D.C. Schools Chancellor plans to fire several hundred employees
District of Columbia Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee is preparing plans to fire up to several hundred employees over the coming year, part of a major restructuring of the school system's central office aimed at streamlining operations. As the initial piece of her strategy, Ms. Rhee has begun drafting legislation that would ask the D.C. Council to suspend personnel laws so that the chancellor would have the authority to terminate employees without having to reassign them to other jobs. She also has been meeting with council members to lay the groundwork for their political support. The chancellor's actions are aimed at taking on the intractable central bureaucracy of the 50,000-student system, blamed for scuttling generations of reforms, say council members who have met with Ms. Rhee. During her informal chats with parents, community meetings and a two-day teacher training event last week, Rhee has vowed to create a central administration that is more receptive and responsive when dealing with parents, teachers, and principals. In past years, for example, the central office has allowed thousands of school facility work orders to languish, failed to deliver paychecks to teachers on time and had trouble supplying principals with supplies and equipment. Ms. Rhee is exploring whether she has the legal authority to fire employees without council action. But she is aiming, if necessary, to present a formal legislative proposal to the council by the time members return from summer recess on Sept. 15. Council member Kwame Brown says Ms. Rhee explained during a recent meeting with him that she wants to bring in new upper-level managers and downsize the central administration by as much as 30-40% of the estimated 700-900 employees.
Another council member who has met with Rhee has declined to speak for attribution because the conversation was private. However, this member characterizes the potential firings as a "TNT issue" that could be met with skepticism by members whose constituents would stand to lose their jobs. Furthermore, the Council of School Officers, the union that represents some central office employees, could choose to fight any council action to hand the chancellor more authority to fire employees. Typically, central office employees who are removed from a position have the contractual right to be placed in a lower-ranking position in the system while maintaining their salary. These rights have hampered superintendents who have sought in the past to downsize the school administration and remove poorly performing employees. In the meantime, two auditing firms hired by the city are examining the school system's finances and operations. Their findings, due next month, are expected to offer a road map for the restructuring efforts.
Washington Post By David Nakamura
[Editor’s Note: For background on the changes in D.C., see the first link below. In the op-ed at the second link, Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher writes that Chancellor Rhee has done "three crucial and potentially productive things": (1) "sending the message that the lying and the phony cheer that pervaded this system for decades are finally at an end"; (2) "exposing the system’s flaws" with "almost daily dog and pony shows for the media"; and (3) "getting concrete stuff done." He also praises her for "trying to give everyone in the system … permission to break the rules." Assuming Ms. Rhee concludes legislation is needed, and if the council agrees, it will be interesting to watch whether it ever occurs to policymakers in other jurisdictions to consider granting school boards the kind of increased flexibility they often prove willing to grant other entities that take on school governance.]
NSBA School Law pages on DC mayoral takeover
Washington Post By Marc Fisher