Tuesday, July 28, 2015

APS School board to meet in retreat

The APS school board intends to attend a "retreat" tomorrow morning beginning at 8am. Their retreat takes them out of the administrative complex on Uptown Blvd. in favor of the Nusenda Credit Union Training Center, 4100 Pan American Freeway; between Comanche Rd. and Montgomery Blvd., link.

Their agenda reads;

I. Review of Board of Education Operational Procedures Facilitated by Hugh Prather, Ph.D*.
A. Board Clarification of the Desired Structure of the Board of Education Operational Procedures. (Note; "Board of Education Operational Procedures" differs from the title of the meeting which reads; "regarding procedural directives".  Unclear at this point, to which specific procedures they will be attending.)f
B. Analysis of the Missing Components Which Need to Be Added to the Document and the Processes to Add those Elements.
C. Developing a Completed Operational Directive to Practice the Process
*Hugh Prather is the owner and principal consultant of Prather Consulting, which provides organizational consulting to not for profit organizations, boards, membership organizations, small businesses, the medical community, and educational institutions.
Unclear still, what the board and Prather mean by "retreat".
Retreat can mean;
  • a place you can go to be alone
  • a place affording peace and quiet
in a military sense it means of course;
  • a withdrawal from a dangerous position
It can also mean;
  • the process of receding from a position
  • process of changing or undergoing change in one's thinking or in a position
If anyone was hoping the board might be in the process of changing their position or thinking on dealing with the 1994 character education resolution and with the issue of double standards of conduct in the APS; they will be as disappointed as I.

Monday, July 20, 2015

APS board will meet three times this week

None of the agendas include;

"a public reconsideration of whether the core curriculum should continue to give explicit attention to character development as an ongoing part of school instruction"
The agendas for the Audit and Finance Committee meetings wouldn't be a logical place to find the discussion.

The agenda of the Equity and Engagement Committee could legitimately include it; committee chair Barbara Petersen could facilitate the discussion.

What better way to engage the community than to host a discussion of character education;
  1. should the board reaffirm its commitment or
  2. abandon it?  
It appears they may not address the issue at all; just continue to pretend there's nothing wrong with double standards of conduct in a public school system.

Nearly as bad as not discussing the issue at all, would be to let it take place in a Policy and instruction Committee with board member David Peercy chairing the discussion. While it could be argued that Policy is where the discussion belongs, there could not be an environment less conducive to that discussion than David Peercy's committee.

... don't need no stinkin' 
role modeling clause!
... end of discussion
Peercy has spent years obstructing this very discussion, link.  Policy is where the administration went to slip through a "semantic" change that would have effectively ended character education in the APS.

How can Peercy be expected to facilitate an open, honest and balanced discussion even if that was what the board wanted?





photos Mark Bralley




Friday, July 17, 2015

Grumblings about nepotism laid to rest

The daughter of the school board president had been appointed to APS' leadership team; the job pays $125K.  There were grumblings about the appearances of conflicts of interest and impropriety.  More specifically, accusations of nepotistic indulgences.

The letter of APS' policy on nepotism reads "initial hire".  Because she has a long history with the district, hers is not an initial hire; APS policy has not been violated.  It does not mean that nepotism wasn't at play; just that technically, it doesn't violate their policy.

As much was reported this morning by the Journal, link.

He reports that APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta, who he refers to as a "spokesperson", said;

“Based on my conversations with Art Melendrez (sic), the district’s legal counsel, the appointment is not a violation of the statute because Dr. Blakey is not an initial hire."

aps image
Associate Superintendent for Middle Schools Dr. Gabriella Blakey seems as well qualified, link, as any of the rest of them.  No one is suggesting that as an issue.  Maybe there are other people who think they are more qualified or experienced and should have been appointed instead.  Who knows?

It's not the point.

The point is; stake and interest holders are expected to "trust" school board members and senior administrators.  They are supposed to take the word of a superintendent who says, "trust me".

Co-incidentally, Supt. Valentino and the board were challenged this week, to reconsider in public, the resolution that created character education in the APS and established "higher standards of conduct" for students and for their adult role models.

Currently, there is some confusion in the leadership of the APS about whether or not they are actually accountable as role models and of what standards of conduct.

In light of their confusion, you can see why people might not want to trust them.  You can see why people wonder about nepotism.

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

St Cyr earns NM FOG recognition

In this 2009 photo, St Cyr interviews
mayoral candidate Richard Romero.
Peter St Cyr has an earned reputation for digging out public records against the whim of politicians and powerful public servants who would rather that the records remain secret.

It's a pleasure to see the NM FOG get (another) one right in granting their recognition by bestowing Dixon Awards.

Richard Romero, a former APS administrator, has the distinction of being the only political candidate ever (in my world) to endorse, link, the Pillars of Character Counts! as the appropriate standards for politicians and public servants.




photos Mark Bralley

Let’s talk character (education)

It's been more than twenty-one years since the APS school board adopted the resolution that began character education in earnest, in APS

The kindergarteners who saw the first deliberate, concerted effort to help them build and maintain their good character, graduated nine years ago.

Recent events, including an effort to erase standards the resolution specifically established, suggest that the leadership of APS has lost its resolve.

A simple (public) reconsideration of the motion is in order.

Please urge the APS board of education to reconsider the 1994 resolution and their commitment to helping students gain and maintain their character. Urge them to reaffirm their commitment.

Attend the meeting tomorrow, link.  Speak at the public forum, or
simply stand up when I petition board members to arrange for their reconsideration.

There is some urgency for the reconsideration, as the new school year begins in about a month and it would be nice if our expectations for students are stated clearly and with some conviction, before we expect them to start meeting them.

I am grateful for your time and attention.


End note; an edited version of this post was submitted to the Journal (letter to the editors) in plenty of time for them to inform the democracy; should they care to participate.

Should reconsideration reach fruition, it will be interesting to read their editorial for or against attention to character education and higher standards of conduct.




photo Mark Bralley

Monday, July 13, 2015

"All that is necessary... is for good men to do nothing."

Recent events, including an administrative effort to abandon districtwide efforts in character education by means of "semantic changes" in the APS student handbook, have raised questions.

I submit; the most important of which is;

What will be the standards of conduct for APS students?

The answer to that question is not easy to pin down as you might suppose.

Student standards of conduct represent a policy decision by the school board.  The school board decides what the standards will be, and then charges their superintendent with administering the enforcement.

Two decades ago, the board adopted a particular set of standards of conduct for students.  Those standards of conduct require APS students to model and promote accountability to a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct; the Pillars of Character Counts!, link.

Twenty one years later, those are still the standards and expectation of students; they have been neither rescinded nor amended.

Should those still be our expectations for nearly 90,000 students in public schools?  Should we reaffirm the resolution or rescind it?  In favor of what else, exactly?

There are those who do not want to discuss student standards of conduct, in particular in public meetings; more particularly in meetings where there will be public input. The reason is; you really cannot talk about student standards of conduct without talking also about adult standards of conduct - right up to the most powerful politicians and public servants in the APS; school board members and superintendents.

The leadership of the APS doesn't want to talk about their standards.

One naively assumes that they are accountable to the same standards of conduct that they establish and enforce on students; that they are role models of student standards of conduct.  They are not.

School board members and superintendents have not been accountable as role models since a night eight years ago when they voted unanimously to strike the role modeling clause from their standards of conduct.  It read;

In no case shall the standards of conduct for an adult
be lower than the standards of conduct for students.

For the better part of a decade there have been double standards of conduct for students and their adult role models.

An independent examination and review of the standards and accountability that apply to school board members and senior administrators would find a lack of due process for complaints filed against them.  It would find a "culture of fear of retaliation" against whistleblowers and other complainants.

The question;

what will be student standards of conduct? 

and the attending questions about the roles, responsibilities and obligations of their senior-most adult role models, are uncomfortable questions to say the least.

I have been asking the same questions in one form or another for nearly a decade; ever since the night the voted to remove the role modeling clause from their own standards of conduct. 

I will ask again Wednesday afternoon, at the public forum during the school board meeting, if the school board will engage in a public reconsideration of the 1994 resolution; a reaffirmation or a rejection.

I would appreciate support.  Though recently adopted school board rules prohibit audience members from standing up in support of a speaker or point, perhaps a little civil disobedience is appropriate in this case.

I'm not suggesting that the leadership of the APS is evil, but when Edmund Burke concluded that;
All that's necessary for evil to prevail in the world
is for good men to to nothing.
these are situations that concerned him; and your willingness to make sacrifices in support of "good" was the subject of his concern.

Stand in support of a public reconsideration of the 1994 resolution that made character education part of the curriculum, and accountability to higher standards, the standards and expectation for students and for their adult role models.

Sacrifice is the currency of commitment.
There is no equivalent gesture.





photo Mark Bralley

Saturday, July 11, 2015

Time to revisit the 1994 resolution; reaffirm or rescind?

In March 2004, the APS Board of Education passed a unanimous resolution.  The resolution did two things;

  1. it affirmed the need for public schools to participate meaningfully in the development of the character of students, and
  2. it named a particular character education model as the adopted model and the standards associated with that model became the student standards of conduct.
In so far as the leadership of the APS are the senior-most role models of student standards of conduct, those nationally recognized, accepted and respected standards of conduct became at once, the standards of conduct for students' adult role models as well.  That's what role modeling means.

In affirmation of their acceptance of the obligations of role models, the standards of conduct that applied to school board members and senior administrators had a role modeling clause.  It read;
In no case shall the standards of conduct for an adult,
be lower than the standards of conduct for students.
The board voted unanimously, to remove the role modeling clause from their standards in 2005 or 6.

Since, there have been double standards of conduct;
  1. students expected to model and promote accountability to higher standards of conduct, 
  2. while their role models have been accountable only to the law; the standards of conduct that all higher standards are higher than.  
Senior adult accountability is enormously eroded by litigation and legal weaselry in order to escape real, honest to God accountability even to the law. Operational dollars are spent as a matter of routine to buy admissions of no guilt for corrupt and or incompetent politicians and senior public servants.

They spend without limit and without oversight.
Their "subordinate oversight" is not oversight at all;
it is an oxymoron.

Though it is more than two decades old, absent and until it is rescinded, the 1994 resolution is as binding today as it was the evening it was unanimously resolved.

If the 1994 resolution is no longer in the best interests of students, it needs to be rescinded.

If the 1994 resolution remains in the best interests of students, then it needs to be reaffirmed.

We need two school board members to move for a public reconsideration of the resolution that made character education part of the core curriculum.
  1. one to move to reconsider the 1994 resolution in open meeting(s), and
  2. another to second that motion.
=====================================

Below please find the resolution - it is not first source; it has been transcribed as accurately as I am able.

Note as well; "character education" and "Character Counts!" are not the same thing.  The resolution establishes and requires districtwide character education efforts.  Character Counts! is one of a number of models for character education.  Endorsing character education is not endorsing any particular model.  I remain enamored of Character Counts! - I am honestly unaware of anything that is very much better.
Resolution

To endorse and Implement Character Counts! Program in the Albuquerque Public Schools

Whereas, Albuquerque Public Schools reaffirms the need to join with other community groups to actively engage in the development and demonstration of ethical behavior among youth and adults, and

Whereas, the mission of Albuquerque Public Schools is to provide learners of all ages the skills and knowledge needed to become successful and productive members of a dynamic society, and

Whereas, the Albuquerque Public Schools recognizes that students in our schools are more likely now than in the past to experience family disintegration, homicide, drug use, teen age pregnancy, dishonesty, suicide, and strong messages from media and society that undermine home teaching of ethical values, and

Whereas, the Albuquerque Public Schools recognizes that no single community institution can instill ethical behavior in youth and adults if it is acting without the support of other institutions and groups, and

Whereas, the Albuquerque Public Schools recognizes the important role played by teachers and other adults in school settings in modeling good character for young people.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED;

1. That the Albuquerque Public Schools endorses the Aspen Declaration on Character Education as well as the Character Counts! Program as ways to develop character based on six core ethical values; trustworthiness, respect, responsibility , fairness, caring and citizenship;

2. That the Albuquerque Public Schools will enter into community-wide discussions with other institutions and groups to reach agreements about the role of each in promoting ethical behavior among young people, and adults in various aspects of life;

3. That the Albuquerque Public Schools is committed to creating models of ethical behavior among all adults who serve students and schools;

4. That the core curriculum should continue to give explicit attention to character development as an ongoing part of school instruction;

5. That materials, teaching methods, partnerships, and services to support school programs shall be selected, in part, for their capacity to support the development of character among youth and adults;

6. That all schools examine school curriculum and practices to identify and extend opportunities for developing character, especially through the utilization of violence-prevention programs, mediation training, community service programs. fair rules which are fairy enforced, democratic practices in classrooms and organizations, and extracurricular activities which help students learn and model caring and ethical behavior.

DATED this 2nd day of March, 1994

Below please find the Aspen Declaration. It was cited in the resolution.
1. The next generation will be the stewards of our communities, nation and planet in extraordinarily critical times.
2. In such times, the well-being of our society requires an involved, caring citizenry with good moral character.
3. People do not automatically develop good moral character; therefore, conscientious efforts must be made to help young people develop the values and abilities necessary for moral decision making and conduct.
4. Effective character education is based on core ethical values rooted in democratic society, in particular, respect, responsibility, trustworthiness, justice and fairness, caring, and civic virtue and citizenship.
5. These core ethical values transcend cultural, religious and socioeconomic differences.
6. Character education is, first and foremost, an obligation of families and faith communities, but schools and youth-service organizations also have a responsibility to help develop the character of young people.
7. These responsibilities are best achieved when these groups work in concert.

8. The character and conduct of our youth reflect the character and conduct of society; therefore, every adult has the responsibility to teach and model the core ethical values and every social institution has the responsibility to promote the development of good character.
If ever there will be something you can do that will make a difference, standing in support of a public reconsideration of the 1994 resolution regarding character education in the Albuquerque Public School, is that thing.

If ever there will be a time to stand up and get involved, this is that time.

If ever there were a place to be and a time to be there,
it is at the school board meeting on Wednesday, July 15,
at 5pm.

Friday, July 10, 2015

APS Student Handbook revision premature

Above all else; the APS Student Handbook is a collection of policy statements.

The likelihood that any discipline policy will be successful, aside from enforcement, depends on its relationship to some underlying principle.  If the only reason you don't want a child to do something is because you said no, you're in store for some push back.

You must or mustn't, do this thing because we believe doing or not doing this thing this thing violates commonly held principles.
... relieves enforcers from having nothing better to tell student than;
 ... because I said so.
APS does not have a discipline philosophy upon which to base discipline policies. 

There has been no consensus established on even such fundamental issues as;
  • whether students who deliberately break rules should be punished or given another second chance, or  
  • whether student discipline records should be maintained, or
  • whether chronically disruptive students should be left in classes and disrupting other students education, or.
  • whether students who commit criminal acts should be dealt with "administratively" or by professional law enforcement. 
Writing a policy handbook without a philosophical foundation is putting the cart before the horse;
they want to decide what to do without having agreed on why to do it, or how.

Back to the drawing board!

Wednesday, July 08, 2015

APS Board steps up - big time

APS Superintendent Luis Valentino's plan to remove the Pillars of Character Counts!; link, from the new APS Student Handbook came to a screeching halt this afternoon.

The board made it clear that the pillars would remain in the Handbook until there have been open and honest discussions with stake and interest holders and their reconsideration of what ought or ought not be student standards of conduct.

Escobedo is a former student, here
pointing out himself and other students
 on a class field trip to Washington D.C.
In charge of enabling those discussions; former APS Chief of Staff, current Chief Equity and Engagement Officer Joseph Escobedo, link.

This situation is full of defining moments; it appears there will be another; for Mr. Escobedo.  Godspeed on Joseph Escobedo and his efforts to enable stake and interest holders to participate meaningfully in the decision making process.

Escobedo will enjoy the support of the Chair of the board's Equity and Engagement Committee, Barbara Petersen.  She spoke too, to the need for stake and interest holders to be part of the process in redefining what it is we will expect from students.  And by logical, ethical, and moral extension, what it is that we expect from ourselves because we are their role models.

Most of the rest of the board spoke up in favor of leaving the current language until better language is written.  No one spoke against the decision to accept all of Valentino's changes save that one.

All of the establishment's media; the Journal, KRQE, KOAT and KOB TV were notified days ago that the board was about to lower student standards of conduct.
Because they chose to not be there to record the board doing something disgraceful, they were not there to record the board doing something nearly heroic.

KRQE has the tape, but they weren't there for the handbook revision; they were there to record a different discussion. Not holding my breath for coverage; KRQE lawyer Marty Esquivel will advise them to not cover the ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

Unclear what they will choose to report or, into what they will further investigate.

The standards of conduct for the nearly 90,000 of this community's sons and daughters in APS schools remain, at least for the time being;
  1. be trustworthy,
  2. responsible,
  3. respectful
  4. fair,
  5. caring, and
  6. be a good citizen
The standards for school board members and
senior administrators are still to be ironed out.
One would think they would be the same as the
ones they establish and enforce upon students.

But they aren't.

It's not so much the responsibility, respect, fairness, caring and good citizenship that that some of them object to, it's the pillar of trustworthiness.

They object to answering legitimate questions about the public interests and about their public service; candidly, forthrightly and honestly.  They don't like the idea of doing more than the law requires and less than the law allows.

The Pillar of Trustworthiness is the pillar they ignore when they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on litigation and legal weaselry rather than produce ethically redacted findings of investigations into felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators.

Well alright; spending money on non-viable defenses of board member's egos and the hiding of public records also violates a few other pillars;
  • responsible stewardship over our resources, and
  • respect for the trust that has been placed in them that they will make their decisions in the best interests of students, and
  • fairness; what's fair about using operational dollars to underwrite legal weaselry to deny justice and to enable corrupt and incompetent school board members and senior administrators to sign off on admissions of no guilt, and
  • caring about the fallout on the good and decent politicians and public servants whose public service is being crippled by the lack of accountability and consequences for those who are not, or will not, do their jobs.
  • being a good citizen and following the rules.




photos Mark Bralley

Walz gets Dixon Award - what were they thinking?

Whatever else Journal Editor in Chief Kent Walz has done in his lifetime to earn the NM Foundation for Open Government's most prestigious award, how do they simply overlook what he is doing right now?

How does FOG not see, not care, that Walz is part of a cover up of public corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the Albuquerque Public Schools?

Kent Walz knows that felonies were committed.  He reported, link, on the misappropriation of cash; a state felony.  He reported on the misuse of a national criminal database to harass whistleblowers and vet a deputy supt.'s girl friend; a federal felony.

Walz knows that the District Attorney never considered prosecution because she never saw the evidence and testimony that had been gathered.  That evidence and testimony are the public records that operational funds are being squandered in the effort to hide public knowledge.

The leadership of the APS and their lawyers do not want the public to see findings of investigations into allegations of felony criminal misconduct.  The findings name names and will make clear that felonies were in fact, committed.  That knowledge makes it obvious that felony criminal misconduct has been covered up.

The leadership of the APS is to this day, paying lawyers to hide records that implicate senior APS administrators in felony criminal misconduct.  The records enjoy no honest exception under the Inspection of Public Records Act.  Their exception is underwritten by unlimited resources for litigation against the public interests.

The public interests are not being served by spending operational dollars; dollars that should, would and could be spent actually educating children, on litigation and legal weaselry serving no purpose but to hide the names of politicians and public servants who committed felonies and or covered them up.

It was Kent Walz by the way,
who along with Marty Esquivel,
bamboozled the FOG board into
giving Brooks the Dixon Award
in the midst of their cover up
of a cover up of felony criminal
misconduct.

There is an ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

There is no controverting evidence to that allegation.  None.  There is no evidence that politicians and public servants in the APS are actually honestly accountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence by any due process.  Any independent examination and review will find inadequate standards and or inadequate accountability to whatever standards there are.

If school board members and senior administrators are actually honestly accountable to high enough standards of conduct, that in itself would be newsworthy.  Surely the people should know, and would want to know that their trust and treasure are protected by high enough standards, and swift and certain accountability to them.*

*The board by the way, is meeting tonight to lower the standards of conduct for students from "ethical" standards to lower standards.  They are unwilling to step up as role models of "ethical" standards of conduct and rather than prolong the manifestly hypocritical double standards of conduct, they decided to lower student standards instead.  It is a move abjectly devoid of moral courage and character.
School board members and senior administrators are spending hundreds of thousands of operational dollars every year on litigation and legal weaselry to escape accountability even to the law.  In my case alone, they have spent nearly a million operational dollars in a non-viable defense of school board member's ego.  They spend without limit and without oversight.

Kent Walz is helping them
cover it up.

He will take a night off at
some point, to go pick up
his Dixon Award.

I feel for the good and decent
people who get Dixon Awards
and who deserve them.

Their award is diminished when the award is also given to the likes of former APS Supt. Winston Brooks and now Kent Walz.




photos Mark Bralley

Tuesday, July 07, 2015

This isn't (just) about the Pillars of Character Counts!

Twenty one years ago, the APS school board made a deliberate decision to make "character education" part of the curriculum.  Read their unanimous resolution; link.

Of much less consequence; that their choice of model and standards to adopt happened to be Character Counts!.  They made the Pillars of Character Counts!, link, the standards of conduct for students. 

They could have chosen any one of a number of other models.  They chose  CC! in no small part because home town United States Senator Pete Domenici had a bunch of federal dollars to be spread around.

Simultaneous with the adoption of the standards, they became the senior-most role models of those standards.

To their everlasting regret; part of those dollars were spent to train me as a CC! trainer, develop my commitment to Character Counts! and to their stepping up as role models of honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence within their public service.

When they adopted CC! and trained me, they found themselves accountable, as role models, to higher standards of conduct than they were comfortable with; primarily truth telling.

When the board and superintendent erase the pillars from the student hand book, they aren't just rejecting the Pillars of Character Counts!.  They are rejecting character education period.  Without renouncing it, they are simply rejecting it.

There will be no districtwide effort to develop character in nearly 90,000 of this community's sons and daughters in Albuquerque public schools.

The erasure of the Pillars of Character Counts! from the handbook and abandonment of character education and higher standards of conduct for students is the final tether they must cut.  Their need is to extricate themselves from accountability to higher standards of conduct.

They began by striking their role modeling clause;

in no case shall the standards of conduct for an adult
be lower than the standards for students.
Their poor eagle will have no place
to perch when the Pillars disappear.

Despite their abdication as role models and accountability to the Pillars of Character Counts!, the pillars continue to adorn district stationary and the sides of their police cars.

All of that goes away when they get together Wednesday to change the rules.

It's not so much that they're changing the rules.  The rules need changing.  The double standards they have in place are categorically unacceptable.  It's that they could eliminate the double standards by raising their own; accepting honest to God accountability to the same standards they establish and enforce upon students.

It is not so much that they are changing the rules,
as it is that that their process ignores the rights of stake and interest holders to participate meaningfully in decision making that affected their interests.  Their process ignores the rights of teachers who have between them nearly a hundred thousand years of teaching experience.

Journal Editor Kent Walz
The crisis becomes a scandal of monumental proportion when the Journal and NMBA affiliate "news" outlets decide to let it slide.

The lowering standards of conduct for an entire school district is newsworthy by any reasonable measure.

The abandonment of any districtwide effort to develop good character is too important an issue to keep from public discourse.  Keeping it from open and honest, two-way public discourse is as inexcusable as it is inexplicable.

Were all that not bad enough;
  • APS Supt. Luis Valentino's new handbook retains the weasel clause verbatim; 
nothing in the following is intended to prevent an ... 
administrator from using his/her best judgment 
with respect to a particular situation.
Administrators can do anything they want and chalk it up to best judgement.  Their decision is not subject to examination or review; it is simply their best judgment. 
It means all of the consequences for deliberate misconduct, promised in the Student Behavior Handbook, didn't really have to be meted out.  It creates a conflict of interests for administrators who are expected to not report discipline problems.  A lot of teachers feel like a lot of administrators don't adequately consequence even chronically disruptive students.
  • The handbook now reads in significant part;
suggested amendments or additions (to the handbook) may be submitted by ... other interested persons for consideration.
That language will be struck.  The administration will take care of any amendments and additions by means of a committee they have formed.
  • The introduction to the new handbook, penned by Luis Valentino is written above a 12th grade reading level (12.3 as far as I am able to determine).  The changes he proposes don't appear to lower the readability of the handbook itself which is over 14th grade. 

    Valentino writes; the Student Handbook is designed to be a useful resource for students and parents ...  Who exactly, does he think is going to read it?
aps image
Valentino ends by looking forward to "taking the district to higher level of excellence".

Lowering standards and accountability for students and adults seems like an exceedingly bad choice for a first step.




photos Mark Bralley

Monday, July 06, 2015

APS leaders finally abandon the Pillars of Character Counts! altogether

aps image
APS Supt. Luis Valentino and the board plan to abandon without justification; APS' student standards of conduct; the Pillars of Character Counts!.

Like them or no; the Pillars of Character Counts! have been APS' student standards of conduct for more than two decades.  They were adopted by a unanimous school board in 1994.  Every year since, by means of the Student Behavior Handbook, students have been told that they are expected to model and promote honest accountability to the pillars, link;Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Caring, Fairness and Citizenship.

Whether the Pillars should be APS' student standards is moot.  They simply "are".  They "are" until the board changes student standards to some other.

Which is exactly what they intend to do.

They intend to lower student standards from a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct to;
"Students are expected to be good members of the community".
If that is not a lowering of standards, what is?

Is that really what we need to do right now; lower standards of conduct for students in public schools?  Has anyone asked teachers how they feel about lowering student standards of conduct?

It is scandalous that this decision is being made without public input.

Stake and interest holders are completely in the dark - thanks in no small part to the heavy hitters in River City news; the likes of Journal Editor in Chief Kent Walz, and the owners and news directors at NMBA affiliates KRQE, KOAT and KOB TV.

The decision will be railroaded through at the following meeting.

The school board and their new supt. intend to lower student standards of conduct without ever having to explain why.  They will reject the standards they have been endorsing for two decades without renouncing them.  They won't point to flaws in the CC! model or advantages in their new, lower standard. 

Along with the Character Counts! quilt, link, the Pillars are going to simply disappear from the the student handbook, the fenders APS Police cars, link, and from the bottom of the administrative letterhead.  There will be a simple Stalinesque erasing of the past.

They will lower student standards of conduct rather than be held actually, honestly accountable to higher standards of conduct than the law.  Rather that be held accountable to any standards of conduct requiring truth telling, and character and courage.

This is a momentous decision.

If we really want students to grow into adults who embrace character and courage and honor, someone has to show them what they look like.

To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.
Theodore Roosevelt, American adventurer and president (1858-1919)
The formation of character in young people is educationally a different task from and a prior task to, the discussion of the great, difficult ethical controversies of the day.
William J. Bennett, author and former U.S. Secretary of Education (b. 1943)
If we want our children to possess the traits of character we most admire, we need to teach them what those traits are and why they deserve both admiration and allegiance. Children must learn to identify the forms and content of those traits.
again - William J. Bennett
Stake and interest holders have a right to participate in the lowering of expectations for students.

The establishment's so called "press", steadfastly refuse to inform stake and interest holders;
there is an ethics, standards and accountability
crisis in the leadership of the APS
The leadership of the APS can not survive an independent examination and review of their ethics, standards and accountability.

Standards are being lowered; accountability is being diminished.  More operational dollars will be spent on litigation and legal weaselry in an effort to sever them from accountability even to the law.

Nobody, save the readers of this blog will know what's going to happen; what is at stake.

Because Kent Walz is in cahoots; part of a cover up of an ethics and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

Complicit is he, in the squandering the people's trust and treasure by the leadership of the APS.





photos Mark Bralley

Luis Valentino's defining moment?

It is unclear at this point, what it is that APS Supt. Luis Valentino has in mind for his presentation during a special school board meeting next Wednesday. The board will meet in special session at 5pm to consider changes to the Student Behavior Handbook.

The handbook is an administrative brainchild.

It is written above the 14th grade level; far above the reading level of even the best student readers.  The handbook is reviewed and approved by the school board.  The annual review, approval and vote has already taken place.  This reconsideration is unprecedented.

The agenda has no public forum; no opportunity for the public to weigh in on the "semantic" changes.  There will be an audio recording made, but it will not be posted on APS award winning website.  A video record will not be made of their faces as they discuss and determine the standards for students, and if you believe in role modeling, their own standards of conduct.

... we don't need no stinkin' input!
The Policy and Instruction Committee is chaired by David Peercy.  Peercy harbors a disregard for public comment that borders on contemptuous.

It is his decision, link, that there will be no public discussion of student and adult standards of conduct.  It is his will that not only will a role modeling clause be not be restored to his standards of conduct; but that there will be no public discussion or review of his determination.

The "semantic" changes Valentino proposes are still secret.  They cannot be linked to from the agenda, link.  My request for them has gone unanswered.  Normally, those are not good signs of impending transparency.  I wouldn't be surprised to find their refusal to publish when they published the agenda, the records that will be discussed and decided upon, violates the Open Meetings Act meetings notice requirements - in spirit if not the letter.

One of Supt. Valentino's greatest responsibilities will be the enforcement and execution of the district's student discipline policies and procedures.  Student discipline is never discussed out loud.  Solving problems is hampered by an historical practice of first hiding the problem and then trying to fix it.

Part of the student discipline problem is that for at least the last 21 years, there has not been a single school board member or senior administrator who was obviously accountable to the same standards of conduct they establish and enforce upon students.  Their public record is of the most egregious lack of accountability, spending untold operational dollars on efforts to escape earned consequences.

There has never been in two decades, a senior administrative or executive role model of student standards of conduct.  Student standards of conduct happen to be the Pillars of Character Counts!, and have been since they were adopted in 1994.

If there were ever anyone, even one person, who held themselves honestly and actually accountable to the same standards as students, there would be a record of that accountability.  Accountability, real honest to God accountability creates a record.  They have no record of accountability against their will.

The buck stops with Luis Valentino when the need is for a senior administrator to stand up and tell students;
this is how we expect you to behave at school.
and then show them what that looks like.

There is no such thing as do as I say, not as I do.  People act like there is; every generation expects the next generation to be the first generation to hold itself accountable to higher standards of conduct, but it has never worked for the same reasons it does not work now and will not work ever.


aps image
Whether he likes it or not;
whether he admits it or not;
whether he embraces it or not,

Dr Luis Valentino is now, the
senior-most administrative role model of student standards of conduct; whatever they are.

Because the school board adopted and has not rescinded the adoption of the Pillars of Character Counts!; it is up to Luis Valentino to stand up in front of students and tell them that they are expected to model and promote honest accountability to the Pillars of Character Counts!; nationally recognized, accepted and respected higher standards of conduct.

There is no such thing as an inconspicuous role model.  The whole idea is to set an example.  APS students are in need of role models of accountability to whatever standards are established and enforced upon them.  It could be argued, students have a right to positive role models and role modeling in and from their senior-most role models.

Valentino's problem is that there are double standards of conduct in the APS;
  • one for students; standards than are higher standards than the law, and 
  • one for politicians and powerful public servants; the law (subject to spending without limit and without oversight on litigation and legal weaselry the purpose of which is to escape accountability even to the law).
Valentino cannot continue the double standard.  I say that as a matter of conscience not of practicality.  From a practical standpoint, he could easily continue the double standard and continue to get away with it; continuing to enjoy the cover of the Journal and NMBA affiliate station news directors.

There is a better than even chance that the "semantic" changes that Valentino plans will in fact lower the expectations for students.  The last time the board met in similar circumstances, it was to remove the role modeling clause from their own standards of conduct.

The only information we are given about the changes he intends is;
In the interim, Administration would like to make semantic changes to the current Handbook to better reflect our expectations of the document to serve as a guide or a reference for students on how to conduct themselves. It should serve to empower students to make decisions. The student handbook would reflect our expectations of students and if those expectations are not met to outline the appropriate consequences.

It appears there will be a defining moment early in Luis Valentino's superintendency.

As far as I can see, his choices are;
end the hypocrisy by;
  • restoring the role modeling clause and expectation to their standards of conduct, because if we really want students to grow into adults who embrace character and courage and honor, someone has to show them what they look like.
  • lowering student standards of conduct far enough the he and the rest will hold themselves accountable as role models of accountability to them, or
  • explaining to students in words they can understand; why it is; they expected to hold themselves accountable to higher standards of conduct than their senior-most role models.
or continue the hypocrisy by
  • continuing to stonewall in spite of the student standards of conduct, of which he is the senior-most administrative role model, which prohibit all acts, including half-truths, out-of-context statements, and even silence, that are intended to create beliefs or leave impressions that are untrue or misleading*.
*such as,
the leadership of the APS is actually, honestly accountable to higher standards of conduct, just like students.




photo Mark Bralley

Thursday, July 02, 2015

Will Walz cover for Winter in yet another election?

Former APS interim Supt Brad Winter is running for re-election to city council.  This despite the fact that he played a pivotal role in the cover up of state and federal felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators.

The proof of the allegation is the abject lack of any evidence to the contrary.  Accountability creates a record;  a cover up does not.

No one has ever denied that the activity reported in the Journal in February 2007, link, constituted felony criminal misconduct.  You can't take cash from evidence and spend it as your own without committing a felony under state law, and you can't do NCIC criminal background checks to harass whistleblowers and vet deputy superintendent's girl friends without committing a felony under federal law.

None of the felonies, not one, were ever investigated by any bonafide agency of law enforcement, ever.  The leadership of the APS simply decided to handle it all "in house".

New flash for the leadership of the APS; you don't have the authority to make the decision whether to prosecute felonies; that decision lies with the DA; who never saw a shred of evidence.

The criminal misconduct was covered up.  It is still being covered up.  To this day, operational dollars are being spent underwriting a bunch of legal weaselry in order to keep ethically redacted public records from being made public.

Winter knowingly permitted or
negligently allowed corruption in the
leadership of the APS police.  Here
seen with Steve Tellez who oversaw
the investigation of corruption and
incompetence of which he was part.
All Brad Winter has to do to prove he didn't orchestrate a cover up of felony criminal misconduct is to demonstrate that he ever did anything at all to bring the allegations of felony criminal misconduct to any agency of law enforcement.

There is no such thing as an investigation done by bonafide law enforcement that does not produce a single record.

That there is no evidence of any criminal investigation is evidence of a cover up.   Legitimate investigations by bonafide agencies produce records.  The crimes were either investigated or they were not.  If they were not; that is a cover up.  If they were, where is the record of the investigation?

Winter's cover up has been enabled by the Journal and Editor in Chief Kent Walz.

Through many school board, mill levy and bond issue elections; Walz has dutifully declined to investigate and report on the cover up and the ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS, of which the cover up is just one part. 

All Kent Walz has to do to prove he isn't part of the cover up is to investigate and report on the outcome of the story the Journal first broke.

He's in a bind.  Walz can't report credibly on the cover up without first reporting credibly on his failure to report on the cover up heretofore.

And he would look like a real ass for giving form APS Supt. Winston Brooks a hero of transparency award in spite of Brooks' part in the cover up of felony criminal misconduct.

A contrary truth would be completely exonerating.  Walz can't point to it because it doesn't exist.




photos Mark Bralley


Wednesday, July 01, 2015

Persistent Journal editorial ignorance

Journal editors come this morning, link, with a reminder that middle schools need attention.  Elementary schools are in the spotlight over reading; high schools are lit by concern over graduation rates, but middle schools are falling through the cracks (in Journal coverage too).

In their post, the editors wrote of "disciplinary problems including truancy".  With respect to "discipline problems"; truancy is the least of them.  Truancy's impact is on the truant.  The impact of out of control students and chronically disruptive students impact everybody.

The editors relentlessly refuse to deal with the truth about student discipline and chronically disruptive students in APS schools.  Their record does not a include a single report on discipline in general in APS classrooms, hallways and campuses.

APS chooses to not report on student discipline.  APS does not gather, compile, nor publish data on student discipline;

  • because the data is upsetting and
  • because the data reflects an administrative failure*; teachers are supposed to be teaching not dealing with chronically disruptive students.
*If the board and their supt. could somehow blame teachers for the discipline problems in schools, they would in a heartbeat.   They have to hide the problem because its their problem; the failure to maintain discipline in schools is theirs; an administrative and executive failure.
Stake and interest holders depend on the press and their sacred obligation to inform the democracy.

The people's trust in the leadership of the APS and in the media has been betrayed, not only by the leadership of the APS in hiding the truth about discipline in schools, but also by the so called press; the Journal, and NMBA affiliates KRQE, KOAT, and KOB TV.

Not one of them can point to any investigation and report the did ever, on student discipline in particular, or to standards and accountability in general, in the APS.

It is fair to hold Journal editors more accountable than anyone.  No one is more invested in covering up an ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS than Journal Editor in Chief Kent Walz.

Walz went so far to rub it in, as to bamboozle the NM FOG to giving their coveted Dixon Award for transparency to APS Supt. Winston Brooks while he, and they, were hiding public records including evidence of involvement by senior APS administrators in state and federal felony criminal misconduct.

Enough is enough already.




photo Mark Bralley