APS leadership comes out of hiding

It deserves more than two column inches buried deep in the Journal.  It is worthy of more than "brief" mention.

Board members and senior administrators have opened a door they can never close.

For nearly two decades I have been asking the leadership of the APS to point to a time, a day, and a place where they will engage in open and honest public discussion with the community members they serve.  Finally, they have.

They have pointed to time, 6 pm,
a day, Monday, October 8th, and
a place, 6400 Uptown Blvd, link.

This is not the meeting where there will actually be open and honest public discussion with community members, except with respect to establishing the rules that will ultimately result in those open and honest public discussions of specific issues of interest to stakeholders some time in the future.

Not Monday, but some day, I will be able to ask them;

• why they won't surrender the findings of investigations into felony criminal misconduct by senior APS administrators? and why haven't those findings been surrendered to the DA?, or
• why are whistleblowers being denied due process for their complaints?, or
• why are board members and senior administrators are not honestly accountable as role models of the standards of conduct they establish and enforce upon students?

and they will respond candidly, forthrightly and honestly, or be actually accountable for not doing so.  That day will not be Monday, but it will be some day.


Monday, we need begin a process that cannot be stopped.

Monday, we need to establish a beachhead.

Monday, they say their purpose is to "gather public input" from families and the community.

They say

they “... want to expand our efforts to make sure we are providing ways to get input and engage the Albuquerque community,...” ... "in the education of students"

Note that there is already qualifying language;  "... in the education of students ..." to narrow the scope of the discussion.  By what logic are citizens and taxpayers entitled to communicate their concerns about "the education of students", but not about the spending of their power and resources?

Look what they have already done to mitigate your influence by means of parent advisory councils.  Read their old and new ideas on our value in their decision making process; notice the back tracking on empowering citizens to participate in advisory councils.

The old K.01, link, and the new K.01, link.
Notice the use in the chronology of the directive , of the word "reviewed" rather than "revised" August 14, 2012, to describe their obvious revision of the policy.

The Monday meeting will begin in earnest, a process that will end when interest holders have a place where they can ask any legitimate questions, and expect candid, forthright and honest responses from APS politicians and public servants.

There are those who will resist moving the line on transparency; board members and senior administrators with corruption and incompetence to cover up.

They will show up at the meeting,  and
they will try to change the subject.

There are those who think the truth about the spending of power and resources belongs to the people.  And who think they have a right to ask questions in search of that truth, and with very few exceptions, as granted specifically and explicitly in the law, who believe they have a right to expect candid, forthright and honest responses in reply.

They need to show up and speak up.

People don't get the government they deserve,
they get the government they're willing to fight for.