Boston travelers identified

When I asked APS, who we sent to Boston to participate in the Fall Conference of the Council of Great City Schools, the question was not answered.

The answer appeared today in APS' Journal, link. APS' "award winning" website, link, is yet to offer any information at all on who APS sent to the conference.

It would appear that board members Kathy Korte, David Peercy, Paula Maes, Analee Maestas and Marty Esquivel took advantage of a taxpayer financed trip to Boston. Board members Lorenzo Garcia and David Robbins, apparently didn't go along.

Senior administrators, Supt Winston Brooks, COO Brad Winter, CFO Don Moya, Asst Supt Eddie Soto, CAO Linda Sink, and Chief of Staff Joseph Escobedo were aboard, as well as school board staff including Director of Board Services Brenda Yager and Policy Analyst Carrie Menapace.

The district paid $26,187 to send the delegation to the conference, according to APS spokeswoman Monica Armenta, who apparently was not invited to join them on their jaunt.

$26,187 is small potatoes in APS' $1.2B budget; yet it still must be justifiable; otherwise the trip is just another travel junket for public servants who have work to do here. They must come back from Boston with solutions to our problems, that are worth more than the cost of going to find them.

That possibility is remote, these conferences have been going on for 55 years and we're still graduating only about half of the students who enter our high schools.

I look forward to any one of them coming back and justifying their experience in terms that will help even one failing student to find success.

I'm not holding my breath.