working with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) in 2022. His wife, Kimberly McGregor, is an educator and consultant whose company, SYDKIMYL Educational Consulting, had been a CMS vendor since 2019. Their businesses’ contracts with CMS and Mecklenburg County drew questions about oversight, scope, and the couple’s relationship shortly before the school board fired Superintendent Crystal Hill. The reporting reviewed here does not establish wrongdoing by either McGregor, and no agency had publicly said it was investigating them specifically.
Who are Raki and Kimberly McGregor?
Raki McGregor
Raki McGregor is a leadership and organizational-development consultant and a former senior vice president of digital equity and community growth at Novant Health. In 2022, he joined CMS as an executive in residence through the Charlotte Executive Leadership Council. The Charlotte Observer reported that he formed Qonnect, LLC, a consulting business, that year and described a CMS consulting arrangement valued at $130,000.
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Kimberly McGregor
Kimberly McGregor is an educator, former CMS counselor, and founder of SYDKIMYL Educational Consulting, LLC. In a CMS Board of Education contract Q&A, the district said she solely owned the company and that it had been a vendor partner since 2019. That vendor relationship therefore predated Raki McGregor’s formal CMS role. Kimberly McGregor said in earlier coverage by WFAE that her CMS work had nothing to do with her husband.
What work did their businesses do?
The businesses and payment routes should not be conflated. SYDKIMYL held CMS consulting agreements for leadership coaching and other education-related work. Qonnect, by contrast, was reported to have received payment for portions of work that CMS arranged through the law firm Poyner Spruill. The available reporting describes contract amounts and concerns raised about the arrangements; it does not provide a basis to independently determine the quality of the work or whether each agreement complied with district policy.
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| Business or arrangement | Reported amount and period | What the reporting says |
|---|---|---|
| SYDKIMYL CMS contract | $325,000, entered in October 2024; later increased to $500,000 | The Charlotte Observer’s October 2026 retrospective reported the initial contract and later increase. Some board members questioned the value, effectiveness, and relationship between the consultants. |
| SYDKIMYL CMS renewal | $180,000 through January 2026 | The Observer and WFAE reported the renewal; WFAE coverage said it was below the threshold requiring a board vote. |
| Qonnect work tied to teacher housing | Five CMS payments totaling $150,000 from April 10 to August 4, 2026 | The Observer reported that public records showed monthly payments made through an arrangement involving Poyner Spruill. |
| Qonnect portion of a compliance audit | $132,000 of an audit valued at up to $220,000, reported for June–September 2026 | The Observer reported that Poyner Spruill contracted Qonnect for part of the audit work. |
| Mecklenburg County work for SYDKIMYL | $3.1 million between fiscal years 2020 and 2025 | The Observer reported the cumulative county payments and said the county ended the agreement in 2025. |
The Observer described the McGregors’ combined contracts with CMS and Mecklenburg County since 2020 as exceeding $4 million. That is the publication’s broad combined figure, not a finding of improper spending. Separately, WSOC reported that former CMS board chair Sneed and Raki McGregor pitched a proposed $400,000 consulting contract to the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office. The cited coverage describes a pitch, not an awarded contract.
Why were the contracts questioned?
Questions concerned how the work was approved and monitored, what services were delivered, whether the results justified the amounts, and how Kimberly McGregor’s contracts related to her husband’s CMS role. In 2025, some board members challenged SYDKIMYL’s effectiveness and the scale of its work. The renewal was below the reported board-vote threshold, while earlier contract discussions included a larger amount and an increase. CMS’s board Q&A stated that Raki McGregor was Kimberly’s husband, was not a CMS employee, and lacked authority to authorize district financial transactions.
Rank #2
Hill’s memo, prepared shortly before the board’s September 2026 vote, raised concerns about contractors and board oversight. The Observer also reported on an employee complaint alleging that the then-board chair insisted on monthly payments to Qonnect through Poyner Spruill for teacher-housing work, despite policy warnings, and that Qonnect lacked an official direct CMS contract. That is the complaint’s characterization of the arrangement, not an agency finding.
Hill criticized the Qonnect arrangement for a compliance audit and questioned McGregor’s qualifications for the services. These were Hill’s assertions, not established findings. Board members’ questions about SYDKIMYL’s performance and the consultants’ family relationship likewise do not, by themselves, establish a conflict or misconduct.
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How were the contracts connected to Hill’s firing?
The contracts became part of the public controversy immediately before Hill’s termination because her memo raised contractor and oversight concerns. On September 22, 2026, the CMS board voted 5–4 to terminate her contract, according to Axios Charlotte. Public reporting said the board did not give a specific performance or misconduct reason for the termination. The timing does not establish that the McGregor contracts caused the vote.
There are separate inquiries to keep distinct. Federal and state scrutiny related to CMS was reported, but the FBI had not publicly specified the scope of its inquiry. In the reporting reviewed for this article, no state or federal agency had said it was investigating Raki or Kimberly McGregor specifically, and neither had been accused of wrongdoing by an agency.
The board also commissioned a separate investigation into Hill. The Charlotte Ledger reported that its public summary found no evidence of improper conduct by Hill and no contracting conflicts or improper activity related to her. That conclusion concerns Hill; it does not decide whether the McGregors’ contracts or conduct were proper.
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What is established—and what remains unresolved?
- Established in public reporting: the identities and businesses involved, CMS’s stated vendor history for SYDKIMYL, reported contract and payment figures, Hill’s memo and the employee complaint, and the board’s termination vote.
- Alleged or questioned: the complaint’s account of how Qonnect payments were arranged, Hill’s criticisms, and board members’ doubts about SYDKIMYL’s effectiveness or the relationship between the consultants.
- Not established in the reporting: that either McGregor committed fraud, a crime, or an ethics violation; that an agency had named either as an investigative subject; or that the contracts were the reason Hill was fired.
The underlying contracts, payment ledger, complete memo, and investigative files were not all available in the cited public reporting. The reported figures and claims therefore describe what publications, district materials, Hill, and the complaint said; they do not amount to an independent legal or audit conclusion.
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