A former assistant principal at a D.C. middle school has been accused of having held a second full-time job as a principal at a high school in Providence, Rhode Island — a possible violation of the city’s ethics rules for government employees.

In a notice of violation published earlier this month, the D.C. Board of Ethics and Government Accountability accused Michael Redmond of holding the two jobs — assistant principal at Kramer Middle School in Ward 8 and principal at E-Cubed High School in Providence — at the same time for four months in 2020. He allegedly reported in person to the job in Rhode Island while appearing virtually in D.C., working essentially the same schedule and collecting pay from both schools. (At the time, D.C. schools were operating virtually.)

A Facebook post from Providence Public Schools welcomed him to the job on July 24, saying that he had served as a “school leader and turnaround specialist” in D.C. Redmond allegedly held both jobs for 17 weeks between late July and mid-November of 2020, earning approximately $41,000 of his $125,434 annual D.C. salary while simultaneously working in Providence, where he was paid $120,720 a year.

He resigned from D.C. Public Schools, where he had worked since 2014, on Nov. 30, 2020. He left Providence Public Schools in April 2021.

According to the ethics board, Redmond’s double duty violated at least four provisions of the city’s code of conduct and ethics rules that all D.C. government employees have to abide by, including a provision that prohibits workers from taking an outside job that is “reasonably likely to interfere with the employee’s ability to perform his or her job” and another that forbids the use of “government time or resources for other than official business.”

“DCPS was alerted to this concern in the fall of 2020. Consistent with our protocols, we immediately began an investigation and reported the allegation to D.C.’s Board of Ethics and Government Accountability for investigation,” said DCPS spokesman Enrique Gutierrez in an email.

Redmond did not respond to an email seeking comment, but he told Rhode Island-based TV station WPRI that he performed both jobs “at my highest standard” and immediately resigned from Kramer upon learning that he could not work at both schools at the same time. (In 2018, WAMU featured Redmond’s work as a vice principal at his prior school, Truesdell Elementary in Petworth.)

According to the city’s personnel manual, D.C. government workers are not barred from holding second jobs unless “those jobs create or give the appearance of a conflict of interest” or interfere with their daily functions as a public employee. The ethics board can help workers determine whether a second job would cause any conflicts of interest, but it is also charged with investigating cases where a worker takes a prohibited second job.

Redmond will have a chance to make his case at a hearing before the ethics board, but if he is found guilty of the charges against him could face anything from an “informal admonition” to fines amounting to three times the money he earned in D.C. while doing both jobs.

In an extensive discussion on a Ward 8 Facebook group that stretched from Monday into Tuesday, residents both celebrated Redmond for his work at Kramer and his apparent ability to balance two jobs and criticized him for possibly shirking his duties in D.C. On Twitter, management consultant and published author Alison Green — best known for her “Ask A Manager” series — offered her own take on the situation: “Wow! That’s the sort of job where it’s definitely going to come out.”