The Perils of a New School Administration

Although DC Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee has pledged to make finding quality principals and teachers her highest priority, her most recent personnel moves have irritated some parents.

D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee has hired a Northwest Washington elementary school principal to join her transition team, upsetting some parents who are concerned about finding a replacement just weeks before the school year starts in August.

Ximena Hartsock announced last week that she will leave Ross Elementary, where she has been for the past year, to work for Rhee on developing new principal support programs and performance evaluations, Rhee said. Hartsock has been named transition assistant for leadership and will be paid $115,000, according to officials in the office of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D). Hartsock's start date has not been determined because she will help Ross with its transition and selection of a new leader.

Hartsock's departure, just weeks before the start of the new school year surprised many parents, who felt the principal had done a good job for the past year.

Parents said Hartsock worked tirelessly throughout the year on new reading and writing programs and on rearranging teaching schedules. Rhee said yesterday, however, that Hartsock had told her stories of working Sundays to collect trash in the building and performing other duties that exhausted her in the position.

"That was going to be a principal vacancy regardless, if she hadn't come on board with us," Rhee said yesterday. "What it says is that we as a system are failing to create the system and structures necessary so principals can focus on the things that matter most: being in classrooms and driving quality instruction."

No one ever said being a school principal was not a demanding job, but when the central school bureaucracy does not provide enough assistance to pick up the trash in teh school, then is it fair to expect principals to stay through the normal stress of the job when there are ridiculous additional stresses?

I have to commend Chancellor Rhee for hiring people who have been in the trenches rather than promoting a bunch of busy-body bureaucrats.