Two DC School Teams

My sources tell me that if you go to DC school headquarters you will see two distinct teams.

On one team are the older- grayer people; hired by former Superintendent Clifford Janey and the Superintendents who came and went before Janey.

On the second team are the newer, younger people brought in by Mayor Adrian Fenty and School Chancellor Michelle Rhee.

The second team is really busy with consultants and getting up to speed on what Rhee needs done. They're clearly in charge now, digging in for the long haul, knowing that re-enforcements will soon be on the way.

I'm told that a lot of the members of that first team don't have a lot of work to do these days. In one office several people report for work every day but they have no assignments. They expect their Supervisor will be fired soon; That person has told the staff they might be dismissed in two weeks. The staff has been given no future marching orders by the new administration. They rarely see Chancellor Rhee coming and going.

I talked to both Mayor Fenty and Chancellor Rhee today; both confirmed that people are going to be let go; that the Central Administration will be re-organized and made smaller. Neither would use the word "fired" although I did and they didn't correct me.

Rhee did talk about re-organization and a smaller central office. They both talked about shifting resources to the classrooms and added they won't be letting people go just to replace them with fewer higher paid staffers.

They'll need DC Council approval to suspend current personnel law that protects a lot of employees.

Senior employees can bump down and take jobs from less experienced workers.

DC Councilman Jack Evans met with the Mayor and Rhee today and seems ready to help them find a way to get what they want. Councilman Kwame Brown seems non committal.

It will be interesting to see where Council Chairman Vincent Gray stands on this. I couldn't reach him by phone today. Council is in recess until later in September. When they return there will almost certainly be emergency legislation to speed up the firings.

The Unions will also have to weigh in and will be asked to re-write some contracts for the sake of reform. This should be interesting. Didn't the Union leaders back Linda Cropp over Fenty who went on to win every precinct in the primary?

The political stakes are going to be high should a picture emerge of scores of longtime DC residents being fired to make room for outsiders.

Even impartial observers will be looking at how many veteran school officials are retained. They can't all be part of the problem can they?

Michelle Rhee doesn't have a lot of patience. She wants people out of the way and her new team on the way in by October first, the beginning of the fiscal year.

We should have some direction soon on where people stand after the DC Council reports back to work. Time for talk is over. This is where elected officials on all sides will be forced to take a stand.