The D.C. Council on Tuesday officially handed the reins of the public schools over to Michelle Rhee, confirming her as schools chancellor and freeing her to move full speed ahead on the latest effort to transform the perpetually troubled system.

Following a month of in-depth vetting by the council, the panel gave its full confidence to mayoral appointees Rhee and Allen Lew, who will head the Office of Facilities Modernization. But it did so only after several members admonished Mayor Adrian Fenty, who recently took over the schools, for the secretive process by which both were selected.

Some council members, including Carol Schwartz, R-at large, and Yvette Alexander, D-Ward 7, remained uneasy with Rhee’s lack of background in public education and let her know they would be scrutinizing her closely.

“I hope that this experiment’s a success,” Schwartz said of Rhee.

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Rhee, 37, has never held a leadership role with a school system. She previously led the New Teacher’s Project, which helps urban districts recruit educators. She will be paid $279,000 annually plus bonuses under her contract, an issue that also has caused controversy among some members.

Now, she faces the daunting task of reforming a school system with a long history of poor management, crumbling infrastructure and woeful performance by students.

Rhee has said the key to the transformation will be selecting and rewarding quality teachers, reforming the system’s management that has wasted resources and making principals accountable. She watched Tuesday’s vote from the council’s fifth-floor chambers.

Rhee sat next to acting Deputy Mayor for Education Victor Reinoso, whose confirmation Chairman Vincent Gray left off Tuesday’s agenda.

Gray has been critical of Fenty’s failure to include the council in the selection of Rhee and Lew but has denied that Reinoso’s exclusion from the agenda was politically motivated.

He has said questions remain over Reinoso’s duties and evasive responses he gave during a confirmation hearing last month.

But Reinoso was “surprised” he was not on the schedule Tuesday.

“[Gray] gave neither the mayor nor I advance notice of this,” Reinoso said.

Rhee appeared buoyed by Tuesday’s vote. Her most immediate task is preparing schools for opening Aug. 27 amid reports from Lew on Monday that a “buff and scrub” of many facilities will not be ready in time.

Rhee also is working to recruit new principals and teachers in the face of “significant” vacancies at many schools.

“My focus right now is in ensuring we bring in the best-quality people into the system,” Rhee said.

cmabeus@dcexaminer.com