APS Board of Education; when push comes to shove

The pressure is on; the situation is critical; urgent; 
the time has come for action, even if it is difficult.  Wiktionary (derived)

The Albuquerque Public Schools is about to end as a matter of policy; district-wide efforts to help students develop and maintain character.  They are about to formalize their abandonment of students to their own devices when it comes to character.

Push has come to shove.

The APS school board promised, albeit it a quarter of a century ago, that the core curriculum would “give explicit attention to character development… “ And further “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 …”

United States Senator Pete Domenici, a founding father of Character Counts!, had just delivered a $30K grant to the APS. APS and Albuquerque’s commitment to Character Counts! drew national attention. Albuquerque and Roswell touted nationally recognized flagship programs.

Since, they have reneged; their promise abandoned.

District-wide, the core curriculum does not give explicit attention to character development. In fact, it gives none. Materials and teaching methods are not being selected according to their capacity to support the development of character.

The Pillars of Character Counts! as standards of conduct, have been forsaken by APS leadership.

The Pillars can now be found in two places; central in a decal that adorns the fenders of APS police cars, and tangentially in school board policy. According to the APS Student Handbook, students are expected to “model and promote” honest accountability to the Pillars of Character Counts!

The APS school board is about to remove from school board policy and the student handbook, that last evidence of their abdication of their function, duties and obligations as senior role models.

Previously, school board standards of conduct enjoyed a role modeling clause . When the clause became inconvenient , they voted unanimously, deliberately, with malice aforethought, to erase from their standards of conduct, that clause and with it, any noteworthy, observable mention of their commitment and obligations to service as role models.

The APS Board of Education is covering up double standards of conduct in the Albuquerque public schools. They will not consider open and honest public discussion of their own ethics, standards and accountability as the senior most role models in the entire school district.

There is a cornerstone of role modeling; that is visibility. If the leadership of the APS cannot bear to be candid, forthright and honest about the ethics and standards to which they are willing to be held accountable, what can be said about their ethics, standards and accountability?

The resolution made by the board in 1994 is still binding. It has been neither rescinded nor amended. Promises don’t expire. The standards of conduct that the board establishes and enforces upon students require facing the person who’s trust you are about to betray.

Stake and interest holders who believe that students in Albuquerque public schools should be encouraged to embrace accountability to higher standards of conduct than the law cannot simply allow this disgrace to take place without opposition.

An open and honest public discussion of the 1994 resolution is crucial. A candid, forthright and honest expression of the willingness of the leadership of the APS to serve as the senior-most role models in the district is fundamental to their service as role models.

The leadership of the APS cannot defend their deliberate decision to remove their role modeling clause. They cannot defend their position on executive and administrative ethics, standards and accountability.

They cannot defend their refusal to reconsider the 1994 resolution; to amend, rescind or recommit themselves to it.  They cannot defend their stubborn resistance to discuss the the resolution in front of stake and interest holders.

On some night in January or February , the APS school board is going to vote to remove any mention of the Pillars of Character Counts! from the APS Student Handbook.

The next day will be a day too late to do anything to stop them.

This issue cannot be discussed without discussing the Journal’s part in the cover up; the aid and abet given to the leadership of the APS by Kent Walz’ Journal.

The only defense of an indefensible position is to hide it; to evade the question.

The Journal is hiding the scandal.  Search their site for an investigation, any investigation ever, any report ever, on ethics, standards and accountability in the leadership of the APS.  The absence of truth-telling on so important an issue is not accidental.  It is deliberate, with malice aforethought.

The leadership of the APS and the Journal are favored in the meeting next February.  Their interests will be served by inconsequential attendance.  That; the proximate result of a widespread lack of knowledge of the meeting and its consequence.

Therefore; there is a need for those who believe in the need for candor, forthrightness and honesty from the APS board of education and, who feel a commitment to stand up in support of what they believe in to insist upon;

• an open and honest public discussion of the 1994 resolution.  
• candor forthrightness and honesty with regard to the replacement in administrative and executive standards of conduct, of the role modeling clause.

That insistence must fall upon the Journal as well as the board. Insist that the Journal give that meeting and the issues at stake, the attention that they deserve.  Insist at every possible opportunity.

Else; nobody will show up to protest the erasure of the last of the evidence against them. Nobody will know it even happened in a meeting the Journal will never report upon.

Someone else first wondered;

If not you then who? If not now, then when?

The time to stand up and be counted is now.

The right time to do the right thing is right now. unk