alt.education

The Washington, D.C., public school system has been the absolute WORST
among major U.S. cities, at least since the District gained "home
rule" in 1973.

In fact, so dysfunctional is the "system," that most high school
graduates CAN NOT read their own diplomas.

This, and scores of other school system failures make one wonder how
the teachers, administrative staff, and the city's craven-self-serving
"school board" have ESCAPED being charged, tried, convicted, and
jailed on Crimes Against Students!

Now, as D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee begins firing mal-
and misperforming and just plain indifferent check-collecting
employees, all the "OTHER" people who've had a long hand in schools
that: FAIL to acquire BOOKS, fail to repair and install heat and air
conditioning, fail to fix lavatories, fail to obtain personal
computers, fail to repair roofs and ceilings, fail to acquire decent
athletic equipment and facilities, fail to hire qualified teachers,
especially ones without police records, fail to boot out students
possessing firearms and knives, and fail to make the schools safe for
students -- yeah, all the "others" are NOW crying "foul," as Rhee
takes measures long, long, long overdue.

And the schools are just one of numerous criminally dysfunctional
aspects of "Your Nation's Capital."

(But those are other stories, already detailed, but with more to
come.)
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"Workers, Council Question Firings"

By V. Dion Haynes and Sylvia Moreno
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, March 9, 2008; C07



D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee's decision to fire 98 central
office employees Friday is generating a debate among workers and
questions from D.C. Council members about the fairness of the process.

According to several people who lost their jobs, the firings affected
numerous departments, including business operations, food service,
budget and communications. But information technology appeared to be
the hardest hit, losing about 40 of its 50 employees. Former workers
in that unit said Rhee has decided that the functions will be absorbed
by the city's IT department.

Rhee's spokeswoman said yesterday that she could not specify the
departments affected by the firings or provide information about the
people who lost their jobs. She also could not determine how much
money the firings would save.

The former employees said they are angry that they were let go despite
years of good service. The legislation gives Rhee the right to dismiss
them whether they are good or bad performers. They also said they
thought the system treated them shabbily in giving them a phone number
to call to get information about final pay. Some said they are seeking
legal advice. The terminated workers refused to be quoted by name
because they officially remain on the school system's payroll for two
weeks.

"I've been contacted by a substantial number of terminated central
office employees interested in exploring legal action," said Stewart
Fried, a lawyer with the Washington office of Kilpatrick Stockton.
Fried said he is investigating their grievances to determine whether
they have a case.

Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D) said he had not been contacted by
any of the fired employees, but he said he was concerned about whether
Rhee properly used the evaluations to determine who should be
terminated. Gray said he asked Rhee for a list of the fired employees,
which she declined to provide because her office is waiting until all
of those employees have received their letters of termination.

The chairman said he is also going to request their evaluations. "What
do the evaluations look like?" he asked. "I want to see."

Council member Yvette M. Alexander (D-Ward 7) said she needed to know
which positions were cut. "Who is doing their job now? How is the job
getting done?" she asked.

The dismissals were the latest step to remake the troubled school
system. Rhee is in the process of closing 23 schools and reorganizing
27 others whose students consistently scored poorly on standardized
tests. In her current contract negotiations, she is pushing to reward
teachers whose students make significant academic gains. All of the
measures are controversial, but are in keeping with the hard-driving
approach Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) has taken since he gained control
of the schools in June.

Rhee gained the authority to fire about 400 in January, but it took
those who got the news Friday by surprise. Many expressed similar
complaints against Rhee that had been raised by parents and teachers:
She and her team are disregarding advice from people about what has
and hasn't worked to avoid repeating mistakes.

"She never talked to anybody with tenure to figure out the logistics
of her own school system," said one man who worked in the information
technology department for almost 10 years.

For example, he said, Rhee held a news conference at a warehouse in
the fall and derided the bureaucracy for letting computers sit in
storage instead of getting them into classrooms. The man said the
computers "were there because they were damaged. Repair people worked
out of that building. A lot were not repairable."

Gray said Rhee painted a picture of the central office as one filled
with employees who did not know their job descriptions or were not
doing their jobs, leading the council to support the idea of giving
her greater power. Rhee asserted "that there was a lot of incompetence
at the central office, and that they were protected from being fired,"
he said. "The question that needs to be posed to her is whether these
98 people were the ones who were not doing their jobs effectively."

One former long-time employee agreed. The woman said she feared the
dismissals would disrupt operations in the central office.

"History shows that when a lot of people are let go from that office
it hinders building the infrastructure for the system because you
don't have people with historical knowledge and you really need to
have that," she said. "If you want new faces, that's fine. But you
have to keep a balance of people that have that historical knowledge."

[Staff writers David Nakamura and Nikita Stewart contributed to this
report.]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/003/08/AR2008030802438.html