D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee has committed nearly $1.6 million in public funds for 13 of her top aides, according to figures obtained by The Examiner.
Rhee, who is paid more than $275,000 per year to run the city’s stricken schools, pays an average of $122,000 to each aide, according to a salary chart provided by Rhee spokeswoman Mafara Hobson.
The top salaries include Lisa Ruda, Rhee’s chief of staff, and Kaya Henderson, deputychancellor, who each are paid $200,000 — as much as their boss, Mayor Adrian Fenty, makes.
Jesus Aguirre, a “transition assistant,” is being paid $150,000, the salary chart shows.
D.C. Council Member Phil Mendelson, D-at large, who opposed Fenty’s takeover of the school, said the Fenty administration’s generosity with taxpayer dollars is worrisome.
“This is not the private sector,” Mendelson said in a statement through a spokesman. “There does not seem to be any sense of context or proportion between the agencies and the positions.”
Hobson said in an e-mail statement that Rhee was “looking for the best and the brightest” and needs to pay top dollar to get them.
“Recruiting top candidates means competing with private industries and other school systems,” Hobson said in the e-mail.
Hobson said that resumes for the staffers were temporarily unavailable.
The schools have been criticized for years of being too top-heavy and too generous with its compensation. There is a bureaucrat for every five students in the schools, according to employment records obtained by The Examiner. Last year, the schools spent more than $554 million on salaries, according to city records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
Three-hundred and fifty-four employees were paid at least $100,000 last year, the city records show. Of Rhee’s top 13 aides, nine of them are paid at least $120,000.
The schools are not the only place where city employees are given lavish salaries. Fenty has agreed to pay D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier $175,000; Fire Chief Dennis Rubin $165,000; and Victor Reinoso, the deputy mayor for education, $175,000. Reinoso pays 11 of his aides a total of $1.12 million, an average of more than $103,000 per aide per year.
Anyone with information on the schools or the Fenty administration can call Bill Myers at 202-459-4956 or e-mail [email protected].
