He was booted out of Hardy Middle School, which he had built into a high-performing institution. Then, he was forced to sit for months in a central-office cubicle before being shipped to what some described as Siberia: a struggling school east of the Anacostia River that had ripped through several administrative leaders. Patrick Pope was expected to quit. Instead, he doubled-down: In July, he applied to become the permanent principal of that Siberia school — Savoy Elementary in Ward 8.

“It’s work that I love,” Pope explained during my visit to Savoy, refusing to discuss the decision by former-Chancellor Michelle Rhee — reaffirmed by current Chancellor Kaya Henderson — to remove him from Hardy, despite pleas from students, faculty, parents, the D.C. Council and folks like me.