cannot be fully appreciated without at the same time considering the results of an audit that was conducted at the same time that the whistle blower policy was passed. The audit revealed that the "culture" of the APS was one of fear of retaliation and retribution.
If you link to http://ww2.aps.edu/ you can get to the whistleblower policy. You probably cannot get to the CGCS audit results because they are secret public records. Secret public records are those in the possession of the leadership of the APS and are records that are absolutely subject to the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act; but which cannot be obtained against the will of the leadership of the APS. In this case, "the leadership of the aps" is an unidentified administrator(s) or boardmember(s) who tell the lawyers of Modral who to screw. Modral has the virtually unlimited financial support of unwitting taxpayers who believe that they are buying the finest education possible for their sons and daughters. Modral is represented in the leadership of the APS by the wife of Modral's president; one Paula Maes. She is in fact the president of the board of education.
Maes and Modral then, both make money paying really expensive lawyers to keep public records out of the hands of the public.
The litigious, and highly profitable nature of the APS/Modral relationship is responsible for a recent increase in the District's insurance rates. It is well documented by secret public records.
In order to eliminate accountability to a code of ethics, and ethical litigation; Maes and the board struck the following language from their own code of conduct, "...in no case shall the standard for an adult be lower than the standard for students."
No longer accountable to a code of ethics, they passed a whistle blower policy that allows them to retaliate with impunity against anyony who exposes their ethical corruption and incompetence.
If you have the time and the money; you can probably get aps/modral to surrender the secret videotapes of the board meeting where they did that.
You will see me stand in front of the board and argue that they were enabling ethical misconduct. Within the APS culture of fear of retaliaion and retribution; the failure to offer protection to those who expose ethical misconduct would enable ethical misconduct by enabling retaliation and retribution;They deliberately allowed the exposure of ethical misconduct to continue to be punished. I knew whereof I spoke. For my efforts to expose the ethical misconduct of my principal; Wayne Knight, I was subjected to enormous retaliation and retribution. Gil Lovato; APS Chief of Police was deeply involved in that retaliation. The secret public record is incontrovertible.
Students are accountable to an ethical standard of conduct. It is a standard that is widely recognized, accepted, and respected code of ethics. It is called the Pillars of Character Counts.
I used to argue that the leadership of the APS and their lawyers at Modral were bound to an ethical code of conduct by board policy. I was, at the time, trying to get Judge Valerie Huling to stop the unethical litigation, the legal weaselry that was being used to prevent a principled resolution of my complaints against the most senior members of the APS administration and school board. In order to eliminate the foundation for my argument; that they were obligated to litigate ethically, they eliminated their accountability to any ethical code of conduct.
The first intelligent abuse of power is to eliminate accountability for the abuse of power.
They excepted themselves from accountability to any standard of conduct with the word ethical in it. They did that by abdicating as role models for the student standard of (ethical) conduct.
The uninitiated may assume that the Public Education Department's Educator Ethics Bureau might be a source of accountability. No such luck. Not even it is smallest measure.
I filed a complaint with the Bureau against Beth Everitt. I complained that she had violated the educator code of ethics supposedly enforced by the bureau.
My argument was that Everitt's refusal to hold herself honestly accountable to a code of ethics; was itself an unethical act. There were numerous supporting arguments and examples included in; you guessed it, the secret public record.
The bureau found her innocent with out investigation. They could not document even a single contact with the APS or having asked a single question of Everitt.
Beth Everitt's answer to Congresswoman Heather Wilson was unethical.
Her continued refusal to tell the truth about public corruption in the administration of the APS Police Department is unethical.
Her continued refusal to provide an honest accounting of the the uptown administrative complex is unethical.
Robert Lucero's disposal of a motion to require administrative truth telling as a matter of policy, was unethical.
MaryLee Martin's disposal of a motion that would have created honest accountability as role models,as a matter of policy, was unethical.
The removal of the public forum from the public record was unethical.
The repeated refusal of the leadership of the APS to hold itself honestly accountable to the student standard of conduct, was/is unethical.
The deliberate falsification of the broadcast board meetings in order to deceive the community, was unethical.
It is unethical for the President of the Character Counts Leadership Council to renounce personal accountability to that standard of conduct; even in her role as the President of the Board of Education.
Stonewalling is unethical.
Using public funds to keep public records from from public knowledge; keeping secret public records is unethical.
It is unethical for the board not to begin an immediate and impartial forensic audit of the administration of public power and resources, by leadership of the APS.
It would appear that the leadership of the APS has usurped control over public power and resources. It would appear that they will be accountable to the public only on their terms. It is they who will dictate the terms of their public inservitude.
It would appear that the leadership of the APS will not be held accountable for their corruption and incompetence against their will.
Not by anyone.
Not even the journal or the trib;
who's aid and abet has been, and is ...unethical.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
the treachery that APS Whistleblower Policy represents,
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3 comments:
Well put, Ched, this is the most to the point I have seen your writings in quite a while. You are like me, often trying to fill in details of what you KNOW to be true, losing the impatient readers in the process.
This post ,though, makes me really understand your points better, and I have read EVERYTHING you posted this year and last.
I looked at the CGCS site a little closer too, and you are right, APS is a member District, but none of their audits/reports done on them are available on their site.
It also looks like they play "spin the issue" a lot. I don't think they will help in the area of personnel matters, like one news report said, but it could very well give them guidance on lessons learned in other large urban Districts. IF they LISTEN.
Who is "They", like you posted, varies in the many headed multi-tentacled creature that is school district bueracracy. I can truthfully say the many of the "tentacles" of APS are honorable people. I can name the Internal Audit Director, and the Director of Risk Mangement. I can name several hardworking Special Deputies and Dispatchers, Campus Aides and Educational Assistants who are the SALT OF THE EARTH. I know teachers and principals and, yes, some volunteers, who I would trust my life with, and indeed have done so in the past. I would even put Mr. Rigo Chavez and Ms. Bettina Eklund on that list, without thier honest record dispersal, I never would have gotten the proof I needed to clear my name from false accusations at Charter Vocational High. (Ms. Eklund was the principal at ACVHS at the time, before Moon was de-certified by Dr. V. Garcia of PED, and risked retribution by Moon by giving me the records that proved my innocence and his attempts to destroy evidence of Fraud.)
So, thanks again Ched, I will definately keep reading and posting if you let me!
Take care,
J H Lopez
One more comment that is in my head:
When people are out in the woods in a cabin making out who should be keeping schools safe, Who watches the District's children, staff and visitors? Where the tire meets the road with safety is with the honorable security people who sometimes wear uniforms, sometimes don't. Some of them are certified special deputies, even former police officers. Some are "regular people" with no training, just having HUGE hearts and wanting to help kids. THEY are the ones making sure the kids of Albuquerque and all of Bernallillo County are SAFE. THEY are the ones who the District needs to compensate and train and entrust our children's very lives to. Not people who will neglect their duties and build empires that serve their own personal needs rather than the safety needs of the students, staff and visitors.
Sir,
A couple of things. I am uncomfortable with what I feel might be your increased exposure to retalation and retribution because you sign your name under your comments.
Your courage and character are well established. When I railed against anonymous comments; I was concerned with cowardly and unprincipled attacks being made against fellow bloggers by annonymous posters. It was not my intention to compel commentors to ignore the very real fear of retaliation.
And then, I wonder sometimes when people write about administrators that they know; and whom they respect.
Never have I suggested that every administrator in the APS is corrupt or incompetent. Nor have I suggested that many in the rank and file are anything but the salt. At most, I wrote that every administrator in the APS has guilty knowledge of corruption and incompetence. I stand still, on that allegation.
As for Bettina Eklund. There was a point where Bettina and I were fast friends and shared a wonderful professional relationship.
Then I asked her to write down the truth about how our principal Wayne Knight had cancelled an elective class that I was teaching. The innovative and successful landscaping class that served many "at risk" students was cancelled out of malice and spite as part of Knight's retaliation against me for my efforts to hold him accountable for some of the most egregious ethical misconduct imaginable.
Eklund, who in the meantime had moved over to the administrative "darkside", chose not to tell the truth. Rather she chose to forward the request to Knight who gave it to Modral to be used as evidence of the "hostile work environment" I was creating for characterless APS administrators.
There is also the fraud concerning "ghost" students (or whatever it was they called them) at the CVHS who generated funding; but apparently did not otherwise exist. I am not sure that even Danny Moon was held accountable for the scam; but it is hard to believe that there was not guilty knowledge of it by other VCHS administrators including Eklund.
I will cc her this post; she can rebut if she wants.
I didn't pick "Diogenes" by accident. I have come up short in my search for administrators with honor and courage and character, more times that one can imagine.
the previous comment replaces one which was rewritten to clear up some prose; otherwise it is substantially identical to the one it replaced.
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