Acting Deputy Mayor for Education Victor Reinoso refused to tell the D.C. Council on Wednesday whether he was the person responsible for copying a section of another school system’s education plans and including it in a city proposal without attribution earlier this year.
The plagiarism issue quickly became a sticking point for some council members during an otherwise largely positive confirmation hearing Wednesday.
Reinoso said he took full responsibility for the plagiarism, calling it a “shortcut” taken “to meet a deadline.” He said the omission of attribution was unintentional.
“This is a management and a personnel issue,” Reinoso told Council Member Jim Graham, D-Ward 1, after several pointed questions. “I don’t think I can be any stronger than to say I accept full responsibility for all that it entails.”
“You don’t want to go further on this, but I have to ask myself, do I want to go further on this?” Graham asked Reinoso. “I think I am entitled to an express answer to this question.”
Reinoso also refused to answer a question from Council Chair Vincent Gray over how the person responsible for the copying was reprimanded.
“I think this is becoming increasingly evasive. … I don’t want to speak for the rest of my colleagues, butI don’t think this is very forthcoming,” Gray said.
Reinoso, who served half a four-year term on the now-defunct Board of Education, has been a key player in Mayor Adrian Fenty’s takeover of the troubled 55,000-student public school system. If appointed, he would be in charge of disbursing federal money and overseeing major academic reform initiatives and modernization of facilities.
The council is expected to vote on Reinoso on July 10.
Allen Lew, named to head the Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization, faced the council on Tuesday and hard questions from Gray over the lack of council involvement in Fenty’s hiring process. Fenty’s choice for schools chancellor, Michelle Rhee, is set to go before the council on Monday.
