Rhee Supporters Hate On DC Teachers

I thought I would feature a comment by someone who calls herself Sonya. I doubt if that's her real name. Sonya, like Rhee continues to bash DC teachers at every turn. Although Rhee has taken her public bashing of DCPS employees on the road, this local hater spews her venom with a vengeance right here on The Washington Teacher blog. Her words remind me of Jill Scott's song " Hate On Me Hater."

"I could give you the world on a silver platter, Would it even matter ? You'd still be mad at me. If I could find in all this a dozen roses which I would give to you, you'd still be miserable. In reality I'm gon' be who I be and I don't feel no faults. For all the lies you bought You can try as you may, break me down when I say that it ain't up to you, gonna do what you do.You cannot hate on me 'cause my mind is free. Hate on me hater ....."

This is what Sonya the hater had to say:

"Just goes to show you how sh---- some of these teachers are. The moron commenters on this blog can't spell, punctuate, write a complete sentence, etc. I wholeheartedly stand behind Rhee. These damn unions reward the lazy and promote the incompetent. I'm usually pro-union, but this is ridiculous! I'm glad she's shaking things up and lighting a fire under some of your asses. I can't believe you people think she should have cut funding for more educational programming over the summers over saving your jobs. Hello, does that not illustrate something for you? The system has been failing for years. Whose fault do you idiots think that is? Time for change. Good riddance to you all. Oh, and good luck with Oprah."

Posted By The Washington Teacher featuring Candi Peterson, blogger in residence

A RIF'd DC Teacher Issues A Challenge

OPEN LETTER TO ALL 

Dear DCPS Employees Past and Present, Parents, Guardians, Students and DC Community:

I am writing this letter to issue a challenge to us all. We as a system are under fire. For those of you that are still in the classroom please do not be lulled into a false sense of security. This school system is under attack and teachers are on the front lines.

In the past few weeks it has become clear that the Washington Teachers Union is either unwilling or unable to protect and successfully defend us, so we must do it ourselves. I and some of my other friends have been on a letter writing campaign and have sent letters to everyone from the DC City Council to President Barack Obama. My focus right now is Oprah Winfrey. It may sound silly but understand that Ms. Winfrey profiled Michelle Rhee as one of the most powerful women in America and is planning on having her on the show.  I think that it is important that we get our side of the story to her. Michelle Rhee has been allowed to control the press for far too long. (Contact Oprah's website by clicking this Link . Scroll down and click contact us ). 

I have sent letters to Oprah but if we flood her website she will be forced to at least investigate what is going on. It only takes a few minutes to go to her website and click on “contact us” and send an email. We all have a story now it is time to tell that story. From former Principals, to teachers, to custodians, to office staff, and to the students, it is time that we go global with our story. Talking on the blog is great but we are preaching to the choir.

I also encourage you to contact Senator Daniel Akaka who is the Chairman on Oversight of Government Management. Click on Senator Akaka's name above and it will take you directly to his website. You can also write Senator Akaka c/0 141 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510, telephone: 202-2246361 or via fax: 202-224-2126.

I have friends that are teachers all over the country and believe me they are watching what is going on in DC and if Michelle Rhee wins here it will spell trouble for all educators across the country.   We cannot continue to sit back and wait for others to save us we must save ourselves.  Please feel free to forward this letter to all friends in DCPS past and present. 

Sincerely,

A RIF'd DC Teacher Fighting For Truth

dcpsfightingfortruth@gmail.com

Other people that we can email, just click on the links below:

Senator Daniel Akaka , Subcommitte on Oversight of Government Management

Senator George V. Voinovich, Ranking Member Subcommittee on Oversight Management

DC City Council 

DC Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton 

Md. State Senator Barbara Mikulski 

Va. State Senator Jim Webb

Toy Joyner, Russ Parr, CNN, The View,  etc.             

Everyone has a website and a “CONTACT US” button on that website, let’s use it. 

Posted by The Washington Teacher featuring Candi Peterson, blogger in residence

No Preliminary Injunction For DC Teachers Yet, Ruling Next Week

On Thursday, my cell phone was all ablaze with text messages about the hearing on DC teacher layoffs. They ranged from "not looking good" to "I wasted my time coming here" to "I shoulda' been job hunting " to "our lawyer's not proving our case" to "we're about to hear closing arguments & the judge will make her decision in  writing next week." This evening WaPo staff reporter, Bill Turque wrote a piece on the DC Wire about what happened in court. For those of us who could not attend, here is it is in its entirety (below). You be the judge of where things stand on the WTU preliminary injunction front.  What's interesting is that the WaPo covered Barbara Bullock's official release from prison in the paper today. I somehow get the feeling that the hearing on DC teacher layoffs will only be reported on the Post's DC Wire blog versus the metro section of the newspaper. Go figure. Whether you attended the Thursday's hearing or not, I'd love to hear your comments . 

Here's what a spectator said about Thursday's hearing: "The WTU case seemed to hinge on tugging at the heartstrings more than presenting convincing facts. They brought the blind guy out again to talk about his mistreatment. He's a great witness for a council hearing, but not for a court case. He didn't prove anything except that a mistake was made in his case. Several times the judge chastised the young WTU attorney for focusing on feelings or hearsay, but that didn't stop the attorney. She was whiney and petulant, saying “but your honor” repeatedly after your honor had told her to move on to her next question. It seems like she missed the class in law school on courtroom deportment and her mom and dad and her supervisors at the WTU had not clued her in either. It looked like her hairdo was held together by multiple paperclips. She was attractive and was wearing high heels and a trim dark suit, but other than that, there was nothing professional about her.Lee Jackson, the lead WTU attorney was better. He was comfortable and appropriate and had some presence (especially compared to her), but not much of a case to make."

Judge To Rule Next Week On Teacher Layoffs

"After listening to more than six hours of testimony and argument Thursday, D.C. Superior Court Judge Judith Bartnoff said she would rule "sometime next week" on the Washington Teachers' Union's (WTU) bid to roll back the layoffs of 266 DCPS teachers and staff.

WTU is seeking an injunction that returns the teachers to their jobs until an arbitrator can rule on the case. It contends that the layoffs are an illegal mass firing and that the budget crunch cited by Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee as the basis for the reductions is a sham, designed as a pretext for dumping older teachers. The union also says that school officials violated the collective bargaining agreement by failing to adequately consult with it ahead of time.

Union attorney Lee Jackson cast the layoffs as part of a long range plan by Rhee to secure by fiat what she was not able to attain at the bargaining table.

"This is union busting in the worst possible way," he said.

D.C. attorney Robert Utiger warned that should Bartnoff reinstate the teachers, DCPS would be facing a new budget imbalance that could force another, possibly more extensive, round of layoffs. Lisa Ruda, Rhee's chief of staff and one of the District's two witnesses, said it could possibly involve large numbers of other school system employees, although she didn't specify.

The union had failed to meet the multi-pronged test for winning an injunction that freezes the layoffs, Utiger said. It includes a substantial likelihood that the union could succeed in arbitration; that the teachers and the union will suffer irreparable harm without a favorable ruling, and that that the public interest will not be damaged by an injunction.

Utiger said District law gives Rhee unquestioned managerial authority to impose the layoffs, and that terminations resulting from budget shortages are not eligible for arbitration. He also asserted that while it is regrettable that teachers lost their jobs, loss of wages does not constitute irreparable harm. Finally, he said that DCPS students would suffer more harm than benefit by having their school lives scrambled once again by the return of teachers who have been gone for more than a month.

While it's always risky business to predict how a judge might rule based on the tone and tenor of her questions, Bartnoff sent some pretty serious signals that she didn't think much of the union's case. She made it clear from the outset that this would not be an exercise in second-guessing Rhee's decision.

"There may be a lot of people around who want to run the school system. I'm not one of them," said Bartnoff, a 1994 Clinton appointee to the bench who ruled against Roy Pearson in the famous $54 million "lost pants" case.

Jackson put on five witnesses: a senior union official (field representative Mary Collins), two laid off teachers (former Coolidge counselor Emyrtle Bennett and former Sharpe Health special education teacher Maurice Asuquo, one of the school system's only blind instructors) D.C. Congress of PTA president Gwendolyn Griffin and WTU president George Parker. There were intriguing bits and pieces, but nothing that helped to prove the union's basic arguments.

One surprise was when Utiger mentioned that there had been some brief discussion about a union proposal to use unpaid teacher furloughs in lieu of layoffs. Utiger said that for the furloughs to generate the required savings, they would have they would have to total about 28 days per instructor, a period that would be impractical and disruptive to schools. Parker said in his testimony that furloughs were never a union proposal, but merely an off-hand query from his chief of staff, Clay White.

One new demographic nugget about the 934 teachers hired by DCPS this spring and summer: Ruda said on cross-examination that about half of the new instructors had five years or more experience, refuting the notion that they were all newbies fresh from teachers college or training programs."

Posted by The Washington Teacher featuring Candi Peterson, blogger in residence, article courtesy of DC Wire.

Disparate Impact on DC's RIF'd Teachers

http://medilldev.net/2009/10/effective-teachers-central-in-education-reform/

Definition of Disparate Impact 

A type of discrimination recognized by the courts is “an allegation of disparate impact. An allegation of disparate impact most often focuses on a systematic procedure that appears to treat everyone alike, but has an excessively negative impact on a particular group"  Either an individual or a group may make this claim,. “If made on behalf of a group, it is called a class action complaint. The person or agent filing a complaint on behalf of a class must also be a personally aggrieved member of the class” (“Illegal”, 1999).

Crystal Proctor, Social Studies teacher from Jefferson Middle School is featured in this video and discusses how she was laid off on October 2 due to a Principal's assessment that she did not have a grasp of the new teaching and learning framework which was just introduced on September 18. Proctor worked at Jefferson middle school located at 801 7th St SW (phone number 202-729-3270) where Stephanie Patton is the principal.

Many believe these recent layoffs of 266 teachers and 122 school staff were intentionally created by the Rhee administration through over hiring of 934 new teachers this school year.  It has been reported that of the 934 new teacher hires the average age was 32 years old while laid off teachers had an average age of 48 years old. Even though seniority has to be considered in a reduction in force, its weighting on the competitive level documentation form (CLDF) was reduced to a mere 5 % instead of 25 %. Some say this diminished the value of seniority and constitutes an unfair labor practice and should be challenged legally. Other factors on the CLDF were subjective and were given  greater weight by the Rhee administration. Proctor illustrates this point in the video. 

It seems that many of the laid off teachers and school staff definitely may make the argument of age discrimination as there seems to be a disparate impact on employees 40 and older. I encourage all teachers and school staff to file an Equal Employment Opportunity complaint (EEOC) as well as an appeal through the Office of Employee Appeals (OEA).

* This entry is not intended to serve as legal advice. All impacted employees are advised to consult with an attorney.

Posted by The Washington Teacher featuring Candi Peterson, blogger in residence, Video courtesy of Medill News service and story by Jane Park

Beginning Of The End For DC's RIF'd Teachers And Staff

November 2 is the beginning of the end for DC's RIF'd teachers and staff. Effective today, they are no longer on the DCPS payroll. Unfortunately, the court date to contest these terminations is not scheduled until Thursday, November 5. 

Posted by The Washington Teacher featuring Candi Peterson, blogger in residence, Celeste Jones- graphics

Rhee On Time 2009 Anniversary Edition : How To Ruin America's Schools

Last November, Chancellor Rhee appeared on the cover of Time.  During the past year , the media coverage has continued on all things Rhee with a very different slant and more critical eye. I imagine if Time were to write an anniversary edition on Rhee this November, it might read something like this : How to Ruin America's Schools.

Posted by The Washington Teacher, featuring Candi Peterson- blogger in residence, Celeste Jones, graphic artist. Original picture courtesy of Time.

Reform The Rhee-form

In the October 29 council hearing, Chancellor Michelle Rhee demonstrated that she violated the law when she laid off hundreds of teachers and school staff. Rhee by her own admission acknowledged that she decided not to adhere to cuts previously approved by the legislative branch of government. Noah Wepman, CFO for DCPS certified the school budget and at no time did Rhee  submit a reprogramming  request to  the DC City Council as required by law when shifting funds. Not unlike Mayor Fenty her boss, Rhee also failed to communicate what she was doing with Chairman Gray or council members. Instead of reducing summer school programs in order to reduce costs- Rhee decided unilaterally to lay off teachers and school staff after hiring 934 new teachers this school year. Many believe that Rhee intentionally over-hired in order to worsen the already growing budget deficit which has now reached a whopping 20 million dollars under her helm. 

As reported in the WaPo in an article by Bill Turque:  "Joyce E. Smithey, an employment lawyer with Rifkin, Livingston, Levitan & Silver, said in an interview that "if the evidence shows that the chancellor hired employees in bad faith, then the question is whether she did so with the goal of forcing a layoff of older employees. If that's the case, then any admission about advanced knowledge of budget troubles could be damaging." This abuse of power will more than likely help DC RIF'd teachers and staff get their jobs back.  In the words of Council member Michael Brown let's "Reform the Rhee-form ." Rhee & Fenty gotta go !

Posted by The Washington Teacher featuring Candi Peterson - blogger in residence, graphics by Celeste Jones. Quote courtesy the WaPo.