Tuesday, March 15, 2011

APS leadership team, on the road again.

The Journal reports this morning, link, that Winston Brooks
and his leadership team (15 senior administrators) had been
on the road last year for 143 days.

Whether or not those days were well spent and in the interests
of students, teachers, parents and community, is the question.

We have assurances that they were, from the Journal, and
Winston Brooks, Marty Esquivel, Paula Maes and
the Council of the Great City Schools. Oh yes, Monica Armenta
also thinks the resources were well spent. Rigo Chavez was
not asked, but I am certain that he agrees too, the rest of the
Communications Department and probably every senior
administrator who went on a trip.

The Journal report cited no independent confirmation of
the usefulness of the trips.

The relationship with the Council of the Great City Schools
is interesting. In the past, they have done a number of
"independent" audits for the leadership of the APS.
They found;

  • "a culture of fear of retaliation and retribution" against complainants, and that
  • "administrative evaluations were subjective and unrelated to promotion and step placement", and that
  • the leadership of the APS routinely fails to act on audit findings; the same findings show up audit after audit.
Their findings have been largely ignored, and APS will play host
to the Council of the Great City Schools 2013 annual conference,
and pays nearly $40K in annual dues to the Council.

Too cozy a relationship between "independent" auditor and
audited, in my book.

It is time for a truly independent district-wide administrative audit; the kind of audit that exposes corruption, incompetence, and the practices that enable them. An audit that reports to the public record and not just to those whose conduct and competence are being audited.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's almost 1 of every 3 work days (30%)that they are in "meetings".
And you know these meetings often have wine and fine lunches and great lodgings?
...and all at tax payer expense.
If we can afford them to be gone 30% of the tine, maybe we should keep them in town and cut 30% of them?
Additionally, in the age of electronic conferencing, why are they even leaving town at all... other than to "connect" and "get away from it all".
Again... all on the tax payed bill.
What a con job!

Anonymous said...

By the way, teacher conferences have seldom been paid by APS. And now, what they would provide is very minimal.
They make us sleep double-occupancy and check our attendance at such conferences. Usually, only 1 meal is provided per day.
It stands to reason that teachers would benefit more from cohorting than admin!

Anonymous said...

The people that run these "meetings" and "seminars" get big bucks for what they do.
I would guess there is some kind of "payback" included somewhere for such big business, be it open bars and exotic food and great lodging w/ entertainment...or something more insidious like free roofing for houses, or free products and rebates?
In reality, admin meeting with admin from out of state is generally ridiculous on the face of it. State ed requirements, laws, standards are different state to state.
I can see teachers (especially new teachers) and counselors and health personnel going to such meetings/conferences,...but admin?