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.

D.C. Wire reported yesterday that of the 98 workers fired, 11 have already been put back on the city payroll, though in a different department. According to reports, 40 of the 98 workers came from DCPS’s information technology department. Of those 40, 24 have been offered new jobs within the city government, and 11 have so far accepted. The kicker? Because the city is on a higher pay grade than the school system, they get raises ranging from $10,000 to $30,000.

“What may be a net savings to D.C. schools won’t be a savings to the D.C. government,” the former school system worker said. “The schools may say it may not come out of my budget, but it comes out of somebody’s budget in the end.”

Greg Barlow, who headed the school system’s technology department for two years before departing for Anne Arundel County schools in September, said he’s not surprised about the job offers. “They are a good bunch of folks,” Barlow said.

Neither Rhee not the District government has said much of anything about these workers. At the time of the firings, the Post quoted an anonymous school official as saying, “Terminations are intended to allow DCPS to discharge its administrative functions efficiently with the appropriate number of people and to address performance concerns.” Since no school officials will comment on which employees were fired for what reasons, we are meant to assume that Rhee got rid of some workers who were bad at their jobs, as well as some workers who just weren’t needed, but presumably were competent. Among that second group are many of the IT workers who the District has now hired back, because, as Barlow says, they’re a “good bunch of folks.”

But is it possible Rhee actually got rid of the worst of the bunch, and for political reasons, the District decided to take some of them back? We’d certainly like to know more.