Sick Out; Ill Advised

There was a sick out, apparently, among APS Police Officers this morning. It would have been in response to the policy committee's decision to let APS Police Officers continue to confront potentially armed delinquents, themselves unarmed and underpaid.

For what it's worth; my opinion is that the sick out will probably have done more harm than good. The comments left on the story in the Trib bear me out. However, I have no need to convince anyone out of their opinion and into my mine, on this issue; so we'll just leave it at that.

Having said that, I must say that I absolutely understand the level of frustration that compelled their choice. I can't tell you how many committees that I sat on, under the impression that I and other stakeholders were participating meaningfully in making a decision that affected our interests, only to have an administrator make the decision based on his/her own.

Mike Houser, a former APS senior administrator explained it thusly; "There is a reason we give them the set of master keys."

It has been proved again, that the stakeholders are not being allowed to participate meaningfully in the decisions that affect their interests. The leadership of the APS has no intention of delegating any of the decision making power entrusted to them. They cannot delegate power without exposing themselves to accountability for their conduct and competence as public servants.

If there were site based management in the APS; there would be a full scale, comprehensive and impartial audit of the conduct and competence of the administration of the public interests in the public schools, underway.

But there is not site based management; there is not meaningful stakeholder participation in decision making; and that is why it is the leadership of the APS who will decide whether or not their conduct and competence as public servants will be audited.

Their decision is that they will not.

Their decision will not be overridden except by a large enough group of people who are willing to show up at board meetings to demonstrate their outrage.