Shocker: Michelle Rhee to Resign
Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee is set to announce her resignation tomorrow to go work on the Fenty write-in campaign, according to multiple reports:
She is scheduled to announce her departure at a news conference with Mayor Adrian Fenty (D) and presumptive mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray (D), said officials close to both Gray and Rhee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
She will be replaced on an interim basis by Deputy Chancellor Kaya Henderson, a close associate of Rhee’s stretching back to their days at the New Teacher Project, a teacher recruiting nonprofit Rhee founded and ran before her appointment by Fenty in June 2007. Henderson was a vice president for the group and is scheduled to be at Wednesday’s news conference.
Who saw this one coming? LL will have a full report after tomorrow's morning presser. In the meantime, here's a sad song for all of Rhee's heartbroken, hardcore fans:
Update, 10:52 p.m.: Presumptive D.C. Council Chairman-elect Kwame Brown and Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh learned of the Rhee resignation news from TBDTV/NC8's Bruce DePuyt when he pulled up dispatches from Twitter on his mobile device at the press table during DC Vote's Tuesday night awards dinner at the Mayflower Renaissance Hotel downtown. Both councilmembers were surprised and unaware of the news until DePuyt relayed the developments, complete with the resignation news and—get this—reports that Mike DeBonis (former LL and current Washington Post reporter) was blocked by a Gray "bodyman" from asking the presumptive mayor-elect a question about Rhee at Ward 7's town hall meeting.
When Washington City Paper's Michael E. Grass asked the Cheh about the Rhee news—"are you really that shocked?"— the councilmember replied: "Maybe you are a realist..."
Photo by Darrow Montgomery
9:24 pm
Ding dong. The wicked witch is dead.
9:51 pm
Kaya Henderson is a drunk! Anybody that knows her knows this!
10:08 pm
Wow, maybe she is finally putting the children first.
BYE!!!
10:11 pm
W/ that last RIF, Gray can pay his supporters with all sorts of shiny new teacher jobs. Long live dcps patronage, sorry kids.
10:28 pm
Ding Dong the witch is dead is right. She will be flying out of here at the end of the month. That's Halloween! How appropriate.
10:32 pm
ouch. really. there aint no money to hire nobody. That has been pretty much a done deal thanks to years of poor budgeting and overspending.
My gut reaction, and this is completely conjecture, is that Rhee got wind that Rivlin and Tony Williams were gonna ask to look at her budget and knew that the grits were about to hit the fan.
10:49 pm
One more conjecture. The resignation is part of the write in campaign. It would be an effective pitch to say to voters, "To get Rhee back, you have to write-in Fenty on the ballot."
11:52 pm
Good riddance to Michelle Rhee. Now she can spend time with her new black husband in California.
Hopefully, Gabe Klein, Neil Albert, Valerie Santos, Ron Austin, Janice Quintana, and Linda Argo will be next.
Last but not least, hopefully Josh Lopez, Ellie Anderson, and Ron Moten will disappear from the public sight.
Ward 4 Ellie Anderson and Josh Lopez is pushing this write in campaign for King Fenty. I wonder if these two have low numbered D.C. tags? There has got to be something in it for these two to be so mean spirited and hateful towards D.C. Councilman Vincent Gray.
12:00 am
HER ASS IS TAPPIN' OUT BECAUSE SHE IS ABOUT TO GET EXPOSED.
SHE IS A FRAUD PURE AND SIMPLE!
NOW THE CHILDREN OF THIS CITY WILL FINALLY GET SOMEONE WHO REALLY HAVE THEIR BEST INTEREST AT HEART.
TELL THE HO WE WANT OUR MONEY BACK FOR THE LAST MONTH OR SO SHE WASNT ON THE JOB.
12:27 am
Ward 4, home of the turncoat, only child, we want our daddy back ex fenty supporters have got their wish- to rehire their private school educated failure children who were once dc public school teachers. I'm glad our education system is back offline and that the people who did nothing for twenty years but all the sudden are political(because of Fenty educating and including) have succeeded in halting reform. I'm excited to see what other cities will learn from what will be known as the "Failure of DC; Grandparents vs Kids"
I will be writing in the Mayor, Adrian Fenty
on Nov. 2
1:28 am
Rhee did what she was meant to do and she did it well. At least she pays people on time for work rendered. I did not agree with her on some issues, but she is a nice lady who knew that many of the black adults working in DC schools were no good and would hinder kids. And, the unions a damn hoax. Rhee should have crushed and destroyed the WTU totally.
I guess its welcome back the drug infested DC, unsafe DC, abusive black school and DCPS workers, black discriminative actions toward their own black kids and people days.
You see, those black counselors and administrative people never gave a shit about the black kids nor their parents and I have heard this from many other black parents who were just afraid to speak out about it.
Those black DCPS losers who were fired wanted to use the kids as human shields to fight the adults battles and wanted to use the kids as human shields again at Mckinley again until two parents said "no" right in the Mckinley parking lot during school morning hours.
It's about time Gill fights her own battle instead of using kids to fight for her. She has always been fake.
I hope David Pinder will be OK as he is a great principal and a caring person towards kids and the parents.
Gill's former boss never called her any bad names to anyone as she has stated. The black adults just wanted to jump Principal Pinder at Mckinley because he is a caring white person who was giving kids a fair chance and would not take any shit.
Butt heads with the boss and your ass should get fired!!!
I hope the people who got fired from DCPS never get their jobs back and under Gray they will get a slap in the face.
Just keep on with the reform.
We voted for Fenty to keep the school reform.
7:13 am
Allseeing.....
What do you really see when your dreaming? David Pinder is a loser failed ex car salesman who Rhee brought with her from Baltimore. He has destroyed (almost but we. Are still fighting him) McKinley Tech High School. As a parent who was there before Pinder, I saw what the school was MEANT to be. Dr Gohl and Mr Bryant were the best administrators anyone could ask for. And this is from a parent who's child was disciplined.
Enter Pinder, and his ghetto "foster" kids who got caught getting high in the building, got caught engaging in sexual activity in the building, destroyed school property and were saved every time by PINDER. Well when other kids see that those types of behavior are now allowed, it becomes the norm.
Just last week students were caught in the building.... Ponders answer? He just doesn't think kids should be expelled for this. He is the same principle who had to tale hid facebook and myspace pages down because of his activities. Pictures in front of Benz with his pants under his ass and his baseball hat to the back trying to look cool. He is a laughing stock among the adults and the only kids that do "like" him are Kidd who have gotten away with something that should have caused them to get put out.... And even they don't respect him.
Please excuse any typos
7:40 am
Good news. When is Peter Nickles leaving?
7:53 am
My problem with people that leave the administration when "their" elected official leaves is that it makes me feel that person did not have the city's intrest at heart but was only loyal to that individual. I feel as though if individuals truly care about the development and well being of our city, in this case our children, she would have stayed regardless of who was in office (as long as they would keep him/her). So folk are only up for the battle of reform if Adrian is in office? forget the city if he's not? To her and everyone else that is willing to risk the city failing because of they can no longer ride the back of another egotistical, cruel and selfish. Pull her out the trenches then. If thats the case I say good riddance!
7:55 am
I am glad that M. Rhee is leaving but will that solve the serious behavior problem that plagues every school in the district. I am talking about those ill- behave students. Get serious about the real problem!
9:49 am
Its funny to hear everyone celebrate her departure. Meanwhile DC schools are still bottom of the barrel, literally the worst in the developed world, and DC kids continue to be hugely ignorant in thought and action. I just don't see what there is to celebrate. We need to find a way to just get kids out of DC schools and sent to surrounding jurisdictions or in-town private schools. Just shut DCPS down, but of course keep paying all the teachers and staff to avoid the political explosion. Just get the kids out.
9:59 am
Only two things interesting in this article is 1) the relattinship between Mike Debonis and Gray, I can't wait to see that love affair fall apart.
Oh, and Mary Cheh.
Babygirl. You are going to feel it. You turn coated on the guy that got you elected. And, you crapped on the most important issue to your constitutents. Rhee is more popular than Cheh is in Ward 3. Can't wait to knock you off in four years! Traitor! Some people have long memories ;-)
9:59 am
I love all the Rhee haters. Please make a note today of your ignorance, because the kids are going to be worse off in a year and you will be begging her to fly back in on her broom. Just because Fenty hired her does not put her in the same category as him.
10:15 am
I think Rhee supporters want to pretend like she was forced out. She was not forced out. She is choosing to leave. Rhee politicized her office and complained that if Gray was elected she wouldn't be able to do her job, which is kind of funny, because she always complained that teachers were making too many excuses. Rheebots can pretend like she is all about the kids, but it's quite obvious that she is all about herself. While I think that Rhee is ten million times more intelligent than Sarah Palin, I still feel that this is a very Palin move.
10:37 am
Test scores in DC had been rising slowly for over a decade - a fact that few were aware of, though the official info is available online at http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/states/
(then click on “District of Columbia” and scroll to the bottom.)
It’s not a secret, but Rhee doesn’t talk about it, except to take personal credit for the gain that happened on her watch. She also doesn’t mention that the achievement gap has widened on her watch. She used to talk a lot about her intention to close the gap, but fell silent about it, when the gap widened. The Washington Post reported on it once:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/12/AR2009121201276.html
Rhee is also pretty quiet about the fact the elementary scores dropped in 2010. She mentioned it once, when announcing preliminary local 2010 DC-CAS achievement scores. Nonetheless, Rhee – and the Washington Post – have revived the refrain of improving scores, as if the bad news never happened. If you want verification, you can read about it here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/13/AR2010071306622.html
Key sentence: “After two years of significant gains across the D.C. school system, elementary students lost ground in reading and math test scores this year, a setback to Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee as she seeks to overhaul the city’s schools.”
11:35 am
After enduring years of celibacy, the Mayor hoped that Ms. Rhee would be able to enjoy connubial bliss following her wedding. Alas........frigidity and impotence.
So, the couple, Mayor Johnson and Ms. Rhee-- which Mayor did you think appeared in the previous para? --- decided to end the bi-coastal arrangement, reasoning that if jet lag and changes in cabin pressure from their flights was not "impacting negatively" on their marriage, having Uncle Vince in the room or in their minds, was damaging the relationship.
And the Prince of Sacramento and his Princess lived happily ever after.
11:40 am
DC, the parents, teachers and students were all used by Michelle Rhee...we were her walking resume for her to say...LOOK WHAT I DID FOR DC...NOTHING because after 3 1/2 years we are still where we were...trying to vlimb out of a whole!
Bringing in Kaya Henderson..."the drunk" who smokes cigars and drinks till she stumbles is NOT a good idea...at least Rhee was sober when kicking our ass!
8:17 pm
This is just one reason John Dewey believed in tenure and keeping jobs in teaching non political. Meanwhile how about a happy hour for all the teachers in DC?
11:55 pm
@allseeing are you kidding me about David Pinder? A DCPS teacher brings in $100,000 and he does not know where it goes? How often does a teacher bring in this type of money?
He wasted all the money that was suppose to be for the children and elderly! GREAT MAN. NOT! Pack your bags David Pinder.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/17/AR2010121703367.html
4:13 am
What I love about DC is, we actually get it. From the sickness of RACISM and the REAGAN HOLOCAUST, we are still here and strong. How can those who are our eternal cancer provide a solution??? Just go away!