229 Teachers RIFed, see DC Wire for full story

[Anonymous]

I don't know enough about the situation to know who is to blame for this mess, but I do know that the children will suffer. They will suffer from the loss of teachers they were developing relationships with, and they will suffer from the decreased morale and increased workload of the teachers who are still there. I just cannot understand laying off teachers during a school year; as a child, I would have been devastated.

[jsteele]

I just received a note from Channel 4 news saying they will be covering the RIFs tonight. Here is their teaser for the spot:

"A lot of DC school students are meeting their teachers for the first time today even though the semester started six weeks ago. It's because more than 200 teachers lost their jobs on Friday meaning classes have to be combined, and schedules changed. And while everyone is playing catch-up, parents, students, and teachers are hopping mad about this and holding rallies and walk-outs. More on this story tonight on News4."

[Anonymous]

Thank you for posting this!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's all a question of priorities.
If budgets have to be cut, then do it, but why make the children suffer.
Cut some other services.
Give up useless things like the war

Wait a minute. The war (in Iraq or in Afganistan, btw?) is being funded as a line-item in the DCPS budget? Who knew? Thank goodness we've got a crack forensic accountant like you on board DCUM!

I'll happily offer up structural supports for a hypothetical mixed use project that will never be built over 1/3 of the Tenley library and stadium lighting for the Livingston playground ball field. There's a couple million spent on one neighborhood on projects that are controversial and wasteful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What I don't get is that this was actually a DC Council decision. They yanked millions from the school budget and told the schools to deal with it.

No they didn't. Ultimately, they gave Fenty/Rhee what they asked for. But Rhee's hoping people will just remember the conflict and not the outcome, so that they'll blame the Council rather than her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I don't get is that this was actually a DC Council decision. They yanked millions from the school budget and told the schools to deal with it.

No they didn't. Ultimately, they gave Fenty/Rhee what they asked for. But Rhee's hoping people will just remember the conflict and not the outcome, so that they'll blame the Council rather than her.

Rhee does not need to worry. His kids are in private, are they not?
And what do those people care?
Your kids are worth nothing to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I don't get is that this was actually a DC Council decision. They yanked millions from the school budget and told the schools to deal with it.

No they didn't. Ultimately, they gave Fenty/Rhee what they asked for. But Rhee's hoping people will just remember the conflict and not the outcome, so that they'll blame the Council rather than her.

Rhee does not need to worry. His kids are in private, are they not?
And what do those people care?
Your kids are worth nothing to them.

Ok, I know people really hate Rhee. but I don't understand this comment at all. There just comes a certain point where you can't even listen to people being upset because of all the comments dumping on her personality and such. Rhee is unpopular but there's no way that she's made nothing but mistakes. When all people see is the bad you really have to consider the source in regards to their opinion. There are two sides to every story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I don't get is that this was actually a DC Council decision. They yanked millions from the school budget and told the schools to deal with it.

No they didn't. Ultimately, they gave Fenty/Rhee what they asked for. But Rhee's hoping people will just remember the conflict and not the outcome, so that they'll blame the Council rather than her.

Rhee does not need to worry. His kids are in private, are they not?
And what do those people care?
Your kids are worth nothing to them.

Okay, everybody is entitled to his opinion, but not to his own fact. Rhee's children attend Oyster - last time I checked, still a DCPS school.

[Anonymous]

While it's very sad to hear some of these personal stories of seemingly great teachers who got RIFed quite unjustly, I wanted to share that it is not the case for all schools. At my school (I am a DCPS teacher) we lost one teacher who definitely NEEDED TO GO. This person was a "veteran" who had bounced around from school to school for years, basically avoiding the lengthy 90 day plan for firing by being relocated/pushed off on other schools. This person was mean to children, mean to staff, did little visible work, had constant parent complaints, and was not emotionally stable. It took less than a month at our school for everyone to realize this, but by then it's already very hard to just let someone go as you would in a business model, like a PP suggested, due to the complicated and lengthy method for removing a poor teacher. So, while I certainly sympathize with those who were doing everything right and still got fired, I do know that there are also schools that are breathing a sigh of relief (like mine).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:While it's very sad to hear some of these personal stories of seemingly great teachers who got RIFed quite unjustly, I wanted to share that it is not the case for all schools. At my school (I am a DCPS teacher) we lost one teacher who definitely NEEDED TO GO. This person was a "veteran" who had bounced around from school to school for years, basically avoiding the lengthy 90 day plan for firing by being relocated/pushed off on other schools. This person was mean to children, mean to staff, did little visible work, had constant parent complaints, and was not emotionally stable. It took less than a month at our school for everyone to realize this, but by then it's already very hard to just let someone go as you would in a business model, like a PP suggested, due to the complicated and lengthy method for removing a poor teacher. So, while I certainly sympathize with those who were doing everything right and still got fired, I do know that there are also schools that are breathing a sigh of relief (like mine).

It is not necessary or desirable to use unfair labor practices to weed out incompetent teachers. You may be next. Does that make you breath easier?

[Anonymous]

21:44, thanks for giving a concrete example of the hard-to-fire/needs-to-go scenario which is so often invoked, but so rarely spelled out.

Honestly, on some level I have to wonder about principals. The decision to pass off problem teachers on some other school (which it sounds like someone did as recently as last year in this case) rather than document the problem and fight for removal is a kind of irresponsibility on a principal's part, isn't it?

None of this goes to the question of whether the RIFs are justifiable, of course.

[Anonymous]

I remember reading an article in the City Paper (obviously not a good standard for journalistic talent, I know) 5 or 6 years ago about the process to fire a DCPS teacher. It went through all the different steps that had to be taken. In the end it looped back around to the beginning of the entire process with the teacher not being fired. I remember thinking how crazy it was that all these steps were in place to shuffle the teacher around and in essence there was no way to fire the teacher. I always wondered how true it was and if so how sad for the students to be stuck with these terrible teachers.

[Anonymous]

Nobody is denying that the DC system has some poor educators. What is really at stake here, is the removal of EXCELLENT educators from the classroom, many of whom where not even observed this year. In a system that appears to have so few check and balances, nobody is safe -even 21:44.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nobody is denying that the DC system has some poor educators. What is really at stake here, is the removal of EXCELLENT educators from the classroom, many of whom where not even observed this year. In a system that appears to have so few check and balances, nobody is safe -even 21:44.

But right now all you have is an anecdote about one excellent teacher. Let's face it, even the "best" DC public schools have plenty of mediocre-to-terrible teachers who were not riffed yesterday. I would find it very hard to believe that there were really that many gifted teachers who were subject to the RIF. All the complaining about Rhee is fascinating. The schools were terrible before she got here, we went through a revolving door of Superintendents who couldn't stand to deal with the entrenched system, and now we have someone who will - at least - make the effort to revitalize and revamp the schools. I'm willing to let her keep doing what she's doing for now. The schools are certainly not worse than they were, and most seem to be better. I think many people have short memories about the dangerous facilities, inability to get books and supplies, crazy registration process, etc. Things have improved in just a short 2-year period. I hope that Rhee sticks at it longer,

[Anonymous]

Sorry, the DCPS my children attend is worse for Rhee.

But what would I know, I'm just a parent. Ignorant, uninvolved, on crack, lots of baby daddies, blah, blah, blah.