A D.C. councilwoman Monday pressed Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee to explain what went wrong in her attempt to create a special school for the city’s most troubled kids.
Mary Cheh, D-Ward 3, said Rhee should give a public explanation for a series of costly failures at the Transition Academy at Shadd Elementary, a refuge school designed to provide intensive therapy for some 175 “emotionally disturbed” teens and young adults.
“As they’re experimenting, our kids aren’t getting the services and care they need,” Cheh said. “You may have had a colossal waste of money in a part of the school system that has been wasting money for years.”
An Examiner investigation published Monday revealed a host of problems in the planning and opening of the school. Not enough teachers or staff were hired, the building was considered unsafe and infested with rats, and kids were rushed to emergency rooms in droves thanks to daily, sometimes hourly, riots in the hallways.
The school was supposed to be Rhee’s case study in rebuilding the moribund $300 million special education system, which is already subject to two federal consent decrees.
Instead, the school system fell further behind as untrained special-ed bureaucrats were thrust into Shadd in a vain effort to keep the peace.
By October, a federally appointed monitor was declaring Shadd “a disaster.” A desperate “relaunch” by Rhee’s bureaucrats has calmed things down, but Rhee is still being urged to close the school and start again.
Cheh supported Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s takeover of the $1 billion school system and approved Rhee as chancellor. But she said the revelations at Shadd were a blow to the chancellor’s credibility.
“Every time we ask about special ed, we’re told, ‘Trust us. There’s a plan. We’re making progress,’ ” Cheh said. “This undermines all that. They should come forward with an explanation and also say what comes next.”
Rhee didn’t respond to requests for comment.
