The following is an excerpt from a letter to the editor of the Aiken Standard. (link) The writer was a member of the superintendent search committee. "I am writing at this time because I am concerned about the allegations that have surfaced about Dr. Everitt during her tenure in Albuquerque, N.M. The (APS) school board, that is six of its members, apparently do not consider these allegations to be serious and have come to the defense of Dr. Everitt, "... but I doubt that Dr. Everitt would have been named one of the 10 applicants for the school board's consideration if these allegations had surfaced during the search committee's deliberations." (Emphasis added)
Among other things, Aiken County was not apprised of the fact that the most recent poll by the Albuquerque Trib, saw half of the respondents rating Everitt with an "F", and another 20% giving her a "D" as APS Superintendent.
Two problems present themselves.
Six members of the Albuquerque School Board apparently downplayed, to the Aiken County School Board, allegations of incompetence and corruption leveled against Beth Everitt.
This would have been acceptable, if in addition to their unofficial and personal opinions, the APS Board had actually done the annual evaluation of Beth Everitt as required by APS Board Policy, State School Board Policy and NM State Law; the results of which would be part of the public record, and subject to inspection.
They did not; and whatever they wrote to the Aiken County Board, they wrote in secret and do not have to explain, defend, or even acknowledge that they have written. The honesty of what was written cannot be challenged; although apparently it should be.
The second problem, is that Everitt was not the top choice of the search committee.
"During the process of evaluating applicants for the superintendent's position, the search committee was very diligent in its efforts to identify 10 individuals to be submitted to the school board for further review."
"Out of this process, we rated each applicant on various areas of competency in an attempt to assign a numerical value to each applicant. After that process was completed, we determined the top 10 applicants. Of the top 10 applicants, Dr. Frank Roberson and Dr. David Mathis were rated number 1 and 2, respectively based on their total numerical rating. Dr. Elizabeth Everitt was among the top 10, but I do not remember how she rated among the remaining eight applicants."
In fact, she was not the first choice of the community either. Of the three finalists, Everitt ran a distant third in polling.
Knowing APS Board President Paula Maes as I do, I doubt that APS' search committee will fare any better in its influence on this board's decision.
What else would you expect from a board who's new "code of ethics", does not include any reference to the word ethical, other than in its title?
3 comments:
The APS search committee assured me that I hadn't wasted my Saturday morning, and that they would publish the results of what the community was looking for on it's website.
The Union published it's findings a few weeks ago.
APS, I'm still waiting...
till hell freezes over.
And what's up with Mr Esquivel these days? I am more than a little surprised he would compromise his value system and write a positive reccomendation for Beth.
I suppose that all boards are the same. They go through the motions of including the community then hire someone with baggage, that they know about, thus thinking that they have control over said person if they don't want the skeletons reveiled to the general public. I remember hearing,in the trenches,about Allison's reputation as a womanizer before he even got here. If we all knew, the board sure as hell did. Just like Aiken, and just like you said, Ched, how can they hire someone who didn't have her last evaluation in hand?
It was reported that only six of the seven local board wrote to the Aiken Board. I would like to think that Marty Esquivel was the one board member with principles that won't be compromised.
but who knows?
You're right! I fogot Berna when I was counting board members. Easy thing to do since she is usually asleep! Yeah, lets hope Marty hasn't given up!
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