A few Tampa junket facts

Though the information is still not available on APS' "award winning" website; it is in the Journal this morning, link.

Bottom line; cost is supposed to total around $20K, though there is some confusion apparently about from what account, exactly, the money will come, though we do know, they are tax dollars.

APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta, who did not get to go, defended the trip;

"Money spent on professional development directly impacts student success."

In general, that statement is true but only as it applies to people who actually meet with students; the further the training takes place from a classroom, the less likely the impact on student success.

School Board President Marty Esquivel also defended the junket;"

"I can understand how it may appear in (financially) troubled times, but I also trust my colleagues to assess the value it brings to the district in terms of attending the conference."

The actual value will become apparent when the traveling board members return and

"give presentations to the full board about what they learned and gained from the conference".

Don't expect much. This is not the first conference and it will not be the last. No one, ever, has come back from any conference with game changing insight. Conference after conference after conference has not solved the fundamental problems that stymie educators.

Has it occurred to anyone, if there really were magic bullet cures for what ails public education, that someone could have, would have, and should have pointed to them?

Board Members on the trip include, Delores Griego, Lorenzo Garcia, David Robbins and David Peercy.

Senior administrators along for the ride; Chief Operating Officer Brad Winter; Executive Director of Technology Tom Ryan; Capital Master Plan Director Kizito Wijenje; and Executive Director of Instruction and Accountability Rose-Ann McKernan.

Supt Winston Brooks, of course, is along for the ride. Part of his bill is being underwritten by the conference. He sits on the Executive Council of the Council of the Great City Schools whose conference it is.

Not surprisingly, Brooks' name is in the hat for another "excellence in urban education" award. Apparently, it is "excellent practice" to cover up corruption, deny whistle blowers due process, and to hide from obligations as a senior most administrative role model of student standards of conduct.


Noteworthy; though the Journal has reported a few of the facts surrounding the Tampa junket, they steadfastly refuses to investigate and report upon Brooks' cover up, denial of due process, and abdication as a role model of the Pillars of Character Counts!; the APS student standards of conduct. Nor will they report that Board Members Robbins and Esquivel are integral to the denial of due process to whistle blowers, nor that Board Members Peercy and Esquivel are suppressing discussion of student standards of conduct and of executive and administrative responsibilities as role models.

Nor will the Journal report on the conflict of interest involving Journal Editor Kent Walz and Esquivel, Brooks, the NM FOG and their recognition of Brooks as a champion of transparency".

They will report, I suppose, on Brooks' acceptance of an award for "excellent leadership".