Chapel Hill-Carrboro hires new superintendent. What families and students should know
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Rodney Trice named CHCCS superintendent, effective July 1 after interim term.
- Trice to confront enrollment decline, budget cuts and high school scheduling shift.
- Outgoing leader Nyah Hamlett praised for tenure, community focus and low turnover.
A longtime Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools administrator will take the helm of the 11,000-student school district in July, the district announced Thursday.
Rodney Trice, the district’s deputy superintendent for teaching and learning, systemic equity and engagement, starts his new job July 1, but will serve as interim superintendent starting Monday. He will replace Superintendent Nyah Hamlett, who officially leaves the district June 27, but is taking three weeks of vacation time.
“Dr. Trice’s genuine and heartfelt dedication to Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools is what stood out,” school board Chair George Griffin said. “Dr. Trice is invested here, and he is highly regarded both professionally and personally. That, combined with his experience, accolades, preparation and performance, made Dr. Trice the ideal choice to be the next superintendent.”
Trice has over 27 years of educational experience, including more than 12 years as the Chapel Hill-Carrboro district’s executive director for curriculum, instruction and technology and as associate superintendent for student and social services and equity oversight.
He left the district in 2014 to join the Wake County Public School System as its assistant superintendent for equity affairs. In 2021, he returned to CHCCS as chief equity and engagement officer, and was promoted the next year to his current position.
As superintendent, he will face some immediate challenges, from declining enrollment and ongoing budget problems to last week’s Carrboro High School student walkout to protest the principal and this fall’s transition to 4X4 block scheduling in the high schools.
His contract will run through June 30, 2029, and shows he will earn a starting salary of $235,000, including a local supplement.
Honoring Hamlett, promoting Trice
On Thursday, Trice presented Hamlett with a framed photo of the district’s leadership team as she was being honored. She is moving to Maryland to be the chief equity and development officer for Montgomery County Public Schools.
Hamlett, who was moved to tears Thursday, expressed gratitude and appreciation for her leadership team and other district employees, many of whom filled the district boardroom.
“They are amazing educators, and they care so deeply about every single child and every single staff member that is under their care, and the only reason you guys can recite (district) stats is because of the work that they do every single day,” she said.
Trice received a standing ovation as his promotion was announced a few minutes later.
“I will be forever grateful for your leadership,” Trice told Hamlett, while also thanking district employees and the community.
“Serving as superintendent is more than a title. It is a responsibility rooted in the public’s trust,” Trice said. “I’m honored, I’m humbled, and I’m ready to do this work in partnership with the board for a community that means so much for me and my family, a community that I’ve called home for almost two decades.”
In a district statement, Trice credited his parents, who were classroom teachers, with giving him a “profound and deep respect for educators.” At the meeting, he also thanked his wife, Kenya, and their two daughters, one of whom is a high school student.
Trice plans open door, partnership
Trice was selected out of 37 applicants from 14 states and territories, a news release said.
The Morehouse College graduate has a master’s degree in educational leadership from the University of Detroit Mercy and a doctorate in educational leadership from UNC-Chapel Hill.
He has served as a policy advisor for the N.C. Department of Public Instruction; was an associate principal in the Orange County Schools; and a science teacher, department chair and director in Detroit, Michigan.
The district noted that Trice has earned multiple statewide honors, including the Dr. Samuel Houston Jr. Leadership Award from the N.C. School Superintendents’ Association, which he received in April after graduating from the Aspiring Superintendent Program.
He has also received the 2024 Dr. Frances Jones Trailblazer Award from the N.C. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development and the 2020 Distinguished Leadership Alumni Award from UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Education.
He is looking forward to creating an “open and transparent” district, where he can work with the community to “be a full partner in tackling challenges,” Trice said.
“If our system isn’t working for a student, a family or a teacher, I want them to feel comfortable reaching out and saying, ‘Rodney, this isn’t working.’ People can expect me to listen deeply and work collaboratively to find real solutions that move us forward,” he said.
A formal swearing-in ceremony could be held at the board’s June 18 meeting, Griffin said. Informal meet-and-greets and a tour of the schools this fall to meet students, parents and staff will also be scheduled, the release said.
Hamlett’s tenure was challenging
The district has cut several dozen positions in the last year, including teachers, to close a $5.3 million budget gap. Some of the staff members were reassigned to other roles, while the remainder retired or left the district.
School board members have said staffing cuts were also needed because there are fewer students in the schools, in part because home sales in Chapel Hill and Carrboro are pricing out young families.
On Thursday, the Orange County Board of Commissioners debated the final draft of a 2025-26 budget that included a small funding increase for local schools, but not enough to meet the $10.3 million that Chapel Hill-Carrboro school leaders requested.
The district does not have savings to fill the gap, because nearly $16 million in available funding covered shortfalls in the last four years.
The outgoing superintendent was hired in late 2020, as the district was wrestling with hybrid classes and how to keep students safe but engaged. Academic results have been mixed in the last few years, state data shows, with the number of the district’s schools earning a “A” on state report cards increasing to three. Roughly 94% of students graduated on time in 2024, data shows.
But it also shows 11 schools earned a “B” last year, continuing a decline that started in 2022 and more schools earned a “C” than earned that grade in 2019. The state did not report results in 2020 or 2021.
Still, board members praised Hamlett at Thursday’s meeting for her strategic thinking and enthusiasm for the work.
“The job of a superintendent is a really hard job,” board member Rani Dasi said. “Every day, you’re facing multiple issues across multiple groups (and) a mistake in any decision could be life-changing.”
In 2021, Hamlett put together “an incredibly superb team of leaders,” Griffin said, and she has focused on the district’s priorities of student safety and wellness, fiscal stewardship, and commitment to stronger family and community engagement. The district also had an extremely low teacher turnover rate during her tenure — only 2.7% at the beginning of the 2023-24 school year — he said.
“One of reasons we had the budget crunch last year is nobody wanted to leave,” Griffin said.
But Hamlett also faced personal challenges, including a campaign to force her out. Kevin Klosty and his son, Hunter, initially challenged district policies around COVID masking and virtual classes. Hamlett sought a no-contact order in 2023, and the Klostys responded by suing her last year. Both cases were dropped or dismissed.
The News & Observer also reported in 2023 that Hamlett had plagiarized parts of her doctoral thesis. Hamlett said in a post published on the district’s website that the dissertation’s sourcing and citations give required credit and accurately reflect her research.
This story was originally published June 5, 2025 at 9:28 PM.
