Is APS Supt. Reedy in hiding? Are they all?

It is no secret that there are high school teachers who are upset with a class schedule change that they insist increased their work load.  They're looking for a place to give vent to their upset.

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A few of them showed up at APS interim Supt. Raquel Reedy's office last week.  They all agree that Supt. Reedy met with and listened to them.  At that point the accounts of the meeting diverge.  There are allegations of what might be construed as an effort to intimidate the visitors. I don't know what happened; I wasn't there.

There is an absolute certainty; there is no place where stake and interest holders can get together with school board members and superintendents and carry on open and honest two-way conversations about legitimate and important issues.

There is no venue; no place, no day, no time, where teachers or any other stake or interest holders can meet with the leadership of the APS, there to ask legitimate questions and expect candid, forthright and honest responses.

Deprived of any honest to God opportunity to be heard and listened to, any effort to engage in open and honest discussion of important issues devolves into something far less satisfying.  The circumstances almost always cast the "interlopers" in a bad light, having "barged" into somebody or another's personal space and "disrupted" proceedings.

The leadership of the APS does not take kindly to people who rock their boat.  A recent independent audit of the leadership of the APS found; a culture of fear of retaliation against whistleblowers and other complainants.  They do everything they can to squelch the speaking of truth to their power.

It is worth noting; APS teachers have between them, tens of thousands of years of teaching experience, most of it in APS schools.  And, they have no seat at the table where decisions are made.  They were not part of the decision making that gave them an extra class to teach every day.

How can decisions be made about what happens in classrooms without talking to the people who actually work every day at the educational interface; where the system meets the clients; in classrooms?  Those are the people who are ultimately expected to put any (and all) reforms to their practical test; why are they not there to craft the reforms?

Whatever happened in Reedy's office, the issue remains;
despite their supposed efforts to engage with their community,
no one in the leadership of the APS, no board member, no
senior administrator is willing to come out the castle keep,
out from behind their praetorian guard; their publicly funded
private police force, to sit down and respond in good faith
to legitimate questions about the public interests and about
their public service.

No one of them, though it is their expressed expectation of students, is willing to be candid, forthright and honest with stake and interest holders.

Journal Editor in Chief
Kent Walz

The board and their senior administration are in hiding for a reason.  They won't answer questions for a reason.

There is only one reason to hide the truth.  It is to escape the consequences of the truth being known.

The truth is not theirs to hide; it doesn't belong to them.  The truth belongs to stake and interest holders and in particular to those whose power and resources are being spent.

The board and their senior administrative leadership will succeed in their effort to escape transparent accountability.  They continue to succeed for as long as they enjoy the support and cover of the Journal and the Kabal; KKOB, KRQE, KOAT, and KOB TV.

Not one of whom will investigate and report upon the ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS, nor upon their extensive and expensive efforts to cover it up.




photo Mark Bralley