Kent Walz; why is this not newsworthy?

There are two standards of conduct in the Albuquerque Public Schools, one for students and another for administrators, board members, (and other adults, none of whom influence executive or administrative decision making).

The standard of conduct for adults is the law; the lowest standards of conduct acceptable to civilized human beings. They will hold themselves accountable for nothing, if it isn't against the law.

Read their entreaty in their current newsletter, link, encouraging employees to make use of their whistleblower hotline and

report fraud, waste and abuse of state resources

... all criminal acts; all against the law.

Nowhere in the newsletter, nor in any other place, will you find any mention of administrators and board members being held accountable to any higher standards of conduct, higher than the law. Nowhere will you find accountability to any code of ethical behavior.

Except in the Student Behavior Handbook, link, where on page three you will find, here highlighted in significant part;

CITIZENSHIP
Students are expected to be good citizens. They are expected to:
• model and promote the pillars of CHARACTER COUNTS! (Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, and Citizenship)
• respect authority, property, and the rights of others.
• avoid confrontation and any activity that has the potential to cause a verbal or physical conflict.
• maintain standards of integrity and responsibility.
• maintain a safe school environment.
• report any/all information/circumstances related to campus safety and problems (fights, weapons,
or drugs on campus).

The Pillars of Character Counts! are a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of "ethical" conduct.

On its face, the requirement applies only to students. It reads; students are expected to model and promote "ethical" behavior.

Then there is role modeling; the obligation of adults, particularly administrators and board members, to show students what it looks like to hold oneself honestly accountable to standards of conduct like the Pillars.

If we really want students to grow into adults who embrace character and courage and honor, someone has to show them what it looks like. Someone has to show them what it looks like to hold oneself honestly accountable; accountable by means of a system over which they have no undue influence, impartial, and powerful enough to hold them accountable even against their will.

Instead, administrators and board members hold themselves accountable to each other, and each other only. The School Board does not offer even one venue where a complaint can be filed against them; not one. A complaint against a senior administrator, even over criminal misconduct, will be investigated by a subordinate. The appearance of a conflict of interest could not be more obvious nor more unacceptable.

Recently, the administration and board rewrote School Board Policy to eliminate executive review of the administration of complaints against administrators, including APS Supt Winston Brooks. The promise that the board would "review and approve" every single whistleblower complaint, was simply removed.

As but one, albeit particularly egregious, example of board members and senior administrators accountability only to each other;

In February 2007, the Journal investigated and reported upon, link, a scandal in the "leadership" APS Police and central office. The APS Police force investigated felony criminal misconduct committed by APS senior administrators. They reported what they found to Brooks and the Board. No evidence of felony criminal misconduct was ever handed over to the DA, even, or especially, as statutes of limitation expired.

In truth, senior administrators and board members are not even accountable to the law.

APS has a whistleblower hotline. It's called "Ethical Advocate" because that's the name of the third party vendor who acts as a clearinghouse for complaints; Ethical Advocate, link, and not because "ethics" are involved.

In fact, you will find the word "ethical" used nowhere else; not in the Employee newsletter item, link, encouraging employees to report (administrative) misconduct, nor in the full page dedicated to using Ethical Advocate, link.

Back when the whistleblower program was called Silent Whistle instead of Ethical Advocate, employees were encouraged to report unethical conduct specifically. An article in the Perspective read;

SilentWhistle is the new APS Fraud, Waste and Abuse Hotline that allows individuals to communicate their knowledge of any possible inappropriate, unethical or illegal activities within the district. (emphasis added)

There once was a link to the Perspective article and specific mention of ethics. The link has since been destroyed.

After a number of complaints were filed alleging unethical conduct by APS Supt Winston Brooks specifically, the word and concept of ethical misconduct has been methodically and deliberately removed not only from the whistleblower program, but from both School Board Policy and Administrative Procedural Directives.

• There are two standards of conduct in the APS, one for students, one for adults. The student standards and expectations are higher than those for adults.
• There is not a single senior administrator nor board member who will manifest the character and the courage to hold themselves honestly accountable as a role model of the standards of conduct they establish and enforce upon students;
  not Supt Winston Brooks, not COO Brad Winter, not Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta, not APS Foundation Director Phill Casaus, nor any other member of their "leadership" team, link.
• There is not a single member of the school board who can manifest the character and the courage to talk, openly, honestly and on the record, about administrative and executive standards of conduct and accountability.
  Not Paula Maes, not Kathy Korte, not Marty Esquivel, not David Peercy, not David Robbins, not Lorenzo Garcia, and not Analee Maestas.

These allegations and the credible evidence and testimony that support them are newsworthy.

And the only reason Journal
Managing Editor Kent Walz,
here shown giving Winston
Brooks a transparency award
while he, Brooks, and School
Board enforcer Marty Esquivel
covered up the cover up of
criminal misconduct by
APS senior administrators,
won't see an investigation and
report done on the ethics and
accountability scandal in
the leadership of the APS, is because he is in cahoots;
he is part of the cover up.

I would be happy to publish any credible alternative explanation.

cc Walz upon posting.



framegrab Mark Bralley