APS School Board voted; the Pillars of Character Counts! are still the student standards of conduct.

I have stumbled upon the minutes, link, of the March 18, 2013 Policy and Instruction Committee meeting.

They indicate that, following the annual review, School Board Vice President Kathy Korte moved to accept changes in the Student Behavior Handbook, link.  Her motion was seconded by Lorenzo Garcia, and then passed unanimously by the entire board.  It was on the agenda, link, for final approval at a regular board meeting two days later.

The minutes from that meeting, link, indicate Kathy Korte moved to pass it, and Dr Analee Maestas seconded her motion.  It passed unanimously save Lorenzo Garcia who was absent, and maybe David Peercy who is listed as participating by phone.

The Student Behavior Handbook is school board policy.

When they adopted changes in the SBH, they adopted the "not changed" language as well.

Language not changed this year link,

Students ... are expected to model and promote the pillars of CHARACTER COUNTS! (sic) Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, and Citizenship)

The Pillars of Character Counts!, link, represent a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct.  They were adopted as APS' student standards of conduct by unanimous approval in 1994.

For awhile, they were the adults standards of conduct as well.
The adults' standards of conduct read;

In no case shall the standards of conduct for an adult
be lower than the standards for students as found in
the Student Behavior Handbook.

Therefore, adults could have no lower standard of conduct than the Pillars of Character Counts!

There was a time when I was trying to hold the leadership accountable in court, as role models of the Pillars of Character Counts! citing the role modeling clause.  Their response was to remove the role modeling clause from their standards of conduct.

They believe that because they removed the role modeling clause, they are no longer accountable as role models of, and therefore accountable to, ethical standards of conduct.

Regardless of the existence of a role modeling clause in their standards of conduct, board members and senior administrators are accountable as role models of same personal accountability to higher standards of conduct that they expect from students.

If we really expect students to grow into adults who embrace character and courage and honor, someone has to show them what it looks like.

The only way the leadership of the APS can escape accountability to the Pillars of Character Counts! is to eliminate them as the student standards.  All they have to do is lower student standards to a level where they are comfortable accepting actual accountability as role models.

They haven't the courage to lower student standards.  Nor do they have the character and courage necessary to raise their own.  Talk about caught between a rock and a hard place.

The simple truth; there is not one member of the senior administration nor of the board of education with the character and the courage to hold them self honestly accountable to the Pillars of Character Counts!; accountable according to a process over which they have no undue influence and powerful enough to hold them accountable, even against their will.

Instead, they will continue to establish higher standards for students than for themselves, and hope no one notices their hypocrisy.

Ask them.  They won't answer.
Any answer except yes, means no.

Aiding and abetting their effort to cover up an ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, Journal Managing Editor Kent Walz.

He isn't alone.

KRQE, KOAT, and KOB TV steadfastly refuse to;

1. investigate and report upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, though there is, or,
   
   
2. investigate and report that standards and accountability in the leadership of the APS are beyond reproach, though they are not.

I'm not saying these folks are "evil", but when Edmund Burke wrote;

All that is necessary for evil to prevail in the world,
is for good men to do nothing.

these are the people he was writing about.

We, are the people he was writing to.

Who is going to stand up and demand open and honest public discussion of executive and administrative standards and accountability in the Albuquerque Public Schools?




photo Mark Bralley