Former D.C. schoolteacher Jeff Canady says he is still waiting for a decade’s-worth of pay from the D.C. government — nearly a year after an arbiter told the city to pay up for his wrongful termination.
In July, an arbiter ruled in his favor, a decision he says entitles him to hundreds of thousands of dollars in back pay and the opportunity to be a District teacher again.
But the city has not compensated Canady for lost wages, and on Monday, Canady and top local and national union leaders decried the city government at a news conference for what they called its unjust treatment of the teacher.
Union officials said Canady, 54, is one of hundreds of teachers whose rights were violated during the era of Michelle Rhee — the former D.C. schools chancellor who clashed with teachers and their representatives after initiating an evaluation system that determined job security and bonuses. Many fired teachers, union officials said, are still stuck in arbitration.
“This is a complete injustice,” said Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s second-largest teachers union. “How much more will D.C. Public Schools put this man through?”
On April 1, the school system said it put Canady back on its payroll, placing him on paid administrative leave. Canady said he received his first paycheck last Friday, the biweekly check he would have received if he was still in the classroom.
Canady made $80,000 a year as a third-grade teacher when he was fired. The Washington Teachers’ Union said Canady’s salary probably would have increased since then, and it wants his back pay to account for that.
Shayne Wells, a spokesman for D.C. Public Schools, said in a statement that the school system is still determining how much money Canady is owed.
D.C. Public Schools “works to comply with all orders in the most appropriate and timely fashion,” Wells wrote. “In the case of Mr. Canady, we are taking steps to ensure compliance with the arbitrator’s decision, which began with his reinstatement on April 1st.”
Canady was one of nearly 1,000 educators fired during the 3½-year tenure of Rhee, according to the Washington Teachers’ Union. The teachers lost their jobs over poor performances, layoffs amid a 2009 budget squeeze and new licensing required under the federal No Child Left Behind law.
Canady was fired from Emery Elementary, a school in the Eckington neighborhood that later closed. The school system, according to the arbitrator’s decision, said Canady scored poorly on an evaluation system.
But Canady and the teachers union argued that his third-graders performed well and that he had previously posted strong scores on his evaluations.
Since his firing, Canady said he has exhausted his savings, and that he has spent time living in homeless shelters and on friends’ couches. He said he spent a year sleeping in We Act Radio headquarters — a local activist radio station where he has worked.
Canady, a native Washingtonian, said he has attempted to get teaching jobs elsewhere, but no one would hire him because he was fired from the District.
“Why does arbitration take 10 years?” Canady said. “D.C. is simply hoping that teachers die or lose hope. They never intended anyone to be able to navigate this.”
Union leaders assailed the teacher evaluation system at Monday’s news conference, saying it has been used to unfairly fire teachers.
Lewis D. Ferebee, who was confirmed as D.C. schools chancellor last month, said in a February interview that he is aware that a culture of fear exists among teachers and principals that they could lose their jobs with one misstep. He has said he is “committed to an assessment process that is fair” and would examine the city’s teacher evaluation system.