Brian Sanderoff, APS advocate or independent researcher?

Brian Sanderoff is the President
of Research and Polling, Inc.

They recently completed a poll
of "likely voters" to see if the
upcoming mill levy and bond
issue elections were going to be
successful.

Apparently they are.


Sanderoff concluded that 53% of likely voters will support the new taxes.

I found it off putting that during his presentation, Sanderoff
repeatedly congratulated the leadership of the APS for their
successes, and often pointed to ways they could influence
future polling results. His pro-APS bias seems incongruous
with being an "independent researcher".

The poll itself, which reflected a largely favorable response,
is deceptive. In the first place, it was not a random sample
of stakeholders; it was a random sample of "likely voters";
those who had voted in the previous two school bond and mill
levy elections. So, while it is an accurate predictor of the
election results, it is not an accurate reflection of the feelings
of all stakeholders.

The poll results, which should be posted on the district's
website where stakeholders can review them; are not.

The leadership of the APS never has, and likely never will,
commission a poll of employees and students, the two most
immediate stakeholders in APS.

The head of APS' Research Development and Accountability
Division, Thomas Genne, admitted to me that the leadership
of the APS has never done a survey of teachers that allowed
them to express their opinions on what they thought was wrong
in the APS or on what they needed from the leadership of the
APS, in order to succeed in educating students in the APS.

The leadership of the APS steadfastly refuses to quantify any
data that reflects poorly upon them.

School Board member Paula Maes
has gone so far as to admit that
she will "never agree to any audit"
that individually identifies any
corrupt or incompetent administrator
or board member.

The Journal is aware of all of this,
and steadfastly refuses to investigate
and report upon any of it, even in an
effort to meet their obligation to
fully inform voters in anticipation of
a bond issue and mill levy election
over the better part of a billion dollars.




photos Mark Bralley