2007 DC school leader Michelle Rhee: $41,250 signing bonus, $275,000 annually, $27,500 annual bonus.

madfloridian

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Tue May-04-10 09:56 PM
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2007 DC school leader Michelle Rhee: $41,250 signing bonus, $275,000 annually, $27,500 annual bonus.

Edited on Tue May-04-10 09:59 PM by madfloridian

She received a driver and vehicle as well.

If she quits or gets fired she will receive up to 24 weeks of pay as severance.

She has laid off 266 teachers recently, under scrutiny now by a judge.

Nationwide it is expected that at least 275,000 teachers will be laid off this year.

Cash-strapped school districts are considering deep staff reductions�an estimated 275,000 employees�in the 2010-11 school year, according to a survey scheduled to be released today by the American Association of School Administrators.

The organization, which is based in Arlington, Va., generated that estimate from a survey last month of 1,479 of its superintendents from 49 states.

Yet school superintendents and school chancellors are living high on the proverbial hog. Read about Michelle Rhee's hiring.

From Bill Turque at the Washington Post in 2007.

Rhee to Be Highest-Paid School Head in D.C. Area

Acting schools chancellor Michelle Rhee at Monday's confirmation hearing. Rhee's contract makes her eligible for a $27,500 annual bonus. (By Dayna Smith For The Washington Post)

Acting D.C. schools chancellor Michelle A. Rhee will be paid $275,000 annually and will receive a $41,250 signing bonus if she is confirmed, making her the highest-paid school leader in the immediate metropolitan area.

According to a contract Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) submitted to the D.C. Council yesterday, Rhee is also eligible for a $27,500 annual bonus if she meets certain performance goals identified by Fenty that include "student academic achievement" and "communications with community and families." The mayor and Rhee together will agree to the terms on which she will be evaluated.

..."Fenty surprised residents and city leaders when he ousted Janey less than an hour before gaining control of the schools June 12 and named Rhee as acting chancellor. He did not provide a copy of her r�sum� before she was appointed to a review panel, as mandated by the school takeover law.

If Rhee is fired or quits for "good cause," she will receive up to 24 weeks of pay, the contract states.

She and the Mayor will get to determine the terms of her evaluation.

Fast forward to recent days.

She laid off 266 teachers...falsely accusing them of being "miscreants, abusers, and/or child molesters".

Last summer Rhee told DC Council that economic necessity was behind the firing of 266 experienced teachers and other school personnel. Now she is telling the media that the fired teachers were miscreants, abusers, and/or child molesters. If they were child molesters or abusers, why have no police reports been filed? If they were not child molesters, why is Rhee lying to the media and slandering the 266 fired DC teachers? Is she desperate to shift the focus from her own role of damage controller for her beloved, Kevin Johnson, who stands accused by the Inspector General of Americorps of sexual misconduct with students of his St. Hope School in Sacramento?

..."Shortly before going on the air, Gray said he was stunned by Rhee's disclosure about sexual assaults, because she mentioned nothing about it in the October hearing on teacher layoffs, or in the course of a one-hour meeting he had with her last week.

"Educators are mandatory reporters of incidents like this," Gray said. "What she needs to do is very quickly corroborate this." If there is proof, it raises another question, he said: "Why was an alleged budget problem used as a basis for dismissing people who, according to her, engaged in abuse and sexual molestation of children?"

Now it appears a judge may be questioning the validity of the layoffs.

Judge questions legitimacy of D.C. teacher layoffs

A D.C. Superior Court judge raised questions Friday about Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee's justification for laying off 266 teachers in October and refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Washington Teachers' Union that is challenging the job cuts.

Judge Judith Bartnoff's ruling came 10 days after Rhee disclosed that District finance officials had discovered a $34 million surplus in the 2010 schools budget. That finding came three months after Rhee had cited a budget shortfall as the reason for the layoffs, which sparked bitter student and teacher protests.

Problem is that there was no surplus after all.

Rhee had said she intended to use the extra money to help pay for increases in the proposed new labor contract, but the sum was declared nonexistent by D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi.

She is in charge, gets big bucks for being in charge. But she doesn't know how much money there is available. Pretty bad.

In a sworn declaration filed this week, Rhee affirmed an earlier sworn document that said she faced a bona fide $44 million budget gap last summer. It consisted of $21 million in reductions ordered by the D.C. Council, $20 million to retain teaching and non-teaching staff whose spots at schools were lost when enrollment declined, and $3 million in severance costs. She said she had "no knowledge" of the surplus when she authorized the layoffs.

As the school "reformers" continue their quest to privatize public education, the salaries of school superintendents and administrators grow....and teachers are laid off.

This is happening quickly because people never believed that the Bush, Gingrich, Norquist policies would be coming to fruition under a Democratic administration.

And we are letting it happen.