Wednesday Churn: Bye Rhee, hi Superman

What’s churning:

Some may see irony in the timing: The morning after school reform documentary “Waiting for Superman” debuted in private screenings across Colorado, one of the people the film portrays as a hero of the reform movement is announcing her resignation. Michelle Rhee, chancellor of the Washington D.C. Public Schools since 2007, will announce her resignation, effective at month’s end, during a press conference this morning, the Washington Post reports in today’s edition. Rhee became the target of ire from people skeptical about or opposed to the menu of school reforms pushed by President Obama and Arne Duncan, his education secretary.

Her blunt, at times undiplomatic style and take-no-prisoners approach to overhauling one of the nation’s most dysfunctional school systems won her ardent admirers and bitter enemies. At one point in “Superman” she tells an interviewer that she feels a sense of urgency because she knows tens of thousands of children in D.C. are receiving a “crappy” education. You think they’re getting a crappy education? the interviewer asks. “No, I know they’re getting a crappy education,” she replies.

Rhee will be replaced on an interim basis by Deputy Chancellor Kaya Henderson, described by the Post as a”close associate.” Rhee’s eventual departure was a foregone conclusion after her champion, Mayor Adrian Fenty, lost the Democratic primary last month to city councilman Vincent C. Gray.

What’s on tap:

The CU Board of Regents meets today at 11 a.m. for a closed executive session but emerges at 11:15 a.m. – or so – for a public meeting at 1800 Grant St. in Denver. The agenda, available here, includes an update on the CU-Boulder campus master plan.

Good reads from elsewhere: