Policy Committee slips one by the Journal

Journal Reporter Hailey Heinz wrote a front page, top of the fold and comparatively lengthy story about a decision made at APS' Policy and Instruction Committee meeting last night. Mostly she wrote about the decision by the board, that APS employees will no longer be paid while serving in the legislature.

Heinz' investigation and report were about circumstances whose actual affect is limited to 2 teachers and 50 or so students.

The Journal did not notice, or chose to not report on the board's discussion of a plan to change the way whistleblower complaints against administrators are handled.

APS has a whistleblower program. Its purported purpose, to provide a venue where the powerless can file complaints against the powerful without fear of retribution or retaliation. There is a problem with APS' whistleblower program; investigations and adjudications are handled "in house".

In house investigations create the appearance of a conflict of interest; administrators who have personal, professional and collegial relationships cannot impartially investigate each other.

In the past, the school board addressed the appearance of conflicts of interest, by promising to review and approve of the handling of each and every complaint. It was an important check and balance; the people's only avenue for holding their administrative public servants accountable for their conduct and competence.

The board quietly changed board policy; their Audit Committee is no longer charged with providing review and approval for whistleblower complaints. Last night they fast-tracked a policy change that will put the entire whistleblower program under the direct control of administrators against whom the complaints have been filed; the people with the most to hide.

Tonight, the fast-tracking will be completed when the policy change will be made official during a "regular" school board meeting. With the passage, as many as 400 whistleblowers who had filed complaints before the board reneged on its commitment to due process for their complaints, will be denied that due process forever.

The leadership of the APS cannot be trusted to investigate themselves. Look what happened when they investigated the corruption in their police force, link; they covered the whole thing up. APS senior administrators committed felonies, statutes of limitation on felony criminal misconduct have expired, and the truth about what happened, the Caswell Report and other findings, are still being kept secret; even in violation of the NM IPRA.

The Journal should be all over the cover up. Instead, Journal Managing Editor Kent Walz and school board enforcer Marty Esquivel bamboozled the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government into giving APS Supt Winston Brooks a heroes award for transparency.

In truth, when it comes to investigating and reporting upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, Walz is damned if he does, and damned if he doesn't.

He is damned if he doesn't investigate and report upon credible allegations and evidence of an ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS. He is damned if he does because then he'll have to explain his failure to do so in the six years heretofore.




frame grab Mark Bralley