With this afternoon's announcement that school is canceled for tomorrow, the D.C. Public Schools will have lost four instructional days by the time they're expected to open on Tuesday. (Friday was already scheduled as a teacher-training day.)
You know what that means: Make-up days!
Spokesperson Jennifer Calloway says two make-up days have already been "built in" to [...]
Things that are warm and fuzzy:
"I'm warm and fuzzy when it comes to some things: kids, and I do these listening sessions with teachers," DCPS Chancellor Michelle Rhee tells WAMU. "And teachers often come up to me and say, 'you are so much nicer than I thought. I like you! And I thought I was [...]
The D.C. Public Schools announced today that the annual out-of-boundary lottery process has begun, whereby parents can apply to take their kids out of their low-performing neighborhood school and, through a lottery process, put them in better-performing schools, many of which are west of Rock Creek Park.
That, of course, is what Mayor Adrian M. Fenty [...]
A top union official isn't satisfied with Michelle Rhee's explanations thus far of her controversial comments to Fast Company magazine.
Yesterday, Rhee explained that when she described "teachers...who had had sex with children," she referred to a teacher that was being investigated for sexual misconduct at the time of the layoffs. But George Parker, president of [...]
D.C. Public Schools chief Michelle Rhee has responded to calls that she explain her comment that a laid-off teacher "had had sex with children." The response came in the form of a letter to several councilmembers [PDF] who had expressed concern about the statement to a business magazine.
The letter followed informal explanations provided to WRC-TV [...]
Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee's found herself in a tough spot of late over comments she gave to a business magazine. "I got rid of teachers who had hit children, who had had sex with children, who had missed 78 days of school," she told Fast Company's Jeff Chu.
That "sex with children" line has dropped jaws [...]
The Reliable Source reports this morning that Chancellor Michelle Rhee will be marrying Kevin Johnson on Sept. 4 in a locale to be determined.
Hmm, early September—interesting choice for someone who runs a school system. While the D.C. Public Schools will be open as of Aug. 23, it promises to be quite the juggle to plan [...]
Interesting WaPo correction:
A Jan. 2 Metro article on D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee's priorities as she prepared for the fiscal 2011 budget said that she vowed to protect spending on teachers and classroom supplies while cutting $22 million. The article was based on a PowerPoint presentation and comments by Rhee and her aides [...]
"Maybe we ought to just disband this council. Why did we spend hours working on a budget...only for you to second-guess us?"
—D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, Oct. 29
WaPo's Bill Turque reported earlier this month that students at Wilson Senior High School would have to relocate while the city renovated their historic Tenleytown campus, and that the University of the District of Columbia would be a likely spot for their interlude.
Well, it's now official: Wilson principal Pete Cahall informed parents today in an [...]
The District today petitioned a federal judge to return control of the city's public school transportation system to local authorities.
According to today's filing, a "first class school transportation system" has been established under court administrator David Gilmore and "it is now time to return control of this function to the government elected by the citizens [...]
The nearly 388 DCPS employees fired in early October will not be rehired anytime soon.
Today, Superior Court Judge Judith Bartnoff denied a request from the Washington Teachers' Union to reinstate the fired employees, including 266 WTU members, pending the outcome of a lawsuit.
The employees were laid off by DCPS as part of a "reduction in [...]
Stories broke this morning in the Los Angeles Times and in the Examiner reporting that D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee took an active role in investigations of her fiance, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson.
Allow LL to explicate a little more fully what this is and what Rhee is alleged to have done.
Vincent C. Gray and the remainder of the D.C. Council have just gaveled to order a hearing on the "causes, implementation, and impact" of the D.C. Public School layoffs earlier this month.
LL will be following along on Channel 13 and live blogging the proceedings. (Actually, LL will be livetweeting and pasting those over here at [...]
