Hardy Meeting w/Rhee on Tape

[Anonymous]

This is fascinating - a recording of the meeting with Rhee by a reporter from Georgetown Metropolitan. I thought it merited a new thread. It ends at 80 minutes.

http://georgetownmetropolitan.com/2009/12/04/breaking-news-pope-to-leave-hardy-to-form-new-arts-and-music-magnet-school-hyde-principal-to-replace-him/

[jsteele]

This is an interesting tape. I was surprised that the Pope supporters didn't seem to understand that Hardy is a neighborhood school. Rhee also said that some inbound parents had the same misunderstanding. It would seem that that would be a fairly easy misconception to correct and wouldn't require replacing the principal.

Rhee could not really explain why Pope was being removed other than than stated reason that he would create a new middle school. Either Rhee must be lying or many of the inbound parents should be very disappointed in what she had to say. If nothing will change concerning the curriculum, why will inbound parents view the school any differently? It seems to me that you replace the principal if you want to make changes in the school. If there aren't any other changes, I don't understand why inbound parents would perceive the school any differently than they do now. So, I don't see how you escape the fact that either Rhee is lying and there will be changes in the curriculum or Rhee is telling the truth, but that her actions will fail to make the school more appealing to inbound parents.

So, is this a question of sincerity or competency? Based on what I've seen of Rhee, my money is on both.

[Anonymous]

I'm not surprised by the confusion among current Hardy students/parents because the perception of a neighborhood school is often a school with no or very few out of boundary students. Hardy is a hybrid, like Oyster-Adams, and I don't know why Chancellor Rhee and DCPS just don't use that term. Or some term that better reflects the school.

This would come off much better if Pope had explained himself to the audience in Rhee's presence. Also, who besides the principal of Ellington thinks another arts middle school makes sense? My child is in middle school and I personally do not know anyone who thinks D.C. needs a second arts middle school. Maybe they are out there. But where?

[Anonymous]

Why would Pope need to explain himself? It was obvious when Rhee was asked if Pope had a choice of staying at Hardy or accepting her offer of planning a new arts middle school and she didn't answer the question. Rhee kept repeating Pope accepted her offer. When asked by Bill Turque for today's Post article whether or not he was given a choice, Pope said no comment. He was removed from Hardy and given the bogus job of planning a new middle school art curriculum. There is now money for this and won't happen. The word at 825 N Capital was that Pope was fired.

[Anonymous]

15:53 That's my point. If he were on board, he would have spoken. Perhaps I should have written "If Pope had been allowed to explain the decision."

[Anonymous]

This is so depressing. Rhee is set on clearing out all principals that are over 40. There are some experienced skilled educators out there that have a lot to offer and have been holding schools together despite the wild dysfunction of 825 and the revolving door of superintendents/chancellors.

What's especially sad is Rhee seems to resent any successful program out there that she didn't create. In other words, Pope has forgotten more about leading a school than Rhee will EVER know. Therefore, he must go.

Tell me again Michelle, "I put children first." I'm pretty sick of the refrain, but the Post still seems to gobble it up.

[Anonymous]

During the meeting people kept rephrasing the question about whether Pope was being forced to leave. Towards the end someone asked: Suppose Mr. Pope is so overwhelmed by the showing of support tonight that he wants his job back, could he have it? The crowd went wild. Pope, who had shown little on his face all evening, looked so moved that he might start to cry. Of course I was looking at him from a distance and may have been projecting my own feelings onto him so I could be wrong about this.

Rhee's response was that the job had already been offered to someone else and the offer couldn't be rescinded. That evasion to me was the most telling moment of the night.

With regard to the magnet/neighborhood school issue, it's true a lot of the Hardy parents seemed to be confused about it. As an out-of-boundary parent, I was never confused about it. I knew it was a neighborhood school and that the application process was a way of controlling out-of-boundary enrollment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is so depressing. Rhee is set on clearing out all principals that are over 40..

This just is not true. Our school has new principal this year who is an experienced and more mature principal who was put in place by Rhee this summer. That is the case in 2 other DCPS I know too. In all cases I think she nudged out a principal under 40 who was simply not good and put a much better candidate in- and they are all over 40. Well over.

[Anonymous]

Maybe Mr. Pope should attend New Leaders for New Schools like Rhee's other drones.

[Anonymous]

0350 here. Our school's and one of the other experienced principals were NOT New Leaders. These are people Rhee placed in schools Summer 2009.