District of Columbia Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson recently sent termination notices to 206 teachers for poor performance, as measured by the IMPACT evaluation tool developed by her predecessor, Michelle Rhee. For the majority of fired teachers, it was the second consecutive year in which they failed to meet professional standards — including higher student scores on standardized tests.
But whether they’ll actually stay fired is another matter.
The dismissed teachers represent the bottom of the barrel of the fourth worst urban school district in the U.S. But that doesn’t mean they’re gone for good.
Although IMPACT evaluations themselves are non-negotiable, Washington Teachers’ Union members have the right to appeal — and the union itself is part of a group that reviews decisions on how the evaluation system is being implemented.
In February, arbitrator Charles Feigenbaum ordered DCPS to reinstate 75 untenured first- and second-year teachers who were dismissed for poor performance back in 2008. Ruling that the firing process was “arbitrary and capricious” — he ordered DCPS to rehire them and pay $7.5 million in back wages.
The WTU’s president, Nathan Saunders, noted that 135 of the “highly effective” teachers who will receive bonuses up to $25,000 work in wealthy Ward 3, compared to 71 in poverty-stricken Wards 7 and 8, pointing to the discrepancy as evidence of a systemic bias.
Henderson’s subjective decision to exempt four teachers with ineffective ratings will likely also be cited as grounds for another “arbitrary and capricious” finding sometime down the road.
Unfortunately, DCPS is not the only public entity ordered to reinstate dismissed employees. Last year, Metro rehired bus driver Ronald Taylor — who was involved in a fatal 2008 accident with a taxi that killed a California father of two — even though he’s been charged with negligent homicide for allegedly running a red light.
Dismissing an eyewitness account of the accident, arbitrator David Vaughn ordered Metro to reinstate Taylor with back pay, and he’s since been promoted to station manager.
Shawn Brim is another Metro bus driver who became a local celebrity of sorts. He left his bus to punch an off-duty police officer dressed as McGruff the Crime Dog in front of a group of traumatized children. Brim was also reinstated with back pay after a 30-day suspension.
But this is nothing new. From 2006 to 2009, 87 Metrobus operators who had been terminated for such offenses as leaving a bus full of passengers to get some Kentucky Fried Chicken were back on the job.
Even running a prostitution ring right out of a Metro station is apparently not enough to blackball you, as a former Metro custodian who was later hired as a landscaper under a Metro contract found out.
The revolving door is even circling at the Metropolitan Police Department, where getting fired for lying, falsifying documents and even posting a reporter’s personal information on a law enforcement website won’t get you canned for good.
For example, former police officer Edwin Santiago was fired in 2004 for allegedly lying to investigators about moonlighting without departmental permission.
In 2007, he was reinstated with back pay and benefits after the D.C. Public Employee Relations Board ruled that MPD violated its own termination process. In 2008, Police Chief Cathy Lanier refired Santiago and 17 other officers for “inefficiency.”
Last week, an arbitrator overturned Santiago’s dismissal — for the fifth time. When Donald Trump barks “You’re fired!” at hapless apprentices who don’t make the grade, they’re gone for good.
But in D.C., the same words too often mean “See ya later.”
Barbara F. Hollingsworth is The Examiner’s local opinion editor.
