D.C. Schools Chief Fires 98 Workers

The central office, the nerve center for the 49,600-student D.C. system, provides administrative and financial support for the 140 schools.

The system is one of the lowest-performing in the nation, a problem that has been blamed largely on a broken central office. It has been criticized for many deficiencies, including failures to provide textbooks and supplies for classrooms, to hire teachers on time, to provide students accurate class schedules and transcripts, and to quickly dispatch maintenance workers.

As of yesterday's firings, 116 school system employees have departed as a result of the new personnel rules. Eighteen employees resigned several weeks ago after refusing to sign papers agreeing to the "at-will" classification. The 98 workers who agreed to the terms will not be able to appeal, school officials said.

The terminations affected employees at all levels of the central office.

"This kind of thing is always difficult, but it allows us to operate more efficiently and effectively, and it allows us to push more dollars down to the schools," Rhee said.

As one of the fired workers left the system's headquarters, he said that "a lot of those persons who should have been dismissed are still up there."

He and other fired employees who were contacted refused to provide their names or requested anonymity, fearing that their remaining pay would be jeopardized.

The fired worker said he thought that the central office had become a "toxic" environment since Rhee announced the job action late last year.

Some council members said they were dismayed by the dismissals. Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D) said he was upset that Rhee told him about the firings after the fact. Rhee and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) angered some members last year when they failed to brief them about 23 schools scheduled to close before the list appeared in the media.

"I think it is essential that the council be informed," Gray said. "There are people who are going to ask us what we think."

Gray said Rhee visited him in his office about 90 minutes after he heard about the firings. He said she told him that the letters had to be reviewed and legal questions answered, leaving little time to inform the council.

"Her assertion was that this wasn't deliberate, and she apologized for it. It is where it is at this point," he said.

Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) said that he had not been informed about the firings but that the council was aware that Rhee would take action. "Basically, we gave her the authority to do it, and she exercised her authority," he said.

Some of the fired workers said they thought they had been treated unfairly since Rhee arrived. They said that she regarded all central office workers as though they were incompetent, even if she didn't know them, and that when she walked past them, she would not say hello or look them in the face.

One employee, who asked not to be identified because he had not received his final pay, said he was told yesterday to go to Rhee's conference room on the ninth floor. That's where Lisa Ruda, her chief of staff, terminated him.

"My being let go was not because of poor work," said the man, who had worked for the system for six years. "They had an agenda, and they wanted to come after us."

He said that after the personnel legislation was passed, he and other central office workers were given a job review. He said he thinks he was marked down in some areas to justify the firing. "I'd been there six years and never had an evaluation until they walked in the door," the man said. "How can you have folks who just walked in the door evaluate you?"

Council member Harry Thomas Jr. (D-Ward 5) said several employees had complained to him about the evaluation process. "I just hope that the process was fair to the people we let go," he said. "We're still talking about people's lives."

Cherita Whiting, an activist and parent of a D.C. public school student, told the council during hearings on the personnel legislation that Rhee should be able to get rid of nonperforming employees at the central office. But Whiting said she favored giving the workers a probationary period to improve performance, which, she said, Rhee did not do.

Whiting said she thinks many of those let go were probably good workers unduly blamed for a dysfunctional administration.

"I hope the paperwork will substantiate each and every one of these firings," she said. "Otherwise, they're going to have lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit over it."

Staff writers Robert E. Pierre and Nikita Stewart contributed to this report.