Brooks walkabout expensive and feckless

The Journal gives APS Supt Winston Brooks free space on a regular basis, to write whatever he wants without fear of contradiction or rebuttal.

Today, link, Brooks writes about his walkabout, wikilink, the 1230 square miles that encompass the APS. He did not write about the cost; hourly wage x hours at each school x 163 schools, but if he makes it to every school and spends a couple of hours going, being, and coming, we're paying north of $40K for his little adventure.

$40K is a pittance when compared to the district's more than $1B budget.

It is also nearly the salary of another teacher, two teachers aides, another 1000 textbooks, etc.

Brooks writes;

"Although the school administration sets the agenda for
these visits, they aren't staged."

Right, and a pint of Häagen-Dazs serves four.

It is hard to believe that a man in a position of such authority could be so naive. How much more likely is it, that he is simply being dishonest?

Imagine you are a school principal. Imagine the Supt is coming to visit your school. Imagine you set the agenda for his visit. Imagine which classrooms you would lead him toward, and which classrooms you would avoid.

This isn't about "wasting" 40 grand, it's about building APS' image in the community to lessen the sting of the egregious failure to meet the educational needs of 90,000 of this community's sons and daughters.

Brooks' time would be better spent;

• addressing the corruption in the APS Police Department, or
• providing due process to more than 200 whistleblowers, or
• finding a code of conduct for students, of which he is not afraid to speak, or
• beginning an honest and independent audit of administrative and executive standards of conduct and competence, and accountability to them.

Instead, he and the Journal, will continue to hide the problems and tout the successes.