Rhee Gives More Pink Slips To DC Principals

It's Official - Chancellor Rhee Fires Stoddert Principal !

June 30th is typically the day when Chancellor Rhee sounds her trumpet of doom as she gives some DC principals their pink slips. Remember last year ? A little central office birdie told me that as many as 60 DC administrators including principals and other managers are likely to be terminated this summer by the Rhee administration.

I received a post on my blog inquiring if Stoddert's principal, Dr. Andriana Kalapothakos (known as Dr. K) had been terminated. Stoddert Elementary School is located at 4001 Calvert Street, NW. Prior to the end of this school year, some Stoddert parents had expressed concerns that Dr. K may possibly be terminated by Chancellor Rhee effective June 30. It was reported that Chancellor Rhee stated in a small meeting with some of Stoddert's parents that as soon as she finds a 'rock star' she had plans to replace Dr. K. Hmmmm very interesting. Well this morning I confirmed, it's official Dr. K is no longer the principal of Stoddert elementary school after a 3 year term. Interviews will begin sources state as early as next week possibly.

Stoddert elementary school met AYP in 2008 in both reading and math according to the OSSE website and students were 88.10 % proficient in reading and 78.57% proficient in math in the white and non-hispanic grouping. No available data was available for other minorities or special education students as they had less than 25 students tested in these categories.

These draconian tactics of firing even principals whose schools do well begs the question, why would termination even be a consideration. Of course in an at-will environment, anything and everything is possible. What we have seen is that this current administration throws the good out with the bad often in exchange for a not so great replacement. For what its worth, here's what a Stoddert ES parent said about Stoddert and the leadership under Dr. K on the great schools website. By the way Stoddert parents gave the school a 10 out of 10 rating.

"Stoddert is an excellent school and they are doing great work with the kids. It is a very small school (less than 250 kids I think) so everyone knows each other. The Principal Dr. K is wonderful and highly experienced. She has a great personal touch with the kids and so far, the teachers are great. There is a great librarian and computer lab teacher and solid services for non-native English speakers. Special ed services are uneven (as they are in all of DC). There is also a great before and after care program run by the PTA and staffed by current and former Stoddert parents as well as some of the teaching staff. They offer a homework club and extra activities like basketball, languages, knitting, etc. There is also a highly active PTA. The parents are in the school all the time and take an very active role." Submitted by a parent

Stay tuned for updates on this unfolding story.

visit OSSE website for latest AYP scores: http://www.nclb.osse.dc.gov/aypreports.asp

Posted by The Washington Teacher. Quote courtesy of Great Schools website.

It's Time For The DC Principal Shuffle

Starring: Michelle Rhee, DC Public Schools Chancellor

Hey folks, it's almost that time of year again when DC schools approaches its final days as the school year comes to an end. In the interim, some principals have already faced Chancellor Rhee's 'meat axe approach' to termination while others have announced plans this week to resign or retire under what many believe are threats of more soon-to-be terminations by Rhee and company.

As you may recall, last year some targeted DC principals on Rhee's hit list left many parents and community activists baffled and questioning Rhee's guidelines for termination of local school principals. Even in cases when principals had performed well, Rhee's unconventional actions to fire these principals without as much as an explanation left many wondering how could this be happening ?


So far here's the short list of departing DC principals and their affiliated schools:

My sources report the following:

Principal terminated @ Anacostia Senior High School (school reconstituted)
Principal terminated @ Dunbar Senior High School (school reconstituted)
Principal will resign under threat of termination @Garfield Elementary School
Principal terminated @ Hamilton Center
Principal terminated @ Luke C. Moore Academy Senior High School
Principal terminated @Spingarn Senior High School

An anonymous blogger posted that the principal at Janey Elementary School resigned.

Another blogger asked the following questions:

"Why is the principal at Walls remaining? Since his arrival, the number of scholarships received by the students has decreased. In fact he received a rating of 37.

"Why is the principal of Brightwood remaining too..She really needs to go! She is a control freak who has not made AYP since she has been there...and the hispanic student's don't have anything to doo with her incompentence. The principal shuffle has to do with keeping the bad principal's and eliminating the good ones, it has nothing to do with improving DCPS, but destroying it. "

Feel free to keep me posted about DC's soon to be departing principals or drop me an email @ saveourcounselors@gmail.com with your departing principal tip. (Posted by The Washington Teacher).