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D.C. Fires Principal After Surge Of Violence

Educator Says She Was 'Set Up' at Hart
Middle School

Wouldn't it be interesting to
know who told her everyone was crap?



"I will tell you, when you come into a
building where you are told everyone is crap,
you come in hard," she said. In retrospect, she
said, she should have taken time to form her
own opinions.




Billy Kearney was Memphis Director of New
Leaders for New Schools and before that Atlanta
director of Teach for America, and before that
director of national recruitment.

By Bill Turque

The principal of Hart Middle School was fired
by District officials yesterday after two
months of disorder and violence that included
assaults on at least three teachers.

Kisha Webster was informed of her dismissal at
a morning meeting with Lisa Ruda, Chancellor
Michelle A. Rhee's chief of staff.

Dena Iverson, Rhee's spokeswoman, declined to
answer questions and referred instead to a
letter over Rhee's signature that was sent to
Hart parents yesterday.

The letter, which did not mention the school's
problems, said Webster would be replaced by a
central office administrator, Billy Kearney,
who had been serving as the school system's
director of principal recruitment. Kearney was
a key figure in the filling of more than
principal 40 vacancies over the summer, about
half of which were created when Rhee fired
people for poor performance.

Webster, 37, a former assistant principal at
MacArthur Middle School in Anne Arundel County,
is the third principal to be replaced since the
beginning of the school year. Galeet BenZion,
principal at Shepherd Elementary, was fired
last month, and the principal at Shadd
Transition Academy was reassigned to other
duties.

In a phone interview yesterday evening, Webster
said she had been "set up" by District
officials. She said she was put in charge of
the Anacostia middle school without the
resources made available to other struggling
schools. Hart was one of nearly two dozen D.C.
schools placed in federally mandated
restructuring for failing to meet benchmarks
for math and English test scores. Last year,
just 17 percent of Hart students read at
proficiency level.

Webster said publicity about the situation at
Hart also played a role in her dismissal. On
Sunday, The Washington Post published an
article that described a school in disarray,
with students fighting, roaming the halls and
disrupting classes, according to parents,
teachers and police. One student was arrested
for possession of a shotgun.

"If I had been able to keep things quiet, I'd
still be there," Webster said.

Webster had been hired as principal of
Roosevelt STAY, an evening program at Roosevelt
High School for people 15 or older who want to
complete work on a diploma. She said she was
reassigned to Hart after the principal who had
been hired decided not to accept the post.

Hart's disciplinary problems did not begin this
year. A review team that evaluated the school
last year for Rhee noted many of the same
conditions that contributed to Webster's
ouster.

The school was a shambles when she took over in
late July, Webster said. Summer renovations had
barely begun, and the school had 21 teacher
vacancies. With the summer hiring process
winding down, she said, she was "forced to grab
whatever was left" from a pool of teachers
"excessed" by schools that had closed or
experienced enrollment declines. At meetings of
principals, she said, colleagues told her that
she had teachers they were happy to be rid of.

Webster said principals at some other schools
that were being restructured under the federal
No Child Left Behind law had more latitude in
hiring teachers. Brian Betts, the new principal
at Shaw at Garnet-Patterson Middle School, was
able to replace more than 30 of the 37 teachers
who finished the 2007-08 school year.

Webster also said academic programs and social
services promised by Rhee as part of the
restructuring never got off the ground. Many of
the people involved are still in training, she
said. Only one instructor is available for an
accelerated reading program.

Webster said she tried to avoid suspensions
when discipline deteriorated because they are
counterproductive. "They come back worse than
when they left," she said. "They come back with
this swagger. It's 'I was suspended, now what?'
"

Eventually, however, the suspensions mounted,
and there were nearly 80 in one week in
October, she said.

There is plenty of blame to go around for
Hart's predicament, Webster said. She
acknowledged that she probably alienated staff
members by coming in with an attitude that was
too hard-edged -- an attitude she said was
influenced by her superior's judgment that the
school was in terrible shape.

"I will tell you, when you come into a building
where you are told everyone is crap, you come
in hard," she said. In retrospect, she said,
she should have taken time to form her own
opinions.

But others also shoulder responsibility,
including an administration that didn't
understand, or care to acknowledge, the depth
of Hart's needs.

"I would say that everyone is responsible," she
said. "The community, the administrators, the
teachers, the central office."



— Bill Turque
Washington Post
2008-11-11


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