Winston Brooks: APS might be over staffed.

Gee, ya think?!

The Journal reports this morning, link, that Winston Brooks
is looking for places to trim the budget, and is looking at the
possibility that the APS may be "overstaffed".

APS' budget is staggering under the weight of the loss of $20M
from this years budget, and by the prospect of that same $20M
less in future budgets. APS had been over stating
teacher experience and the size of its special education staff,
so the state demanded a $20M refund from the APS, and
APS' budget will be $20M less than projected each year
in the future.

Journal reporter Andrea Schoellkopf writes; Brooks says
he thinks APS spends a higher percentage of its budget on
salaries than other large districts, yet its average salaries
are less than in those other districts. The conclusion; APS
may have too many people.

Schoellkopf continued; (Brooks) doesn't know "... whether
its too many administrators, too many teachers, or too many
custodians."

Yes, that's it; APS has too many custodians.

The kicker;

"While an audit might help determine what areas can be cut, Brooks said he'd prefer to first ask directors to review their departments for essential and less-important jobs."

Which begs the question, why are Directors just now getting around to reviewing their departments for less-important jobs?

Isn't this an admission that those Directors have allowed, enabled, or encouraged, bloating in their departments, heretofore?

Brooks' other plan; study "equivalent" school districts.

"The budget transition team , (Brooks) said, is looking at other school districts to determine pupil-teacher ratios and the administrator staffing levels needed at the schools."

Basically, Brooks new plan is the same old plan;

• a completely meaningless comparison between APS other administratively bloated school districts, and
• count on the same people who overstaffed their departments in the first place, to identify the mistakes they made, accept accountability for them, and then correct them.

Brooks, according to Schoellkopf, rejects the idea of an impartial outside audit.

Competent auditors could come into the district looking for honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence for the senior public servants who administer the public trust and treasure. Independent auditors will ferret out waste and the practices that enable them; corruption and incompetence.

They will individually identify the corrupt and the incompetent in the leadership of the APS.

For example, they would probably point out that having two senior administrators who's job it is to promote Character Counts! in a district that is abandoning Character Counts! as quickly as it is able, is probably a waste of two administrators.

They would probably conclude that spending millions of dollars annually on a Praetorian Guard; (a publicly funded, private police force that reports directly, and only, to the good ol' boys), is probably a waste of millions of dollars annually.

They would probably conclude that paying a disgruntled former employee tens of thousands of tax dollars not to take evidence of administrative felony criminal misconduct, to police, is probably a squandering of the public trust and treasure.

They would find that spending who knows what, to keep secret, the public corruption and criminal conspiracy in the leadership of the APS, is probably a squandering of the public trust and treasure.

They would find that spending a billion tax dollars a year,
according to the results of the Meyner Audit;

• without financially sound policies and procedures, and
• without honest accountability to any meaningful standard of conduct at all, and
• without keeping records accurate enough to send anyone to jail

is probably a waste of tax dollars. Unless a miracle of biblical proportion has taken place, there are likely millions of tax dollars gone missing to waste and corruption.

Winston Brooks will not answer a single question about the scandal. Winston Brooks will not stand on the record and tell stakeholders whether or not the Meyners auditors uncovered criminal misconduct.

Nor will Winston Brooks answer questions about felony criminal misconduct and APS senior leadership involved in the APS Police Department scandal. The scandal includes felony criminal abuse of the NCIC data base, on Darren White's watch. The scandal continues for as long as District Attorney Kari Brandenburg continues to ignore felony public corruption in the leadership of the APS. Statutes of limitation are about to expire. The good ol' boys are about to go free.




The audit would conclude that the problem in the APS
is not that we have too many teachers,
nor, would they conclude that, we have too many custodians.




Winston Brooks and the leadership of the APS stand four square against any audit that will reveal waste due to the corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS.

They do so, not to protect the public interests, but to protect the interests of the good ol' boys who were steering the bus when it left the road, and who are now trying desperately to get the bus back on the road, without getting ticketed for their negligent driving.

An impartial administrative accountability audit of the leadership of the APS, will identify all of the problems on the administrative side of the equation. Which is precisely why the good ol' boys will avoid an honest audit at any cost.

School Board head honcho, Paula Maes, who's husband's law firm makes millions of dollars off taxpayers and the APS, has stated on the record, that she will not allow any audit that individually identifies corrupt and incompetent administrators.

A lean administration would not only save money, but it would
inspire "teachers and custodians" to accept frugality in their lives as well. They call it leading by example.

It is time to tell the truth, Superintendent Brooks.
It is time to lay the cards on the table for everyone to see.