Harnett Dispatch

Charter School Administrator has Colorful Past

Past Position

Ozie Hall

With the Construction of Anderson Creek Charter School, Mr. David Levinson Chairman of the board announced that Mr. Ozie Hall would assume the role as administrator. Mr. Hall was previously the administrator at Kinston Charter School in the eastern part of the state until the school closed abruptly in September of 2013. The closure left students without a school to go to and teachers were left without a job and were still owed their paychecks from months prior. The blame was shifted back and forth from the state and the charter school. The Department of instruction claimed that the school was placed on disciplinary probation due to the financial stability of the school; they claimed that the president was closing to secure financing for the mortgage but no evidence of securing a loan was presented and they sent notice that the school charter would be revoked. The school administrators claimed that the state had caused financial strain on the school but decided to close and turn in their charter 10 days into the school year.

During this troublesome time for the Kinston Charter School Mr. Ozie Hall was the acting administrator and came under fire from former teachers and parents. In some reports they claimed that Mr. Hall was still getting paid over ten thousand dollars for built up vacation time while the teachers were not getting paid for the work they had done. In all of these reports there was never any evidence that supported these claims and Mr. Hall moved on from the Kinston Charter School and became an active member of the Anderson Creek Charter school board.

From the streets to the Classroom

Mr. Hall was not always a highly educated professional, in his earlier years Mr. Hall was like many teenagers raised within the inner city. He was exposed to crime and hard knocks of life at an early age and became a product of his environment and took to crime at the age of 13 and continued this pattern until he found himself behind bars serving a 9 year prison sentence for armed robbery.  It was while he was in the maximum security wing of the Delaware Correctional Center that a guard was stabbed, inmates tried to set fire to the cell block and Mr. Hall ”began looking inward,” he said, for ways to turn his life around. He studied and became something of a jailhouse lawyer, managing to get his own prison sentence reduced from nine years to three. On his release from prison in 1980, Mr. Hall joined a community action agency in Wilmington and began the research that led in 1982 to the founding of the Juvenile Awareness Education Program. From there Mr. Hall embarked on his journey to higher education and public service. He was able to obtain a Bachelor’s Degree, two master’s degrees and a certificate from Harvard University. During this time he continued to stay active in programs that helped juveniles avoid and recover from crime related circumstances.

Questions Raised in Harnett County

After an article was featured in the Daily Record many parents were made aware of Mr. Halls past and questioned how a person who went to prison could work with kids. The Harnett Dispatch reached out to public school officials from the Harnett County schools and the department of public instruction. In the General Statues of North Carolina there is no law that makes it unlawful for a school system to hire a convicted felon or someone that has been to prison. The sole basis for the criminal background check for educators is at the discretion of the school district and the approval is based on the nature of the crime, age of the crime and the relevance of the crime to the duties the individual must perform. Mr. Hall’s crime took place in 1977 and since that time he has pursued a positive moral character that demonstrates rehabilitation. Mr. Levinson said that he has known Mr. Hall for over 30 years and his experience will be a great asset to the school.