Once again, DCPS is enjoying its year end ritual of firing teachers also known as the "culling season." Probationary teachers will be terminated "just because" not for "just cause." Reasons will be based on personal preferences of race, creed, sex, or income which will never be divulged for legal purposes. All new DCPS teachers have a 2 year probationary period requirement. Chancellor Michelle Rhee via Deputy Chancellor Kaya Henderson principals a written communication any probationary teacher may be terminated without stating a cause as a matter of rule. Last year's copy of the correspondence was intercepted. The principals are informed not to give a reason. It happened to more than 70 probation teachers some with teacher excellent ratings last year. Invariably, Principal and adminstrator personal preferences amounting to discrimination based on race, creed, religious background, gender, age, union activism or income are cloaked in terminations without cause. Many teachers oppose the long probationary periods as a practice.
Via confidential sources, this morning I was notified names are being amassed for a list of probationary teachers to be fired.
It is an undisputed fact Rhee and Parker agreed to a longer probationary period to a period of 3 years i.e. the Original Rhee/Parker Contract Agreement. Ask WTU President George Parker – better yet AFT President Randy Weingarten the real negotiator- whether the union’s proposal included allowing the expansion of this killing field? If so why and how does it benefit our teachers? The New Teacher Project, Rhee and Henderson’s old affiliation, is a current recruiter of new DCPS teachers for a hefty fee- of course. If you bring in new teachers and then quickly fire them and bring in more new teachers and then quickly fire them that amounts to churning profitable fees for recruiters. Why does DCPS need to terminate so many teachers it just hired? Public education coffers are being exploited in the name of a "world class education." New DCPS teachers with teaching licenses and experience are dismayed after being fired without ever being told why. A probationary teacher fired has virtually no recourse. Rhee’s interpretation, a combination of private sector understanding of "At will" and probationary employment, is self serving at the expense of a stable public school system and profitable to recruiting contractors.
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