APS Board betrays public trust, again

The APS Board of Education met in secret yesterday to "evaluate" Winston Brooks' service. They broke out of the secret meeting into an "open" meeting where no public comment was allowed, and then extended Winston Brooks' contract by yet another year, link.

The Journal editors, willing participants in Winston Brooks' cover up of felony criminal misconduct by senior APS administrators, link, feigned upset, (no) link, in their editorial this morning.

The sitting board had a responsibility to evaluate the Superintendent. Extending his contract three years into the future not only ignored the input of recently elected board members, but extends further into the future than the election two years from now, when a majority of the board will stand for election. In effect, they have extended Brooks' contract in advance of the re-election of the entire school board.

There is no objective evidence that Winston Brooks deserves any extension at all. School Board President Marty Esquivel tried to defend their treachery by pointing out that graduation rates have improved under Brooks' tenure. The truth is, the greatest part of any improvement in graduation rates comes from mathematical smoke and mirrors; the "new math" includes fifth year graduates and drops from the calculation, any students who fail the 9th grade on their first attempt.

The supposed increase in graduation rates is categorically dishonest. Of course graduation rates improve when you drop from the calculation those least likely to graduate. Of course graduation rates improve when you add another year to expectation. Those are not real increases in graduation rates.

We shouldn't be surprised by Brooks lack of candor, forthrightness and honesty on the subject of graduation rates.

• He is the same man who is taking money out of classrooms to pay unscrupulous lawyers from Modrall, to hide the Caswell Report from public knowledge. The Caswell Report (2007) names the names of APS senior administrators who committed felonies. He is yet to turn evidence over to the DA, even after four years have elapsed and statutes of limitation have expired.
• He is the same man who cannot summon the character and the courage to step up as a role model of honest accountability to the same standards of conduct he establishes and enforces upon students; the Pillars of Character Counts!.
• He is the same man who administers a whistle blower program that routinely closes complaints against him, without due process.

The APS school board is truly a den of jackals

people who perform dishonest or base deeds as the follower or accomplice of another.

The jackal Paula Maes spoke for the board when she declared, (they) will never agree to any audit that individually identifies corrupt or incompetent administrators or board members.







The jackal David Robbins is immediately responsible for the fact that the Audit Committee is yet to review and approve of the handling of a single whistle blower complaint, though school board policy specifically and explicitly promises individual review and approval of every single complaint.






The jackal David Peercy is immediately responsible for the fact that the Policy Committee has tabled discussion of standards of conduct for adults and for students, and the responsibilities of role models of the student standards of conduct.






The jackal Robert Lucero is responsible for tabling a motion that would require administrators and board members to respond to legitimate questions about the public interests and about their public service, by answering candidly, forthrightly and honestly.


















Twin jackals Delores Griego and Lorenzo Garcia have sat mutely, watching and doing nothing, and voting their acquiescence.


The biggest jackal of them all of course, is Marty Esquivel who wrote an illegal restraining order banning me from standing at the podium and pointing to their lack of character and courage, and then denied having written it.

Marty Esquivel is responsible for the fact that hundreds of whistle blower complaints, including complaints against Winston Brooks, are being denied the due process guaranteed by school board policy.


The treachery would not be possible except with the aid and abet of Journal editor Kent Walz. It was he and Esquivel who bamboozled the NM Foundation for Open Government into giving Winston Brooks a hero's award for transparency even while he is hiding the Caswell Report from public knowledge in violation of the NM Inspection of Public Records Act; FOG's pride and joy.

Any one of these jackals could deny these allegations, under their name or anonymously. There is no reason that they would not, except that the allegations are true.

Among the victims, APS students, who are being denied character education for no reason except that there is not one person in the entire leadership of the APS who will stand up as a role model of honest accountability to a higher standard of conduct than the law; the lowest standard of them all.

The community depends on journalists like Walz, Ellen Marks, and D'Val Westphal from the Journal, and Sue Stephens, news director at KOAT TV to tell them the truth in order that they can vote based on truth rather than the smoke and mirrors of PIOs. Their trust has been betrayed by so called journalists who put the well being of jackals before the well being of students.

Shame on them; shame on them all!




photos and frame grab Mark Bralley