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DC Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s decision to terminate Dr. Reginald B. Elliot as principal of the Luke C. Moore Academy has stirred up a neighborhood ruckus in Ward 5 that has gone on all summer and shows no signs of settling down, even though Elliot’s replacement took over Aug. 1.
Elliot’s last day at Luke C. Moore was June 30. By early August a citizens group had sent a letter to President Barack Obama in support of Elliot.
Meanwhile, both Elliot and the chancellor who fired him have been silent on the matter.
The school’s vice-principal, Gloria Tisdale, was also removed from her position.
Azalia Hunt-Speight has been appointed principal at Luke C. Moore to replace Elliot. She assumed the permanent position Aug. 1.
Luke C. Moore, located at 1001 Monroe St. NE, is an alternative school for young people who have attended two or three high schools previously without success. The school’s emphasis is upon helping behind-the-curve students improve their academic status and eventually graduate. The academy accepts students in grades 9-12, or between ages 16 and 20. It graduates about 60 students a year.
Elliot has worked in the DC public school system for 30 years.
Candi Peterson, who blogs as The Washington Teacher, has been a particularly strident voice in the controversy, accusing Rhee in a press release of “slash and burn school reform.” In addition to expressing her outrage over Rhee’s failure to renew Elliot’s contract, Peterson also wrote that the firing of Tisdale was “another indiscriminate termination” by Rhee.
Rhee had reportedly compared the Moore Academy with Banneker Senior High School and found Moore’s attendance rates waning. She also reportedly accused the academy of lacking “academic rigor.”
Peterson also posted on her blog, dated Aug. 5, a letter to President Barack Obama in support of Elliot.
“It is unconscionable that the council entrusted by the citizens of the nation’s capital would allow this injustice to be forced upon this dedicated school’s administrator and ultimately the precious youth of Luke C. Moore Academy Senior High School,” the letter read. “It is incomprehensible that the chancellor, appointed by the mayor and sanctioned by the council, is allowed to run slipshod with no semblance of oversight or objective evaluation over her administration.”
The letter was signed simply, “Concerned Citizens.”
Timothy Hill, a student at Luke C. Moore, was among a group of students who met with Rhee and attempted to get more information about why their principal was fired. Hill thinks very highly of the school’s former principal.
“He supported teachers and continued efforts to help the students learn,” Hill said in a telephone conversation in late August. “He took it to the next level. He cared for students so much. It was heartbreaking that he was fired.”
And when Hill and a group of fellow students met with Rhee, they felt stonewalled.
“She didn’t talk all that much,” Hill said. Her facial expression was kind of grim. The whole way through the meeting, she said basically one thing: ‘Changes have been made. You might not like them, but changes have been made.’”
“I got the impression that she was saying it was a waste of our time coming there,” he went on. “Students’ opinions are just opinions to her. She’s the head of the DC public school system, and some students talking weren’t going to change her mind.”
Elliot did not respond to an e-mail requesting information about what he plans to do, either with regard to his firing or with regard to his future plans. Rhee’s press secretary, Jennifer Calloway, did respond to an e-mail inquiry, but only to say that the chancellor’s office does not comment on inquiries “involving personnel matters.” |
