Marty Esquivel role model. Not.

The very instant that APS School Board President Marty Esquivel became the school board president, the mantel of senior most role model fell on his shoulders.

You wouldn't know it.  He thinks his silent abdication trumps his moral obligations.

He is yet to explain the math to interest holders.

One doesn't decide whether they are a role model.  Coaches don't get to decide whether they are role models.  The only deciding they get to do is, whether to be role models of accountability to the highest standards of conduct or something lower.

Teachers don't get to decide whether they are role models for students.

And school board presidents don't get to decide whether they are role models for thousands of employees and tens of thousands of students.

Esquivel's abdication, his denial, whether he doesn't want and won't accept the duties and responsibilities of his position as a role model is immaterial.  He is the senior most role model of the student standards of conduct.

The student standards of conduct are a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct. The Student Behavior Handbook specifically and explicitly expects students to “model and promote the Pillars of Character Counts!” link.

Fundamental to the concept of ethical standards of conduct, is honest accountability to them.  You really can't have the one without the other.  There is not a whit of difference between the highest standards of conduct and the lowest, if there is not actual honest accountability.

One cannot claim to be “(role) modeling the Pillars of  Character Counts!” except by holding oneself honestly accountable to them.  Accountability is central to role modeling. It is the accountability which needs the very most, to be role modeled.

It is the foundation of role modeling.

Otherwise, all we have is a centuries old fable about a kid a hatchet and a cherry tree, to point to when we need an example of honest accountability to higher standards of conduct than the law.

There is a need for role models to conspicuously manifest willingness to do more than the law requires, and less than the law allows. 

Mr. Esquivel has made it pretty clear that he has no intention to step up as a role model of accountability to the Pillars of Character Counts1, the same standards of conduct he enforces upon nearly 90,000 of this community’s sons and daughters.

He has made it pretty clear that he has no intention to allow me to stand up at a public forum and ask him ever again, if he will point to the time, the day, and the place,

1. where he will stand up as a role model of accountability to the Pillars of Character Counts!, or
2. where he will stand up in front of students and explain to them, in words they can understand, why, they are expected to hold themselves honestly accountable to higher standards of conduct than the law, and he is not.

The establishment media is well aware of dual standards of conduct in the APS; the egregious hypocrisy of ethical standards of conduct for students and the lowest standards of conduct for senior administrators and board members. 

They choose to not investigate and report upon it.





photo Mark Bralley

The evidence against me; you be the judge

This isn't everything that APS School Board President Marty Esquivel and the rest of the defendants have produced as evidence in their defense against my complaints that they have violated my civil rights.  It isn't even the most damning to their defense.

I've have edited their production to eliminate their repeated recitations of the rules they wrote to prevent me from challenging their character and competence as politicians and public servants from the podium during public forum.

If you Google "worst behavior protected by the First Amendment", about 0.53 seconds later 33,100,000 results will appear.  Admittedly, I have not read them all.  In fact I didn't read one.  Never the less I would be willing to bet the conduct was more outrageous than mine.

Here it is then warts and all; unashamedly and absolutely without apology;

• APS' video production, June 4, 2008 thru Sept 17, 2008 link
• APS' video production Sept 17 con't thru December 2nd 2008, link
• APS' video production Jan 21, 2009 Aug 19, 2009 link
• APS' video production Aug 19 con't thru November 4, 2009 link

It was after the Nov 4th meeting, when APS Supt Winston Brooks advised school board member Robert Lucero to use a pistol to "take me out", link.

Last day of school a waste of money

The last day of school in the APS costs taxpayers the same as every other day of school; nearly five million dollars.  We pay for 182 of them every year.

Students don't get 182 days of learning.  The truth is they get nowhere close.

Take away all the days when students are doing something beside learning; days spent in testing for example, and I wouldn't be surprised to find students probably spend one day in two "learning".  Senior year in the APS ends two weeks early.

In the past, APS' Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta has claimed some pretty outrageous numbers for last day attendance; 2012, link.  That was the year she offered; if the last day of school was meaningless, it was the teacher's fault.  And in 2011, link.

One wonders what she will claim this year.

One wonders if the establishment media will even ask.




photo Mark Bralley

APS spending $60K on their defense

APS is yet to comply with an IPRA request to inspect and/or copy the actual signed contract providing for a legal defense for APS School Board President Marty Esquivel, former School Board Member David Robbins,  APS Chief of Police Steve Tellez, APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta, APS Director of Communications Rigo Chavez, and APS Supt Winston Brooks.  But upon information and belief, when the actual contracts are finally produced, they will limit the lawyers fees, regardless of their hourly rate, to $30K.

I haven't seen the contracts, and until we do we don't know what else will be paid for out of "operational funds"; funds that if they were being spent on legal defenses would be spend instead, in classrooms.

We do know for sure, because Rigo Chavez has admitted it, the contracts do not include language requiring a "case analysis" presentation to the entire board.  Right now, the only board members who know the truth are the ones being sued and hiring the lawyers.  They have a manifest conflict of interests.

The presentation of the case analysis, if it ever takes place, will take place in secret and no recording will be made.  If they decide illegally to do something or another, there will be no record to subpoena.

The oversight of the entire board is an important check and balance and should not have been left out of these contracts.  It represents executive oversight (the people through elected board members) over the administration of immense public power and resources.

The only oversight over these contracts will come from the APS Director of Risk Management and an APS "procurement representative"; both of whom are subordinates of Brooks and everyone around and above him.

When the dust settles on this case, and it will settle soon because there is a preliminary injunction in the works,
it will be obvious the best interests of students would have been better served, had they obeyed their own code of ethics, the first rule of which reads;

Make the education and well-being of students the basis for all decision making.

Students would have been better served had Marty Esquivel and the rest of the Defendants simply stipulated their guilt, admitted they had made mistakes and then paid the consequences.  Not only would taxpayers have saved a lot of money, but students would have had a few honest to God role models of people stepping up to face the consequences of their indiscretions.

These people spend a lot of time and energy keeping a story alive about a kid chopping down a cherry tree and then stepping up to the consequences.  We tell kids that story because there are so few contemporary examples to point to instead.

We resort to fiction because there are so few adults who are willing to be role models of honest accountability to higher standards of conduct than the law; to do more than the law requires and less than the law allows.

Marty Esquivel, Brooks and the rest are doing everything the law allows in their effort to escape earned consequences.  They will do nothing responsible, unless the law requires it, absolutely, unequivocally and only after they have exhausted every possible legal weaselry, loophole and technicality

They will do so in their own self-interests and in those of other board members and senior administrators.








APS Supt Winston Brooks  and APS School Board President Marty Esquivel are the senior-most administrative and executive role models of student standards of conduct, and are unwilling to hold themselves honestly accountable the standards they established and expect students to "model and promote"; the Pillars of Character Counts!.

Every generation expects the next generation to be the first generation to hold themselves honestly accountable to higher standards of conduct than the law.

Every generation expects the next generation to hold themselves accountable to higher standards of conduct than they will hold themselves.

The question here isn't "how much" Marty Esquivel and the rest of the Defendants are spending, it is "why" they are spending that much in an effort to escape the consequences of their own misconduct?

The "talk" students hear is, step up to accountability.
The "walk" they watch is, do as I say, not as I do.

Students are expected to model and promote accountability to higher standards of conduct than the adults, who are arguably unaccountable even to the law; the lowest standards of conduct.

How are they spending in their own interests and without public oversight?

Because the establishment media is in cahoots, that's why.




photos Mark Bralley

The problem with wearing an elephant mask

is not that it means you are a threat or a safety risk, but that someone like Marty Esquivel will try to make it look like it does.

APS School Board President Marty Esquivel is defending himself in federal court against righteous complaints over his disregard of my constitutionally protected human rights to speak freely, to assemble freely, to petition my government for redress of my several grievances, and for due process from the government in its effort to obstruct my efforts.

Esquivel and the other defendants want very badly for someone to believe that he and they have banned me from board meetings, effectively for the rest of my life, because I constitute a realistic threat to his and their personal safety.

There is no real evidence to support their claim.

There are no witness who are not hopelessly conflicted.

Citing as evidence of the threat I present; the wearing of an elephant mask to two school board meetings.

I stood quietly against a back wall.  I made no outward effort to be disruptive; quite the contrary.

On separate occasions APS Director of Communications Rigo Chavez and APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta came to chat with me.  Neither offered any indication that they were at all afraid.

One of them, I can't recall which, came up to me to explain that they had figured out that I was "the elephant in the room."

I wore the elephant mask to those board meetings in an effort to draw attention to the elephant in the room at board meetings; the obvious truth being ignored;

• the abdication of the senior-most role models of the student standards of conduct; 
• the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS; 
• the relentless pretense of high standards and accountability in the face of overwhelming evidence of their absence.
• In particular the absence of accountability for the senior leadership and role models, to any standards of conduct higher than the law; the lowest standards of conduct.
• a manifest record of lack of accountability even to the law.  Witness the cover up felony criminal misconduct in the leadership of their Praetorian Guard, their publicly funded, private police force.

Marty Esquivel told me in a later meeting, link, he had thought it was a mouse mask.

Whatever else it did, it proved Esquivel and the board weren't going to talk about standards, accountability and role modeling no matter what.

And it proved the Journal was not going to investigate and report upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, no matter what.

So at least, it wasn't a total waste.




photo Mark Bralley

APS and TIG; KRQE, KOAT, KOB and the Journal know

The following email was sent to the appropriate news tip destination at the Journal, KRQE, KOAT, and KOB TV.

Recently, Technology Integration Group was raided by the FBI.

APS and TIG have been business partners for a long time with very lucrative contracts.

TIG has been investigated in other communities.

At one time, APS was audited by Meyners & Co.
You can get a copy of their findings from Rigo Chavez, APS’ custodian of public records. The findings are immediately available; he should produce them rather immediately.

In them, you will find, the auditors found a lack of standards, accountability, and record keeping – a perfect opportunity for corruption.

You will find APS’ records on their interactions with TIG wanting. In fact, you’ll probably remain wanting to see them; I believe they’ve been lost, destroyed, or maybe never created.

One of Meyners’ findings was that APS senior administrators were spending up to $50K at a whack “without involving purchasing”. A lot of that money went to TIG.

It would be interesting to know if APS is involved in the FBI investigation.

It would be interesting to know what records the Meyners auditors found missing.

Newsworthy?  I guess we'll see.

When TIG was throwing parties for APS, KRQE found it newsworthy, link.

One could argue it's newsworthy, regardless of whether APS is getting phone calls and emails from FBI auditors, or not.  Wouldn't good news about APS bookkeeping and procurement be newsworthy?

What if APS' Executive Director of Communication Monica Armenta could actually stand up some where, some time, and assure taxpayers that APS was not likely the victim of some scam, nor is APS about to be accused of being up to their eyeballs in some scam involving one of their longer standing and largest vendors?

How could that not be newsworthy?



photo Mark Bralley

APS TIG records missing

TIG, Technology Integration Group, subjects of an investigation by the FBI, link, were doing business with the APS at a time when auditors from Meyners & Co had found that APS' Finance Department had;

1. inadequate standards, 
2. inadequate accountability and 
3. inadequate record keeping;

the trifecta of circumstances for public corruption and misappropriation of public money.

Nobody ever went to jail for not keeping records accurate and complete enough, to send them to jail.

If the FBI looks for the records of public money flowing to TIG through the leadership of the APS, they won't find many.

These are the same records; a candid, forthright and honest accounting of spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd, that APS COO Brad Winter has already chosen to not produce, link.

These are the same records the Meyners auditors found missing.

APS vendor raided by the FBI

Technology Integration Group was raided by the FBI today, link.

The TIG has had a long and lucrative relationship with the leadership of the Albuquerque Public Schools.  The relationship dates back to a time when APS senior administrators were spending $50K at a whack "without involving Purchasing" in a Finance Department where auditors found; inadequate standards, inadequate accountability to such standards as there are, and inadequate record keeping - the trifecta of public corruption.  Larry Barker was on their trail for awhile, link.  Mark Bralley dug deeper, link.  Likely, millions and millions of dollars went missing.

Most recently, TIG sold APS and taxpayers a whole bunch of whiteboards, millions of dollars worth, now gathering dust all over the district.

Stay tuned.

Esquivel's outrage disingenuous at best

KRQE offers a follow up piece the story about a high school wrestler getting away with murder and politician who helped him do it; County Commissioner Art De La Cruz, link.

KRQE, because of personal and professional ties with APS School Board President Marty Esquivel, they allow him regular opportunities to keep his face in front of voters, who he hopes will one day propel him into the Attorney General's Office.  Their story features Esquivel and his outrage over the Commissioner's conduct unbecoming.

Marty Esquivel is the senior-most of the most senior role models of student standards of conduct in the entire Albuquerque Public Schools.  He expects students to "model and promote the Pillars of Character Counts!; a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct.

He is a role model whether he likes it or not; whether he accepts it or not.

Yet he, and the rest of the most senior role models of student standards of conduct have utterly abandoned their responsibilities as role models, link.

Would be voters will be mightily impressed with Esquivel's righteous outrage over De La Cruz' outrageous failure as a public servant.

Would be voters won't hear about Esquivel's outrageous failure as a role model of the standards of conduct he establishes and has enforced upon students, because like I said,
Esquivel has personal and professional ties with KRQE.

... and the Journal, and KOAT, and KOB.




photo Mark Bralley

Thousands and thousands and thousands of discipline cases every day in APS

APS Supt Winston Brooks was interviewed by KRQE for their story, link, on the specially treated Rio Grande High School wrestler.  During the interview Brooks decried the decision of a judge to override the discipline imposed by the school.

“I’m extraordinarily disappointed that the judge would second guess the school administration’s decision on this given that we make thousands and thousands and thousands of decisions on discipline cases every day.”

In a moment of unusual candor, Brooks admitted to the scope of student discipline problems in APS. We now know there are "thousands and thousands and thousands" of significant disruptions every day.  That's at least 6,000 disruptions every day, not to mention the disruptions that don't get referred to the administration.

How can that not have an adverse effect on test scores and graduation rates? 

Also, consider that most kids don't get in trouble at school.  That means the thousands and thousands and thousands of discipline referrals are being generated by a relative handful of students; chronically disruptive students.

Why won't the Brooks administration tell the truth, link, about student discipline in the APS?

The responsibility for enforcing discipline policies is an administrative responsibility.  If policies are not being enforced adequately, it is an administrative failure.  It is obvious why Brooks needs to keep the record hidden.

Less obvious; the reason the media won't challenge him on the ongoing failure to maintain order in schools and the ongoing secrecy surrounding it.




photo Mark Bralley

Brooks stodgy thinking

APS Supt Winston Brooks has recently set a new graduation rate goal of 75 percent, link. His battle plan; more of the same;

• extending the day at our comprehensive high schools
• offering programs like AVID at more than two dozen of our schools 
• continue small learning communities and advisories, and 
• professional learning communities ...

Albert Einstein is widely, albeit incorrectly credited, link, with offering the observation; "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results."  If your horse is running as fast as it can, whipping harder is not going to make it run faster, not 30% faster.

If we want to close the gap on the 30% of students who don't graduate, it won't follow offering more of the same.  Obviously, there are a relative handful of students who do benefit from "extending the day".  But they're never going to be more than a handful.  The vast majority of students who fail, need something vastly different than what they are being offered.  That "something" is within the grasp of educators, but only educators who are released from the constraints of the cemetery seating paradigm (five rows of six desks, everyone in the same book, on same page, everyday for twelve years).

We need bold new ideas; whole new paradigms different from the stodgy thinking of educational oligarchies and "nobody ever got fired for doing things the way they've always been done" thinking.  Those ideas won't come from people deeply invested maintaining the status quo.

The ideas will come from teachers, who in APS alone, have nearly 100,000 years of ongoing teaching experience.  Stodgy thinking keeps them from a seat at the table where the future is planned.

Stodgy thinking is satisfied with growth in graduation rates that is within the margin of error in calculating them.




photo Mark Bralley