DC School Chancellor Michelle Rhee Speaks at October 22 CAG Meeting Reception and Tour at Renovated Hyde-Addison School

Michelle Rhee, chancellor of DC Public Schools, will speak at a special CAG meeting on Thursday, October 22, at the newly expanded and renovated Hyde-Addison Elementary School. Principal Dana Nerenberg will also welcome residents to the wonderful new complex which is located in the first block west of Wisconsin Avenue, between O & P streets.

Selected by Mayor Adrian Fenty two years ago to shake up and fix the DC school system, Chancellor Rhee has made many changes. She has been profiled by Time magazine (photographed with a broom on the cover for her effort to clean up the system), Newsweek, the Christian Science Monitor, and she's been featured repeatedly on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer. Praised as a “revolutionary” and an “agent of change” for her drive to shut down failing schools, eliminate bad teachers, and reward the good ones with higher salaries, she has also been criticized for her approach by the teachers union and others.

She graduated from Cornell University in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in government and earned a master’s in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in 1997. Rhee taught in Baltimore for three years as part of the Teach for America program, which she credits with fundamentally changing the way she views education.In 1997, Rhee founded The New Teacher Project, a nonprofit organization that works with school districts to recruit and train new teachers.

Hyde~Addison Principal Dana Nerenberg, another alumna of Teach For America with a BA from Duke and an MA from Johns Hopkins, is starting her third year as principal. She is eager to have residents tour the new "campus" at 3219 O Street There is a lot to see: two buildings, a new playground, the children’s garden, an outdoor amphitheater -- and even a gazebo.

Please join CAG and Principal Nerenberg on Thursday evening, October 2, at 7 pm for a look around the stunning new complex and a reception and visit with the dynamic Chancellor Rhee.

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