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Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee is set to announce her resignation tomorrow to go work on the Fenty write-in campaign, according to multiple reports:
She is scheduled to announce her departure at a news conference with Mayor Adrian Fenty (D) and presumptive mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray (D), said officials close to both Gray and Rhee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
She will be replaced on an interim basis by Deputy Chancellor Kaya Henderson, a close associate of Rhee’s stretching back to their days at the New Teacher Project, a teacher recruiting nonprofit Rhee founded and ran before her appointment by Fenty in June 2007. Henderson was a vice president for the group and is scheduled to be at Wednesday’s news conference.
Who saw this one coming? LL will have a full report after tomorrow’s morning presser. In the meantime, here’s a sad song for all of Rhee’s heartbroken, hardcore fans:
Update, 10:52 p.m.: Presumptive D.C. Council Chairman-elect Kwame Brown and Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh learned of the Rhee resignation news from TBDTV/NC8’s Bruce DePuyt when he pulled up dispatches from Twitter on his mobile device at the press table during DC Vote’s Tuesday night awards dinner at the Mayflower Renaissance Hotel downtown. Both councilmembers were surprised and unaware of the news until DePuyt relayed the developments, complete with the resignation news and—get this—reports that Mike DeBonis (former LL and current Washington Post reporter) was blocked by a Gray “bodyman” from asking the presumptive mayor-elect a question about Rhee at Ward 7’s town hall meeting.
When Washington City Paper‘s Michael E. Grass asked the Cheh about the Rhee news—”are you really that shocked?”— the councilmember replied: “Maybe you are a realist…”
Photo by Darrow Montgomery