APS top "Good ol' boy" Winter hands over reins; end of an era?

APS reports, link, that APS interim Supt. Brad Winter will retire this week, handing over the reins to the incoming Supt. Luis Valentino.

The reins run to bits in the mouths of members of APS' good ol' boys club.

One of the identifying characteristics of good ol' boys clubs is cronyism; partiality, especially in appointment to positions of authority, regardless of  qualifications.

Recently, the Council of the Great City Schools audited the administration of the APS.  They found rampant cronyism.  They found;

Administrative evaluations were subjective and unrelated to promotion or step placement.

There is no evidence that anything has changed since the audit.

According to the Wikipedia;

Cronyism is contrary in practice and principle to meritocracy.  Often, the appointor is inadequate to hold his or her own job or position of authority, and for this reason the appointor appoints individuals who will not try to weaken him or her, or express views contrary to those of the appointor.

And there you have the leadership of the APS in a nutshell.  Just ask anybody who isn't a member of the club.

If ever there was a good ol' boy, Brad Winter was and still is.

Consider that Winter hiding still;

• the truth about spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd, and
• the truth about APS' cover up of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior Administrators and the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars they have spent on litigation and legal weaselry in order to keep secret public records including findings of investigations into the allegations, and
• the truth about student discipline and the effects of chronically disruptive students, and
• the truth about the wholesale abdication of the entire "leadership" of the APS as role models of student standards of conduct, and
• the standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

If ever there was a good ol' boys' club,
the leadership of the APS has been and still is.
The question is, will it continue to be?

Is this the end of an era cronyism in the leadership of the APS? It seems unlikely; nothing has changed.  The administration is still composed of people who were promoted to positions of power and influence based on the unlikelihood that they will make waves.

photo cmacq

Take for example, the chief of APS' publicly funded private police force.

Steve Gallegos was promoted to chief, not because he is any great shakes as an administrator (the APS police voted no confidence in Gallegos) and, not because he is any great shakes as a cop, link.

Gallegos is the chief of police because he investigated the corruption in the police department, and his findings (naming the names of senior APS administrators who were involved in state and federal felony criminal misconduct) have disappeared; missing without a trace.

There is no reason to believe Kent Walz and the Journal intend to tell the truth ever about the ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

There isn't one single person in the entire leadership of the APS who is willing to talk openly and honestly about standards and accountability; not their standards; not even student standards.


APS culture of corruption and incompetence will not without candor, forthrightness and honesty from the leadership of the APS.

Since there is no indication of incipient truth telling, the wise money will continue to be bet on continuing the cover up instead.




photos Mark Bralley