This is the last day of employment for dozens of D.C. public school teachers and support staff who were let go by Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee because of poor performance.
Today, a small group of people took part in a “Rally For Justice” to protest the new evaluation system that triggered the firings.
The rally was held outside school headquarters in Northeast.
It was organized by a local AFSCME chapter, whose leaders claim the evaluation system unfairly targets clerical and other support staff the union represents.
“Eighty percent of our membership are female and among those females are African-American women that are single family heads that have been targeted by these negative evaluations,” said Michael Flood, president of AFSCME Local 2921.
Flood also believes his workers will be scarred when they look for other jobs.
“They can’t even apply for District government or federal government jobs outside D.C.P.S. or Head Start.” And he added, “We hope to suspend the unfair evaluation system” which, according to Flood, has been implemented without union involvement.
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The new evaluation takes into account test scores, student growth and outside input from evaluators.
A total of 241 teachers and staff learned last month that they were being fired for poor performance or for failing to obtain proper certification.
