D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee spent the last couple of days not responding to questions from reporters regarding her controversial comments to Fast Company magazine, but finally gave an exclusive interview to WRC/NBC4's Tom Sherwood late Monday. While she didn't name names, as D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray has been calling for her to do, she did offer some more specific numbers on the teachers she said were fired "who had hit children, who had had sex with children, who had missed 78 days of school."

She told us that one teacher had been on administrative leave for sexual misconduct and that the teacher had been fired as part of the budget purge. more ›

Metro has fired the train operator who was behind the controls during a recent collision at the West Falls Church Rail Yard, WTOP is reporting. The operator's name has not been made public, but investigators have reportedly already found enough fault with him that he has been let go. The crash, which took place at about 4:30 a.m. on Nov. 29, injured three Metro workers and caused as much as $9 million in damage. more ›

WMATA offers this update on the fate of three Metrobus drivers who have been under investigation recently. Two bus operators have been fired this week, according to Metro. The first is the driver who was arrested and charged with kidnapping after refusing to let a passenger off the bus during a verbal dispute. The second fired driver had been driving with a suspended license, which Metro only discovered after the operator got into an accident with another vehicle on July 30. And finally, the bus driver photographed by a passenger while talking on her cell phone, made public by the local blog Unsuck DC Metro, will in fact keep her job, after an investigation determined she had used her personal cell phone to report a mechanical problem with her bus. "The internal Metro investigation revealed that the bus was stopped and secured when the operator communicated with Central Control and she did not operate the bus while on the phone. She has been re-instructed regarding operating procedures and returned to service." Metro General Manager John Catoe originally said that the driver would likely be fired. more ›

Yesterday evening, we received a tip from a DCPS high school teacher that nearly 20 teachers at their school received termination letters from their principal that afternoon, including the union building representative. This morning, Candi Peterson, a Washington Teachers' Union board member, has letters from two teachers on her blog, and while the exact number of teachers fired has not yet been announced, D.C. Wire reports that four types of school employees were terminated around the district:

Paraprofessionals who work with students, but did not attain the "highly qualified" standard required by federal law under the No Child Left Behind Act. more ›

Last Friday was payday for the 3,293 students at 15 D.C. middle schools who are enrolled in the District’s Capital Gains program. The pilot program, co-funded by the District and Harvard University, allows students to earn up to $100 every two weeks for meeting conditions based on good academics, attendance, and behavior. more ›

Dr. Galeet BenZion, the principal of Shepherd Elementary in NW D.C., was fired last week by D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee for “unforeseen reasons” after only a few months on the job. As the chancellor’s office is restricted from disclosing details about personnel decisions, no specifics regarding the firing have been forthcoming, predictably resulting in an explosion of speculation and frustration on the school's email list and in the comments section of D.C. Wire. Jamie Miles, a "school improvement specialist and a principal coach" for DCPS, will fill BenZion’s position. more ›

Last month, D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee drew some heat for not renewing the contracts of 24 principals, including the principal of Oyster Adams Bilingual Elementary, where her daughters attend. This afternoon, she continued her crack down on administrators, firing 22 assistant principals, who like principals, work on year to year contracts. No specific reasons have been given for the terminations, which is consistent with DCPS's policy of not disclosing personnel details. more ›

WTOP's Mark Segraves has the scoop that interim D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles has advised Police Chief Cathy Lanier that she may legally fire the 17 officers (though Segraves now says it was 20 officers -- that's first time we've seen that number) she was forced to rehire. Lanier has reportedly already begun the process of terminating the officers again, who were originally fired for violations ranging from lying to get time off to posting personal information about a Washington City Paper reporter on the internet. more ›

When, in early March, D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee handed 98 central office workers pink slips, the move was heralded as a step forward in cleaning out the District's bloated and inefficient public schools bureaucracy. But you know what they say -- one bureaucracy's loss is another one's gain. more ›

Late on Friday D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee fired 98 central office employees, taking a big step toward her promise to “create a culture of accountability.” Mafara Hobson, Rhee's spokesperson, has said the dismissals were based “partly on employee performance and on Rhee's plans to make the central office more efficient,” and the city's Department of Human Resources has not yet released the names of those terminated, in an effort to preserve their privacy. more ›

WTOP is reporting that today D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee used her newly gained authority to eliminate jobs at the DCPS central office to fire at least 100 nonunion employees. The employees will be placed on administrative leave until March 22, and include no current teachers or school staff. more ›