The leadership of the APS continues to spend money like water; millions and millions of operational dollars spent on cost is no object legal defenses for school board members and senior administrators, link.
I sent following letter to the editor with no expectation of publication; it's just not the way they roll.
The leadership of the APS has (obviously unlimited) access to the district's operational fund - dollars that could, would and should be spent in classrooms were they not being spent in courtrooms on litigation and legal weaselry. Students are being cheated out of millions of dollars in order to fund "cost is no object" legal defenses for school board members and senior administrators. The board knowingly permits and/or negligently allows the spending in meetings in secret, and of which no recording is ever made (nothing that could be subpoenaed and used against them in court.There are a very few law firms and lawyers who have been the beneficiaries of the board's largesse for decades. At one point, the president of the APS school board and the president of APS' all-time favorite law firm; the Modrall, were married and reaping the benefits together. There is talk of making former school board member (and personal beneficiary of "cost is no object" defenses of his own) is going to get own private spigot off the operational fund pipe line.Imagine for a moment that none of the above is true. Imagine that the board actually has a record of appropriate spending. By what logic would that not be newsworthy?If student discipline problems were not adversely affecting the educational process; if campuses and classrooms really were under the control of the adults, by what logic would that not be newsworthy?If criminal misconduct on campuses were not being covered up by administrators and their own publicly funded police force, by what logic would that not be newsworthy.If school board members and senior administrators were willing to stand up as role models of student standards of conduct, if they were willing to be held honestly accountable the same standards of conduct that they establish and enforce upon students, by what logic would that not be newsworthy?Kent Walz has for years, enabled the cover up the ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS. He and Marty Esquivel managed a “hero of transparency” award for Winston Brooks for God's sake.When is the Journal going to investigate and report upon the truth about the lack of accountability in the leadership of the APS? When are you going to stop enabling them? When will interests of students and staff and the educations of nearly 90,000 of this community’s sons and daughters percolate to the top of your list of priorities?
