In the Journal this morning, link, a report on the turnout
for the school board election;
"... turnout is expected to be as dismal as ever."Shame on the leadership of the Journal.
There are two kinds of dollars spent in the APS; operational and capital. Capital dollars buy buildings, operational dollars are spent (mostly) on salaries and in classrooms. Wasting any money hurts students, wasting operational dollars hurts students and teachers directly.
APS Supt Winston Brooks has the authority to spend operational funds in the classroom for the benefit of students, or to spend them instead, on unscrupulous lawyers in an effort to hide his and others' public corruption.
Winston Brooks is giving operations funds to Modrall lawyers to hide the Caswell Report. The Caswell Report names names of corrupt APS senior administrators. It names names of senior administrators who committed felonies which are being hidden from the District Attorney, link.
Students and teachers will do without, in order that APS senior administrators can escape the consequences of felony criminal misconduct within their public service.
He spends with the blessing of the entire school board.
Board Member Paula Maes spoke for the board when she said, (we) will never agree to any audit that individually identifies corrupt or incompetent administrators or board members.
I had hoped that Journal editors, Kent Walz, Ellen Marks, and D'val Westphal, and KOAT TV news director Sue Stephens could be shamed into telling the truth as part of the discourse leading up to the School Board Elections.
It turns out I was wrong, their corruption and resolve to hide the truth from voters in order to re-elect Marty Esquivel exceeded even my cynicism.
They will all emerge from the election unscathed.
The real victims of their corruption are too young to vote.
Walz et al, hid from public knowledge for the entire election;
It seems just a little incredible, even in a state as corrupt as New Mexico. But then those who expect only corruption heaped upon corruption are rarely, if ever, disappointed.During the candidate debates, we were expected to respond to even the most complex issues in two minutes or less; often only a minute, the last time, one minute to respond to six questions and while being translated.
On several occasions during the debates,
Marty Esquivel complained to the audience that he was not able to make his point in such a short amount of time.
So Mr Esquivel, now that you know how it feels, are you going to treat the public forum at school board meetings with any more respect?
His intentions are is self evident.
He intends to extend Winston Brooks' contract before the new board members take their seats.
Does that sound like respect for your right
to sit at the table where that decision will be made?
During "open government lawyer" Marty Esquivel's service on the school board, the public forum has gone from two minutes every two weeks to, two minutes every two weeks and you get arrested if you insist upon asking an inconvenient question or two.
It used to be three minutes, and nobody got arrested.
photo Mark Bralley
Robert Caswell Investigations investigated public corruption and incompetence in the APS Police Department, link, in February 2007.
The final report on the investigation individually identifies
APS senior administrators who were involved in felony
criminal misconduct. If it did not, Winston Brooks would
not be hiding the report, in violation of the NM Inspection
of Public Records Act.
Marty Esquivel would have you believe that he has held
Brooks "accountable" for his betrayal of the public trust.
Esquivel's campaign flier reads;
(I insist) on administrative accountability.Let's take a look at how Esquivel held Brooks accountable.
Esquivel and Journal Editor Kent Walz bamboozled the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government's Board of Directors into giving Brooks a much coveted and formerly prestigious Dixon Award for being a "hero" of transparency, even as Brooks pulls dollars out of classrooms to pay Modrall lawyers to hide the Caswell Report.Why shouldn't the public be given an ethically redacted
version of an independent investigation of (admitted)
felony criminal misconduct by APS senior administrators?
He is in hiding on the issue,Why won't you just go ahead and investigate and reportThey probably won't answer at all. But if they do, they
upon the alleged cover up of the Caswell report?
Charles MacQuigg is a gadfly.1, so what? and
then by extension, we get the school system we deserve.
The point of the exercise is, if we each do nothing to
change and improve our government (our school system)
we will get bad government and we will deserve it.
The problem in education is, the people who pay for bad
school systems are students, not the adult voters who did
and do nothing to hold school systems and public servants
accountable for the failures.
Marty Esquivel does not deserve to win this election.
Despite contrary claims in his campaign literature, he
really has not "insisted on administrative accountability".
The truth is that, by law, he has nothing to say about
administrative accountability at all, beyond holding one
administrator, the superintendent, accountable during
an annual evaluation.
If administrators were actually accountable, wouldn't
Esquivel be able to point to the standards and accountability
that together comprise "administrative accountability"?
Even the most cursory examination of administrative
standards of conduct and competence, will reveal that
APS' standards are inadequate. Independent auditors have
written over and over again, about the inadequacy of APS
administrative standards and accountability.
Any impartial examination will reveal no real accountability
at all. APS has a whistle blower program for employees to
report corrupt and incompetent administrators anonymously.
Every one of their complaints has been promised "review and
approval" by the Board of Education; a final step in their due
process.
Marty Esquivel and the board have yet to "review and approve"
the handling of even one complaint. He and they have reneged
on a solemn commitment to the community. Due process is
being denied to hundreds of complaints that have been lodged
against administrators and board members. What kind of
"administrative accountability" allows due process rights
to be ignored?
Esquivel cannot summon the character and the courage to
refute, rebut, defend, deny or even acknowledge his and their,
breach of School Board Policy. The establishment media
cannot summon the character and the courage to report
the truth to stakeholders.
Right now, APS Supt Winston Brooks is hiding evidence
of felony criminal misconduct by senior APS administrators
from the District Attorney. Apparently, he and the leadership
of the APS have decided that the felony criminal misconduct
that senior administrators admitted, does not warrant prosecution.
Fine, except it's not their call. It is the prerogative of the
District Attorney to decide whether felony prosecution of
APS senior administrators is warranted or not;
not Winston Brooks and not Marty Esquivel.
Brooks could not be hiding the evidence of felony criminal
misconduct without the aid and abet of Marty Esquivel.
Esquivel is as guilty in the cover up as Brooks.
And because the people are unwilling to stand up and
fight back, Brooks and Esquivel will succeed;
APS senior administrators will escape criminal prosecution
and the APS will be spared the ensuing embarrassment.
Those who pay the price ultimately, for an administration
that is more concerned with covering asses than in holding
themselves accountable to meaningful standards of conduct
and competence, are students, most of whom are too young
to vote.
Are students getting the government they deserve?
Or are they getting the government their parents "deserve"?
This school board election will be decided by people who
can't be bothered to vote.
One cannot paint this picture without pointing to the
Albuquerque Journal, editors Kent Walz, Ellen Marks,
D'Val Westphal, KOAT TV'd news director Sue Stephens,
and the other NM Broadcasters Assoc affiliates who are
complicit in the effort to conceal felony criminal misconduct
in the leadership of the APS, from voter stakeholders.
If these allegations are untrue, why is it that no one can
offer a good and ethical explanation for the fact that evidence
of felony criminal misconduct has been sitting on
Winston Brooks' desk for years, and has not been surrendered
to the District Attorney? even after four years and after statutes
of limitation have expired?
Except that he, Marty Esquivel and Kent Walz are conspiring
to cover up felony criminal misconduct in the leadership of
the APS, even during an election?
It is fair to say that the fight over Character Counts! as the
agreed upon standard of conduct for students and their
role models, is over. Win or loose, there are no great
battles to fight between now and election day.
It is now too late for either of the
preeminent Founding Fathers of
Character Counts!
Senator Pete Domenici (r.) or
Michael Josephson, to defend
their Foundling Character Counts!,
from demise at the hands of
Marty Esquivel and Winston Brooks.
Apparently, they don't care.
Ironically, it was Michael Josephson who first introduced me to this quotation of Martin Luther King;
“In the end it will not be so much the words of
my enemies that have hurt me the most,
but rather the silence of those who have called
themselves my friends.”
Harder to take would be, if they could refute, rebut or deny any part of my allegation that they are covering up an ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS in order to manipulate the outcome of an election in favor of Marty Esquivel.
I am a gadfly of course. The buzz and the stinger have been pretty much the same for a long, long time, link.
The School Board race saw the Journal continue to cover up the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS. They never investigated and reported upon
Was it his job to prevent the public corruption and incompetence beneath him in the chain of command?
If he could have and should have, been able to prevent it,
and he did not, he did not because he is personally corrupt
and/or incompetent.
It's time for a new county manager.
That was his job; to protect our power and resources from abuse.
If buck doesn't stop on Thaddeus Lucero's desk,
then on who's? The County Commission? for their failure to prevent the abuse of public power and resources.
The first legitimate use of power is to protect the power from abuse, by anyone, ever.
We trusted "the government" to make sure that our power and resources could not be used against our interests. Who is the highest ranking politician or public servant who either could not, or would not, prevent the abuse of our power and resources?
Corruption and incompetence are tolerated in so much as it is only the ones who are careless or stupid enough to get caught, who's heads roll.
The people we trusted to keep it from happening ever,
the ones who can't seem to put casino security on our
power and resources, well,
their names seem never to come up.
In the Journal this morning, (can't find a) link, readers found the Martinez-Skandera Plan for educational reform in New Mexico.
Noteworthy;
At the table where the "reform" was hatched, there was no seat for teachers. Nor for parents, nor for students, nor for any other legitimate interest holders. "They" are still smarter than all of us; more qualified to spend our power and resources than we.
In APS classrooms, we are fortunate enough to have more than 100,000 years of teaching experience to apply to the individual needs of 89,000 of this community's sons and daughters.
And they have no seat at the table where decisions are made.
Noteworthy;
Nowhere in the "reform" are there meaningful standards of conduct and competence for administrators and board members. Nor, does the plan include honest accountability; due process for every complaint. Nor, any consequences for the corrupt and the incompetent.
There is no mention of and actual accountability like annual Administrative Accountability Audits
Nor, transparency according to the spirit of the law.
Noteworthy;
The Martinez-Skandera endorses cemetery seating.
They think increased "accountability" will make it work.
Increased accountability to an unworkable plan is still
an unworkable plan. Conventional wisdom tells us that
doing the same thing over and over and expecting different
results is crazy.
The best of the best of our teachers will be given a group of at least 30 children who have nothing in common but their age. The teacher will be compelled to seat them in rows and ranks like headstones in a cemetery. The teacher is expected to form them into a choir. The choir, rather than singing together, is supposed to think together on exactly the same thing at exactly the same time for twelve years.
Even if you could do this impossibly difficult thing,
why would you want to?
The fundamental goal of education is to create independent learners. APS is meeting that need, almost exclusively, with group learning. Witness; the White Boards; millions of dollars worth of technology doggedly applied trying to keep cemetery seating and "group think" alive.
It is time for bold change.
Real bold change.
Transparency,
according to the spirit of the law.
Standards,
as high as we can set them.
Accountability,
as inescapable as we can make it.
A seat at the table, for the people
whose interests are being decided.
Wednesday February 2, will be one day to late to pick a side.
The Journal is covering up the ethics and accountability
scandal in the leadership of the APS. KOAT and the other
NM Broadcasters Assoc affiliates are turning a blind eye.
They will cover for their Assoc President Paula Maes.
They will never let their viewers know that Maes, and the
rest of the board by their acquiescence, admitted that
they will never agree to any audit that individuallyYou cannot end public corruption and incompetence without exposing the corrupt and the incompetent. Heads don't roll in cultures where asses are being covered.
identifies any corrupt or incompetent administrators
or board members.
APS Chief Operations Officer
Brad Winter.
Sir,
I have heard a disturbing rumor.
I have heard that at APS brand
new Atrisco Heritage High School,
the window blinds are controlled
by expensive individual remote
controls rather than by the conventional and far cheaper cords or wands that taxpayers have in their own homes.
I would like you to confirm or deny this rumor.
If the rumor is true, I would like to know what we paid individually and collectively for this apparent extravagance.
Grateful for your time and attention
Charles MacQuigg
I expect Winters to respond before the election.
cc Winters upon posting.
photo Mark Bralley
The APS School Board is going to enlarge Superintendent Winston Brooks golden parachute. They are going to do it before the newly elected Board Members can carry the people's opinion to the table.
The board argues;
the people are not smart enough, nor well informedSchool Board President Marty Esquivel said in his Journal, link;
enough to have a worthy opinion on the subject.
"Board evaluations by folks coming off of an election, without a track record or knowledge of the expectations, just lends itself to politics and supervision by hearsay."
(emphasis added)
Jon Knudsen, aka "Johnny Mango" is a featured writer on Duke City Fix, link. He wrote a post yesterday, link, on the APS School Board Race based on his interviews with all four candidates in APS District 4.
During our interview, I told him that I was currently banned from board meetings by School Board President Marty Esquivel. The illegal restraining order was written by Esquivel on September 1st, 2010. The illegal order is enforced by the APS Police Department, a publicly funded private police force that reports directly to, and only to, the leadership of the APS.
Knudsen apparently asked Esquivel about banning me from school board meetings. He wrote;
MacQuigg stated that Board member Esquivel hadEsquivel can deny all he wants, the evidence says otherwise;
him banned from board meetings--an allegation that
Martin Esquivel denies.
"... we are revoking your privilege to attend meetings of the Board of Education."Tellez made it clear to me, I will be arrested, again, if I try to attend a board meeting.
In a nutshell;
a public school superintendent who can show no objective
evidence of support from students, parents, teachers or APS
employees, is about to be given a quarter million dollars
that could be spent in classrooms instead, in a meeting that
will be held in secret from the people whose interests are on
the table.
The incumbent board has no choice but to extend his contract. To do otherwise would be an admission of their failure in selecting him in the first place; he is their choice and they will not admit to having made a bad choice.
Brooks record; the Caswell report.
The Caswell report is on an investigation into public corruption and incompetence in the APS Police Force. The report contains the names of APS senior administrators who participated in felony criminal misconduct. One of the senior administrators, the one who admitted to felony criminal misconduct; APS Police Chief Gil Lovato, said at the time, "If the truth gets out in court, there won't be a single senior administrator left standing.The Caswell report is a public record.
The Caswell report was completed in the same month Marty Esquivel was first elected to the school board, 2007.
In the intervening four years, statutes of limitation have expired on felony criminal misconduct. The board and superintendent placed the APS Police Department in charge of investigating public corruption in the APS Police Department.
They are still "investigating". Not a single piece of evidence has been surrendered to the District Attorney for prosecution.
the newly elected board members and the people they represent lack the wherewithal to participate meaningfully in the process.It cannot be stopped except with votes on February 1st.
School Board candidate Marty Esquivel thinks government
it too open, link.
Esquivel will regret his continuing efforts to hide his public service from public knowledge.
The question is;
Are there times when politicians and public servantsThe answer is yes, and for good and ethical reasons.
can sit around and make decisions about our interests,
and where we have no seat at the table?
Mr Esquivel,
Please give us a hypothetical but specific example
of a conversation that you and someone else might have
about the public interests, and to which, the public
should not be privy.
Will you tell us the truth about ourany answer except yes, means no.
interests and about your public service?
The irony of it all is,The Concerned Citizens for APS reform; a wide-based group
supporting APS transparency and accountability to taxpayers,
is sponsoring 3 forums, one for each district.
The District 4 forum will be held at Highland High School
in the lecture hall. The forum begins at 6:30 pm, ending at 8:00.
This should be an excellent forum for voters who are concerned about APS' lack of transparent accountability to interest holders.
There is a report lying on a few desks in the leadership of the
APS and their lawyers at Modrall; the final report of an
independent investigation of allegations of public corruption
and incompetence in the APS Police Department.
The report is a public record.
When I asked for a copy of the report, APS/Modrall claimed
it was excepted under the NM Inspection of Public Records
Act because it was a "matter of opinion in a personnel record".
It is not, and the NM Foundation for Open Government
took exception. APS is now claiming; because they
hired a lawyer to hire the investigator, the investigation
is "work product" and excepted from surrender under the law.
The excuse is nonsense of course, just more legal weaselry
using tax dollars appropriated for the education of your
children to litigate exception to the law for corrupt APS
administrators and board members.
In related weaselry, Esquivel, Brooks and Modrall have
been asked to surrender any evidence that they claim
justifies Esquivel's illegal restraining order barring
me from board meetings.
In response, they write that they will use the 15 days
"allowed by the law", to respond. In other words, they
will not respond until after the election is over.
The law doesn't simply allow 15 days. The law requires
the immediate surrender of immediately available records.
The records are immediately available.
Marty Esquivel, Winston Brooks and the Modrall law firm are using technicalities, loopholes and legal weaselry to hide evidence of their treachery.
While the treachery is "legally" permissible. It is not at all
permissible under the standards of conduct that Esquivel
and Brooks establish and enforce upon students; the
Pillars of Character Counts!. According to that standard,
students are taught that being a person of character often
requires doing more than the law requires and less than
the law allows.
According to the standards of conduct that apply to
students, role models like Esquivel and Brooks are obliged
to step up and accept accountability for their misconduct;
a la the fable about George Washington and the cherry tree.
If we really want students to grow up to embrace character
and courage and honor, someone has to show them what
it looks like. Leadership starts at the top; leadership is by
personal example.
Should we stop telling children to admit that they have
"chopped down a cherry tree", and instead advise them,
when you have done something wrong, instead of stepping
up to the consequences, they should hire a Modrall lawyer
to litigate their personal exception to the law?
The question is not rhetorical.
KOAT ran a story on the apparent theft of a number of
Marty Esquivel's campaign yard signs, link.
One of the results is that Esquivel will get more votes as a
result of the "news" coverage; perhaps as many as if he
had run a paid campaign commercial.
My complaint is this; at least as important and newsworthy as the theft of his yard signs, is the fact that there are credible allegations that Esquivel is;
"It's not my job to drive the train
or even ring the bell,
but let the damn thing leave the track
and see who catches hell."
There is much clamor currently, about how we are going to hold teachers accountable (for the achievement gaps created by administrators and board members).
Not once during any of these conversations has anyone mentioned holding administrators and board members accountable for their part in the ongoing failure.
Marty Esquivel has made his intentions clear, he has no intention of ever even discussing administrative and executive standards and accountability, openly and honestly, link.
He has no intention what so ever of supporting an independent and honest audit of administrative and executive standards and accountability. He has made it clear.
APS Board Member Paula Maes has no intention what so ever, of defending, denying, or even acknowledging that she once said,
"I will never agree to any audit that individually identifies"
corrupt and incompetent administrators or board members.
Neither will have to, even during an election, because the
establishment media; Kent Walz, Ellen Marks, Sue Stephens
and the other NM Broadcasters Assoc affiliates are willing
to cover it all up;
What do you think we need to doGive teachers and other interest holders a seat at the table where decisions are made. Then and only then is it really fair to hold them accountable for what happens.
to close student achievement gaps?
In the Journal this morning, link, coverage of the Latino/Hispanic Education Independent Task Force's school board candidate forum.
During the forum, one of the candidates accused the sitting board of
"... Esquivel said the proposal would free up much-needed funding."I don't blame the reporter for the Journal's Esquivel bias; she is between a rock and hard place; her obligations as a Journalist and to editors who want to see Esquivel re-elected.
Hi:To which I replied;
I am Hailey's editor, and I am responding to the e-mail you sent to her.
Although we did not publish the exact address of your blog, we did report the name of it. I just did a search on "Diogenes' Six," and the first link that came up led me directly to your blog. Anyone who wanted to find it could easily do so.
When I first saw a message from you, I thought it would be to thank us for managing to get in the new photo you wanted us to use. We had to remake part of a page, but I was glad we were able to accommodate your request.
Best, Ellen Marks
I am of course most grateful that you used my new photo, I do appreciate it.To which she is yet to respond.
I still do not understand why my response was censored, can you please explain it?
Also, since I have an editor on the line, would you mind telling me why the Journal
will not investigate and report upon;
1. the fact that it has been four years since the corruption in the APS Police Department and the APS Police, investigating their own corruption have not surrendered any evidence of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators, to the DA ref http://www.abqjournal.com/news/metro/537182metro02-11-07.htm and that they are hiding the final report of an independent investigation of the corruption by Robert Caswell Investigations.
2. the fact that the APS Board of Education is denying due process to more than 300 whistle blower complaints. Not one complaint has received the review and approval of the Audit Committee as required by board policy, and
3. the fact that the entire leadership of the APS has renounced accountability as role models of the student standards of conduct, and finally
4. the fact that my opponent Marty Esquivel, who I am told works for the Journal, has created an illegal restraining order, enforced by APS' publicly funded private police force ( a Praetorian Guard in every respect) already having arrested me on no less than 10 occasions for exercising my constitutionally protected human rights to free speech and to petition my government.
I would really appreciate a candid, forthright and honest response
grateful for your time and attention,
Charles MacQuigg
Imagine please, a government where every single politician and public servant was both manifestly competent and scrupulously honest.
Until we can manage to elect and hire only competent and honest servants; our only defense against public corruption and incompetence is to make them impossibly difficult to hide; casino security on the public trust and treasure.
Elect me, and every single politician and public servant in the entire APS will be held honestly accountable to the highest standards of conduct and competence, even against their will.
Give me your money, and nobody (else) will get hurt.
DONATE
Why won't the establishment media, the Journal and the NM Broadcasters Assoc affiliates, report that a bonafide school board candidate has made specific credible and substantiated allegations of public corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS, if only to report that the allegations are unsubstantiated?
What good and ethical reason excuses their failure to investigate and report upon
In the Journal this morning, Marty Esquivel gives Winston Brooks a letter grade of "B" as superintendent of the APS.
Recently, he has given Brooks a half million dollar golden parachute in recognition of his brilliance as superintendent.
Esquivel will never present himself in a forum where he can be compelled to respond to a question about the apparent disconnect, candidly forthrightly and honestly.
He will not raise his right hand and promise to tell you the truth about the public interests and about his public service.
I will.
photos Mark Bralley
In the Journal this morning, "coverage" of the APS school board race, link.
I am unsettled for two reasons;
they censored my blog address from my responses, and
they invaded my privacy.
The ground rules included a 35 word limit on responses to questions on even the most complex issues. Perhaps they will claim that including this most important piece of information exceeded 35 words. I would invite you to examine the length of answers they permitted else where.
Diogenes' six is where I answer any legitimate question about your interests and my public service candidly, forthrightly and honestly. I have been known to write more than 35 words even on the lesser issues. For the Journal to simply deny voters convenient access to my blog, to their candidate's advantage, is inexcusable. It is journalistic malpractice.
Then they published this;
(Editor's note: Court records show MacQuigg was charged with misdemeanor aggravated battery on a household member in 1996. The case was dismissed, contingent on MacQuigg receiving counseling.)No one, who does not come to this blog, will read the truth which is;
I hold Journal Editor Kent Walz personally responsible.I will admit freely that I don't know, and don't care to research, the chain of command that oversees Sergeants at Arms in the Roundhouse.
Wherever that path leads to on paper;
(the leadership of the legislature)
the buck stops on the desk of Governor
Susana Martinez.
Sergeants at Arms in the Roundhouse
are denying the free exercise of First
Amendment rights of bloggers, link.
If Gov Martinez has any intention to respect the First Amendment Rights of bloggers to equal treatment under the law, she will do what ever she has to do, to call off the Sergeants at Arms and prohibit them from discriminating against any member of the press, regardless of their medium.
I think it is fair to say that bloggers tend to be more critical
of the establishment than are the reporters who work for
the establishment. That the establishment then blatantly
discriminates against them creates appearances of conflicts
of interest and impropriety.
The founding fathers understood the critical need for a free press. They chose to protect the human right to be a free press, in the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
Are bloggers the press? Realistically, if an internet press had been around in colonial days, don't you suppose the founding fathers would have protected them in particular against the abuse of power by government?
It is the manifest position of the establishment that, only
their reporters are protected by First Amendment rights.
They are entitled to their opinion. They are not entitled to
use the power of the government to enforce their opinion
on others.
The Martinez camp has a record of jerking bloggers around.
Will the Martinez administration do the same?
Will there be "bold change"?
The answers are self-evident.
When the question is;
Do you respect the First Amendment rights of bloggers?any answer except yes, means no.
Albuquerque Public Schools are failing in two aspects;
administratively and educationally.
Administratively they have failed to protect the public interests from administrative corruption and incompetence; standards of conduct and competence are inadequate and unenforceable.
Transparency is a joke; ask them if you can take a look at the report done by the independent investigator of the public corruption in the APS Police Department, link. You paid for it; it's a public record. See what they will surrender.
They have failed educationally. Most of this community's
sons and daughters leave the APS without a decent education.
The educational failure is a misapplication of resources.
A half a billion dollars worth of teachers, and their combined 100,000 years of teaching experience are being used for other than teaching.
Their combined energy and intellect, expertise and experience, are being squandered.
Never, not once, has the leadership of the APS
asked teachers;
What do you need to succeed?The leadership of the APS is a oligarchy that exists to
"If the truth ever gets out, (in court) there won't beSo the leadership of the APS put him on administrative leave at full pay and benefits for half a year, just to keep him out of court.
a single senior administrator left standing."
"All that is necessary for evil to prevail in the world,
is for good people to do nothing." Edmund Burke
(The numbers of petition signatures required for recall,
in this post, have been updated to correct my previous
mathematical errors. The current numbers reflect 1/3
of the number of voters who voted for the office,
four years ago.)
Any elected local school board member is subject to recall by the voters of the school district from which elected. A petition for a recall election must cite grounds of malfeasance or misfeasance in office or violation of the oath of office by the member concerned. The recall petition shall be signed by registered voters not less in number than thirty-three and one-third percent of those who voted for the office at the last preceding election at which the office was voted upon.
If voters want to hold David Robbins accountable for his part in a conspiracy to deny due process to more than 300 whistle blower complaints, some one of them is going to have to collect 560 petition signatures.
If voters want to hold David Peercy accountable for his part in a conspiracy to lower student standards of conduct in order to lower his own, some one of them is going to have to collect 576 petition signatures.
If voters want to hold Paula Maes accountable for saying, "I will never agree to any audit that individually identifies ..." corrupt and incompetent APS administrators and board members, some one of them is going to have to collect a measly 382 petition signatures.
If voters want to hold Lorenzo Garcia accountable for his tacit approval of a conspiracy to cover up an ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, some one of them is going to have to collect 685 petition signatures.
If voters want to hold Marty Esquivel accountable for his part in a conspiracy to cover up corruption in the leadership of the APS Police Department,
I guess if people want to hold Kent Walz accountable for the Journal's refusal to investigate and report upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, they're going to have to stop buying his newspaper and patronizing his advertisers.I have completed another questionnaire, link; this one for the
“Concerned Citizens for APS Change, a wide-based groupThey clearly put some work into their survey, it was quite well done.
of citizens for transparency and accountability to the taxpayers”
There needs to be, standards of competence and conduct that apply to politicians and public servants in the Albuquerque Public Schools.
There needs to be some sort of honest accountability to those standards, even for the most powerful politician or public servant.
The standards need to be clear and unequivocal.
The accountability needs to be inescapable.
The first legitimate use of power is
to protect the power from abuse.
The power and resources that belong to the people
are available for their use in holding their government
accountable. They are used instead against the public
interests by politicians and public servants to defend
themselves against legitimate allegations of their abuse.
I propose as the standards of government in the APS, using
the same standards we establish and enforce upon students.
I propose that we hold ourselves honest y accountable to
the Pillars of Character Counts! a nationally recognized,
accepted and respected code of ethical conduct, at least for
the few hours a day we hold students accountable to them.
I am prepared to defend my commitment to these particular standards. If not the Pillars, then which? Put another set of standards on the table; let us look at them. As a matter of principle, I would be equally happy to defend my commitment to any standard of conduct established by the people; it needn't be, it shouldn't be my choice alone.
Why is it "crazy" to believe that our future rests on holding ourselves honestly accountable to a standard of conduct higher than legal weaselry? And that the Pillars are a worthy choice?
There is no higher standard than the law, which does not have as its grounding principle; you have to be willing to hold yourself accountable for telling the truth.
The difference between the law and any legitimate standard of conduct; is the difference between "not lying" and "telling the truth"; candidly, forthrightly, ... honestly.
I am prepared to loose this election over my advocacy of Character Counts! because I believe, if we want our children to grow up to embrace character and courage and honor, someone has to show them what it looks like.
Character is taught by personal example, and it is taught
only by personal example.
It would be profoundly disappointing, if the subject never came up.
The candidate forums, to date, have not given candidates an opportunity to ask questions of their own. When I can, I will ask;
Why not restore the role modeling clause to their own standards of conduct? Why not declare and commit?;
In no case shall the standards of conduct for adults,And further; why not declare and commit to the Pillars of Character Counts! as the standard? Why not declare and commit the Pillars of Character Counts! as the clear and unequivocal standards of conduct and competence for students and for adults enforcing those standards upon them?
be lower than the standards of conduct for students.
It isn't however, a "rocket" science.
It is within reason to expect that a public school administration be nearly flawless in terms of administrative (as opposed to educational) effectiveness and efficiency.
If there is evidence of administrative ineffectiveness and inefficiency like, frozen water pipes, scheduling snafus and educational ineffectiveness, an investigation is warranted.
We need to hire investigators who are expert in education administration and have them audit APS' administrative efficiency and effectiveness. Pay them to tell us the truth about the administration of our trust and treasure by the leadership of the APS.
There will be push back on any audit.
There problem is, you really cannot expose corruption and incompetence without exposing the corrupt and the incompetent. And they don't want to be exposed.
It wasn't that long ago,
School Board Member
Paula Maes admitted,
she would "... never agree
to any audit that would
individually identify ..."
corrupt and incompetent
administrators or board
members.
If you want an independent audit to be undertaken,
you're going to have to be willing to fight with Maes,
and the rest of the leadership of the APS,
to get one.
I will carry your flag.
Vote for Charles MacQuigg
APS School Board, District Four
photo Mark Bralley
There is a candidate forum this evening, link.
District 1 starts at 5:45 p.m.
District 2 starts at 6:35 p.m.
District 4 starts at 7:25 p.m.
You can attend in person. You can listen live on the radio,
KANW, 89.1 FM, or listen to the audio stream from their website, link.
Lastly, there is supposed to be an audio and video stream on
APS website, link.
A large part of APS lack of success has to do with the
96 out of 100 voters who ignore the school board elections.
You have a voice; you just have to use it.
In the mid-nineties, the buzzwords were "site based management".
The union fought long and hard to move decision making power and resources to the site where they are used. We argued long and hard that teachers have the education, the experience and the intellect to sit at the table where decisions are made. Never mind your constitutionally protected human right to participate meaningfully in decision making that affects your interests.
The union has done an about face. They have endorsed Marty Esquivel, who endorses Winston Brooks, who endorses stripping teachers, parents and other stakeholders of their right to participate meaningfully in decision making.
Together, they have decided to ignore more than 100,000
years of teaching experience in the APS.
When was the last time you were asked to point to the problems that stand in your way, without fear of retribution or retaliation? When was the last time you had input on the issue of the handling of chronically disruptive students, an administrative responsibility borne by teachers.
Do you believe that you can file a legitimate complaint
against an administrator or board member, and see due
process?
Marty Esquivel is currently sitting on more than 300 whistle
blower complaints. The actual numbers are secret, but it
stands to reason; most of those complaints were filed by
teachers and against administrators. Not one of them
has seen the due process that board policy requires.
Esquivel is denying executive review and approval
to every single complaint.
If I am elected, a legitimate complaint filed by the least powerful stakeholder against the most powerful administrator or board member, will see due process; impartial adjudication, powerful enough to hold even the most powerful accountable, even against their will.
I offer you, and all stakeholders,
Elect me, and your voice will be"While it is possible to give without caring,
it is not possible to care without giving." unk
Students in the APS are subjects in an ongoing experiment; student lead student-parent conferences, link. The conferences occur at school, and schools are shut down for two days to accommodate them. The two days count as part of the 180 days "education" we provide for children on a yearly basis.
Apparently the scheme isn't working. Among other flaws in the model, teacher "advisers" for the conferences are apparently selected for students randomly, and may not even know the student.
The Journal editors added their two cents this morning, link.
They added Marty Esquivel's two cents worth as well.
Elections are all about name recognition. Every time the
Journal publishes Esquivel's name, he gets more votes.
The Journal is establishing a pattern of keeping Esquivel's
name in the paper, and no one else's.
During the election, a challenger's opinion is as important
as an incumbent's. For the Journal to keep printing
Esquivel's opinions, while ignoring challengers, is
intellectually dishonest. The Journal, almost 25% of the
way through early voting, still has not printed one word
from any of Esquivel's challengers.
More important than Esquivel's opinion on student lead
conferences; more important than challengers' opinions
on student lead conferences, are the opinions of the teachers
who have to teach 180 days of material in 178 days because
of student conferences, who have to teach 36 weeks worth
of material in 34, because of NCLB testing.
This particular plan is an example of top down thinking;
someone who hasn't been in a public school classroom
for ten years, telling experts who have been in the classroom
for the last ten years, how to do their jobs.
In the APS, there are 100,000 years of teaching experience,
and no seat at the table where decisions are made.
If the Journal cared about our kids, they would investigate
and report upon that issue and its consequences.
They care more apparently, about getting Marty Esquivel
re-elected. And shame on them for that.
Over the winter break, the leadership of the APS allowed a number of water pipes to freeze. The cost of the damage has been estimated to be on the order of, one half million dollars.
The leadership of the APS claimed, at the time,
their insurer would pay for repairing the damage.
On or about, the 10th of December, 2o days before the damaging freeze; APS insurer, Poms and Associates, sent a letter to the leadership of the APS, telling them;
"... we are recommending the following process;The leadership of the APS' tacit choice was to allow the pipes to freeze anyway. After a hundred years in business, standards and accountability in the leadership of the APS are not adequate to guarantee simple building maintenance.
Maintain thermostat settings at no less than 50 degrees.
If possible assign school personnel to conduct walk through inspections during holidays or extend (sic) period when facility may not be in use.
It is the responsibility of all NMPSIA members to help maintain the integrity of the New Mexico Public Schools Insurance Authority.
Four years ago, when open government and Dixon transparency award recipient Marty Esquivel joined the board, citizens were entitled to two minutes every two weeks to exercise their constitutionally protected human rights to free speech and to petition one's government.
Four years later, your opportunity to petition your government is still only two minutes every two weeks. Unless of course you use your two minutes to speak truth to power. Unless you use your two minutes to tell the inconvenient truth.
If you follow this link, and follow the link in the post,
you can watch Marty Esquivel having me arrested by
the APS Police Department; his publicly funded private
police force.
Now imagine yourself sometime in the next for years
standing at the podium at a public forum wanting
to speak candidly, forthrightly and honestly to power,
who would you rather be wielding the gavel
that protects or denies your right to speak,
Marty Esquivel, or me?
It is a school board election.
How are student standards of conduct not part of the discourse?
How is role modeling not part of the discourse?
I am prepared to discuss these points in a debate.
I am prepared to defend the Pillars of Character Counts!
as wholly appropriate standards of conduct for students
and for adults.
I am prepared to argue that we should restore to administrative standards of conduct, the phrase and the expressed commitment;
In no case shall the standards of conduct for an adult,Why do those who would lower student standards of conduct in order to lower their own, not have to stand and deliver an explanation, defense, denial or even acknowledgment their failure?
be lower than the standards of conduct for students.
Marty Esquivel will not defend his abdication as the senior most role model of the Pillars of Character Counts!
I hold Kent Walz (dba the Journal) personally responsible for enabling Marty Esquivel to escape accountability for his betrayal of the public trust.
