Diogenes' six

APS coaches; higher standards of conduct?

2012-01-28T07:57:00.005-07:00

KOB TV reports, link, the head cheer leading coach at an APS high school has been removed from that position because he knew cheerleaders were drinking alcohol and did not report it to authorities.

The coach will continue teaching at Eldorado HS.

One wonders what expectation applies in coaching that doesn't apply in teaching. What counts in athletics, that doesn't count in academics?

In fairness, there isn't much in the way of leadership in honest accountability to higher standards of conduct. There are no role models to emulate; the leadership of the APS holds themselves accountable only to the law; the lowest standards of all.

I used to write that there are two standards of conduct in the APS; one for adults, and a considerably higher standard for students. I stand corrected.

Apparently there are three, here listed in descending order;

the standards that apply to cheerleader coaches,
the standards that apply to students and student role models; the Pillars of Character Counts!, and
the standards that apply to administrators and board members; the law and everything it's loopholes, technicalities and legal weaselry will allow.

... go team.

Thomas Paine was a blogger

2012-01-27T12:31:00.005-07:00

Bloggers are political pamphleteers, just like Thomas Paine,
and they are every bit as deserving of Constitutional protection
of their human right to be the press, as any other member of the "so called" press.

If James Madison did not write; Congress shall make no law
abridging the freedom of the press, to protect pamphleteers
like Thomas Paine, for whom did he write it? corporate news
agencies and darlings of government?

Government has no business granting or requiring credentials more than have been already provided by Madison. And he made no mention of needing some talisman; fetish, juju, phylactery, trinket or bauble, as proof of owning the right to be a member of the press.

And he certainly did not write that the government would decide who gets one.

Paula Maes' broadcasters well represented on NM FOG

2012-01-27T06:55:00.041-07:00

The NM Foundation for Open Government, link, has a new Executive Director, Gwyneth Doland, link.

She has inherited a can of worms.

You would think that a gathering of powerful press people and lawyers and an expressed interest in open government, would be making some progress.

Instead, they're mired in some pretty deep shite.

Right out in front of God and everybody, they just gave their highest honor, a Dixon Award, to APS Supt Winston Brooks while all the while, he, the school board, and FOG heavy hitters, were and are, covering up a cover up of felony criminal misconduct by APS senior administrators, link. Moving evidence to petty cash and spending it without authority or record keeping, is a felony. Doing illegal NCIC background checks on whistleblowers, is a felony.

The APS top cop Gil Lovato at the time, and his lawyer Sam Bregman averred,
when the truth comes out in court,
there won't be a single APS senior administrator left standing.

Co-incidentally, Lovato and Bregman never made it to court; instead, Lovato, like every other senior administrator with a story to tell, was put on paid leave until his contract expired.

Investigations were conducted. There is an enormous public record of investigations into who did what, who knew what, and who should have known.

Names are named.

Names of people whose heads never rolled. As is the tradition in the APS, they were showered instead with cash and admiration, and went along their merry way.

The folks who benefit most from keeping these public records secret from public knowledge, have managed to usurp control over the institution that should be their enemy; a foundation for open government.

There are people on the board of the FOG, last year's Board, link, and this, who know about the cover up of the cover up and won't do anything about it. Many of them are members of the fourth estate; they have a responsibility to investigate and report upon credible allegations and evidence of a cover up of a cover up of felony criminal misconduct by politicians and public servants, and don't.

Kent Walz, seen here extolling Brook's transparency at the
Dixon Award banquet, published the story on the public
corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS and will not investigate and report upon credible allegations and evidence of a cover up. He and Marty Esquivel gave Brooks the Dixon Award to bolster his credibility; while he is hiding an ethically redacted public record. Walz remains, the FOG Board Secretary.

School Board enforcer Marty Esquivel, seen here throwing me and

Mark Bralley out of an open meeting, was on the Board of Directors last year, and in line to be FOG President the year before but didn't make it. Bralley and I were trying to investigate and report upon their efforts to deny due process to hundreds of APS whistleblowers' complaints.

Because the FOG website hasn't been updated since a January re-alignment; it is unclear how big a bat he still swings, or even if he's still in their line up.

Iain Munro, News Director, KRQE News sat on the board,
may still, who knows. I am given to believe KRQE filed a
Request for Public Records of the APS PD corruption and
never received it, also that Marty Esquivel works for them
as an "open government" lawyer.

Paula Maes, head of the NM Broadcasters Association is former Director; maybe she's back.

The new President is Terri Cole.
She is the President of the
Chamber of Commerce.

She and I have history, though
she may have long forgotten.

She used to be a huge
Character Counts! supporter.
I tried to get her to speak up
when the leadership of the APS
was stepping down from their
obligations as role models of student standards of conduct;
a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct.

She did not, and there's no reason to expect her to stand up now.

KOAT 7 President and general manager Mary Lynn Roper, is the new FOG Vice President. I blame her for KOAT's refusal to investigate and report upon the denial of due process to hundreds of APS whistleblower complaints, link.

There is a new FOG Treasurer, Greg Williams, an attorney with Peifer, Hanson & Mullins.

He replaced Pat Rogers.

I mention Rogers only
because he works for
Modrall, and

Modrall makes so much
money litigating against
the IPRA, Open Meetings,
and First Amendment Rights
in order to create exceptions
to the law for APS administrators
and board members, that they
won't even come right out and tell you how much.

I know Gwyneth, I like her, and I wish her all the luck in the world; she'll need it.

photos and frame grab Mark Bralley

APS Communications "does not have a scanner"

2012-01-26T07:13:00.016-07:00

and even if they did, it wouldn't make any difference.

"... my office does not have a scanner, so I am unable to create scanned copies to e-mail to you. And, under the NM Inspection of Public Records Act, public bodies are not required to create documents in order to respond to records requests."

The Law;

Each public body shall designate at least one custodian of public records who shall:
A. receive and respond to requests to inspect public records;
B. provide proper and reasonable opportunities to inspect public records;
C. provide reasonable facilities to make or furnish copies of the public records during usual business hours; and ... (emphasis added)

If they have enough money to pay Monica Armenta $107K a year to polish their apple, they have enough money to buy a scanner.

There are standards of conduct which require;

doing more than the law requires and less than the law allows, as a matter of principle.

Students in the APS are expected to "... model and promote ..." a set of standards that include that specific expectation.

They are expected to "...model and promote the Pillars of Character Counts!".

In stark contrast, the "leadership" of the APS does nothing more than absolutely required by the law and only then, after having burned still secret numbers of operational dollars in litigation against the IPRA and against the public interests.

Instead of buying a scanner, they insist that I come into their castle keep to inspect any public records I might want to see. And while there, to be slandered by Monica Armenta and harassed by their praetorian guard.

If the leadership of the APS; Supt Winston Brooks, School Board enforcer Marty Esquivel and School Board President Paula Maes, could be held accountable as the senior-most role models of the standards of conduct they establish and enforce upon students, they could be compelled not only to buy a scanner, but to start using it.

If Kent Walz and the Journal,
and Maes' cronies in the NM
Broadcasters Association
could be held accountable for
five years of of betraying the
public interests in the interests
of their cronies, they wouldn't
be covering up the ethics and
accountability scandal in the
leadership of the APS .

At least not for long, and certainly not for years and years.

photos and frame grab Mark Bralley
Armenta ordering her guard, macquigg

Sheriff Houston created the appearances of conflicts of interest and impropriety.

2012-01-26T06:38:00.008-07:00

In a move the Journal, link, reports will cost taxpayers $40K, Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston broke a lease and moved SWAT equipment from the warehouse it was stored in, to a storage facility owned by his largest single campaign contributor, John Bode.

Whatever else Houston says about the deal, it reeks of the appearances of impropriety and conflicted interests.

Whatever else Houston says about the deal, damage has been done. The appearances shake public confidence in Houston, the BCSO, and in government in general.

Whatever else Houston says about the deal, it was either a bonehead move, or maybe just supremely arrogant.

Speaking of which, still no response from the Sheriff's Office on what Houston intends to do about APS police officers, holding his commissions, who sat and watched for a couple of hours, while kids got drunk at Valley High School, link.

photo Mark Bralley

Quasi-public records?

2012-01-26T06:21:00.001-07:00

Two legislators were involved in a squabble during a working lunch. The squabble was caught on tape. The security camera footage is the subject of multiple public records requests.

In a move that may be entirely without precedent, the video has been shown to a handful of the public but not the rest. The Journal and KRQE got to see it.

The original plan was that they could see it, but only if they promised to not "report on the contents or even acknowledge seeing it", link. Though they refused a "self-imposed gag order", they were given a private screening anyway.

Legislative Council Services Director Raul Burciaga continues to insist that even it the recording is a public record, is enjoys an exception to the Inspection of Public Records Act because it part of a "tactical response plan".

I can't help but think any fines that will be levied for the obstruction of the surrender of public records were going to be paid by Burciaga instead of by taxpayers, there might be less obstruction of the surrender of public records.

Government transparency laws need re-examination and revamping in their entirety, and the sooner the better.

APS discipline problems still a big secret.

2012-01-24T09:56:00.013-07:00

The student who was stabbed to death recently was an APS student; albeit a "charter" student.

The incident is indicative of an underlying problem.

The problem can be described in concrete terms, historically, currently and in the future. There is a record of what was done, what is being done, and what is in planning to do.

The APS Communications Department and effort has two choices with respect to communicating to stakeholders about the issues and effects of declining student discipline in general, and chronically disruptive students in particular;

communicate, or
not

I aver, there is no evidence that APS has ever communicated candidly, forthrightly, honestly, or otherwise, to interest holders, on the subject of student discipline.

Why won't APS Supt Winston Brooks communicate with interest holders though he was asked to, point blank, months ago, link?

student discipline and chronically disruptive students are unimportant and unworthy of any effort to communicate about them, or

student discipline and chronically disruptive students represent a failure and an embarrassment that Brooks and the rest of the leadership of the APS, would rather hide.

photo Mark Bralley

APS' ad campaign

2012-01-24T06:31:00.026-07:00

"Journal staff", link, think Monica Armenta's ads are "inspiring"

They cite as evidence; the number of phone calls Armenta has been getting from delighted parents of APS success stories.

Let's assume that Armenta can hold these calls down to a minute each, and is getting one every minute all day long, no food, no potty breaks, no nothin'. 8x60 minutes later, 480 happy parents have chatted with an even happier APS senior administrator. Too bad Winston Brooks wasn't on line; he could have chalked up another 480 points on his "community outreach" efforts.

For which we would pay them about 1/250th of their annual salary, plus benefits.
$276,000 give or take golden parachutes and other financial accoutrements, plus
$106,000 we know about, gives us;
$382,000, divided by 250 workdays, gives us
$1,528 a day paying them to improve APS public perception.

If you divide that number by the daily minimum salary of a
semi-skilled but conceivably highly effective additional adult
in the classroom; $13,001, link, you get $52.

You find you can hire about 29 educational assistants, an entire classroom full, for same public investment.

Our $1,528 investment in the education of our sons and daughters, would have been spent instead polishing poo; putting "lipstick on a pig", wikilink;

"a rhetorical expression, used to convey the message that making superficial or cosmetic changes is a futile attempt to disguise the true nature of a product."

According the Journal,

"Armenta said the advertisements were shot in-house by the communications department, and had no production costs."

Let's say the leadership of the APS is spending a million dollars a year on "communications" and anti-communications by means of their "communications department".

Dividing by 250, to keep the math simple, shows us we're spending $4,000 a day telling interest holders the listing of the ship is only an electrical problem.

For the same $4,000, we could hire another 80 educational assistants.

"The APS Education Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes private support for APS, paid a total of $50,000 for a year of airtime on various television and radio stations.

to School Board President Paula Maes' friends in New Mexico Broadcasters Association.

“... we’re using new marketing funds for the foundation to pay for the ads,” Armenta said"

begging a question; why are there "new marketing funds" available in a school system with many more pressing needs for scarce resources?

Why does the only public school system in town need more "marketing" than it needs educational assistance in classrooms?

“I have been wanting to do something like this since I got here.”

photo Mark Bralley

APS Board votes to retain current members

2012-01-24T06:31:00.025-07:00

"Westsiders" will not be pleased with the APS School Board's redistricting plan, and with good reason.

The fundamental precept in drawing district lines, it to divide up constituents equally.

Beyond that, an effort should be made to keep common interests together in a school board district. You wouldn't want a school board district line to intersect an individual school boundary, for example.

The Rio Grande River is an ipso facto line. The separation of interests cannot be moved any more than the river can be moved. Move on.

The last thing we need to think about when drawing district lines is, whether it will be convenient for the incumbent.

Another ipso facto; self-interest is conflict of interest.

According to the Journal, link;

"The approved plan ensures all sitting board members will continue to live in their current districts – which some board members said was deliberate. Board president Paula Maes said it was good for APS to keep the current board intact".

and, though promoting harmony is not on the list of things one normally considers in drawing district lines, Maes argued;

“One of the things we have going on right now is a very harmonious board, and that is very important for this district, is that its board members get along.”

Though Maes own seat was threatened by more ethically drawn district lines and she voted in favor of keeping her own seat, offered instead of recusal;

“... it’s not to make a district where everybody is still in their seat, but ..."

Maes further argued that any board member who wanted to continue to represent a particular bunch of constituents, ought to be able to;

"... if all the people on this board want to run again, they ought to have the opportunity to continue the work we’re doing. And some of these maps caused huge shifts in that.”

In the better plan, Maes would have had to run against another board member if they both wanted to keep their seats.

Kathy Korte, who represents District 2, is reported to have arrived in support of a river boundary based on the will of her constituents, but later voted for the plan that protected Maes' interests. Whether that was coincidental or methodical, is up to Korte's constituents to decide.

Frankly, Korte isn't too thrilled with them either; she took another shot at her constituents for no-showing opportunities to participate in open meetings.

"Korte said ... her constituents ... should have come to meetings if they cared about the redistricting outcome".

Good for her.

Although hard to reconcile with her attitude about people who show up insisting upon an opportunity to ask inconvenient but absolutely legitimate questions; in which case she's good with having them arrested.

Korte spoke the truth when she offered;

“This is a board that will be swayed when presented with a lot of public opinion and comment."

Torches and pitchforks.

Board member David Robbins went on record in favor of denying the existence of the Rio Grande River and in favor of lines that cannot be used in the future, by Westsiders wanting to split away from the APS entirely.

photos Mark Bralley

Talk about kicking the can down the road.

2012-01-23T10:04:00.009-07:00

Governor Susana Martinez has proposed anti-corruption legislation.

Examine it, carefully. Point to the part that strikes fear into the heart of someone stealing gas with a state government credit card. Or driving around in the company truck.

Ending corruption is always about some future constraint that will make it marginally less tempting to steal public resources and abuse public power.

It never seems to be about switching on the lights and busting everybody with their hands in the till.

People who steal in politics and public service understand how the system works and have calculated that they are not in danger of getting caught; at least not for another couple of years. The temptation doesn't lie in the power and resources they control, but rather in the possibility of stealing the resources or abusing the power without likely consequences.

Everybody wants to end public corruption and incompetence without exposing the corrupt and the incompetent; without actually holding anyone influential, individually accountable for their corruption and incompetence.

There isn't an agency of government in which qualified and motivated investigators could not find some corruption, some incompetence and some practices that enable them.

Nobody has the character and the courage to just flip the switch
and illuminate the truth; do the right thing and let the chips fall
where they may.

Nobody wants to name names, and with that kind of cover,
why wouldn't people think they can get away with
their public corruption and incompetence?

What kind of cover did School Board President Paula Maes give the corrupt and incompetent in the castle keep at 6400 Uptown Blvd, when she announced, she would never agree to any audit that individually identified corrupt or incompetent APS administrators or board members.

What might they think they can get away with now, that they wouldn't have even considered before?

photo Mark Bralley

Media mettle testing part deux.

2012-01-23T09:27:00.004-07:00

For the same reason as the following (previous) post,
I am testing the media response to a different legitimate tip.

In February 2007, the Albuquerque Journal published a story in which it was admitted that illegal background checks had been done on whistleblowers, and that money had been taken from evidence and spent as petty cash. Both are felonies.

The only criminal investigation of felony public corruption in the APS Police Department, was done by the APS Police Department.

It took them more than three years to complete their "investigation". The investigation was completed by June 2010; before statutes of limitation had expired.

The evidence and testimony has not been surrendered to the District Attorney, though statutes of limitation have now expired on felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators.

The story is not the original corruption.

The story is the subsequent cover up.

All of the evidence is public record; you have only to get APS Communications and lawyers to surrender it in compliance with the law.

This is about the message; not about the messenger.

grateful for your time and attention

ched macquigg

Again, as below, you judge whether the allegation is credible and whether the establishment media; the Journal, KOAT, KOB, and KRQE follow through appropriately.

Testing the mettle of the media

2012-01-23T08:38:00.002-07:00

I write, often, that the local media won't investigate and report upon any facet of the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

Occasionally, I prove my point.

The following was sent to each of the Journal, KOB TV, KOAT, and KRQE.

APS has a whistle blower program.

Complaints filed against administrators are adjudicated by other administrators; conceivably subordinates.

It creates an appearance of a conflict of interests; a violation of the Governmental Conduct Act.

Board Policy used to include an explicit promise of Executive (Audit Committee) review and approval of every single complaint.

After more than 300 complaints were filed, and before a single one of them had seen school board review and approval, the board rewrote board policy, eliminating executive review altogether, and re-creating the appearance of blatant conflicts of interest.

This all a matter of public record and as easy to verify as it is to get the APS Communications Department to give you straight answers.

This is about the message, not about the messenger.

grateful for your time and attention

ched macquigg

Judge for yourself whether they should investigate and report upon the scandal, and whether they actually do.

It takes great courage to speak out loud about things

2012-01-23T07:22:00.009-07:00

which on the quiet are known to everybody. unk

because of fear of retribution and retaliation.

Auditors from the Council of the Great City Schools found a "culture of fear of retribution and retaliation" against APS whistleblowers.

The APS School Board promised whistleblowers that, their complaints would see individual executive review. The oversight was and is still necessary because complaints against administrators are adjudicated by other (subordinate) administrators.

They have reneged.

Hundreds and hundreds of whistle blowers are being denied due process and don't even know it because they're doing it all on the sly. They get away with it because the establishment media won't tell interest holders the truth.

Journal Editor Kent Walz,
here seen praising APS Supt
Winston Brooks as a "hero"
of transparency, could assign
a reporter to investigate and
report upon allegations and
evidence that the APS Board
of Education is denying due
process to hundreds of
whistleblower complaints.

He could, but he won't;
begging the obvious question.

Why not?

frame grab Mark Bralley

"Investigation" completed June 21, 2010

2012-01-22T08:47:00.005-07:00

Former APS Police Chief Bill Reed, replaced the previous Chief of Police Gil Lovato, following a scandal reported in the Journal, link, in February 2007.

Lovato became the subject of a criminal investigation conducted by his own police force.

No other agency was allowed to investigate, and the results of the internal criminal investigation have not been surrendered to any other agency of law enforcement; most in particular, the District Attorney's Office.

Since the Journal first broke the story, I have been trying to see the public record of the several investigations of the scandal.

At least three investigations were done;

one by APS personnel,
one by the APS police force (a criminal investigation) and
one by a private investigator (or two, there is some confusion)

To date, APS and their lawyers have not surrendered any part of any of them.

I had been asking Reed for the records of an investigation that had been going on, at that time, for more than three years.

On June 21st, 2010 Reed emailed;

Investigation is completed. Report is being finalized and will go to the DA's office shortly. Once it goes to the DA's office it will be available for public inspection.

That was almost two years ago.

That was long before the statutes of limitation expired on senior APS administrator's felony criminal misconduct.

Since, the statutes have limitation have expired, and the public records are still kept secret in complete disregard for intention of the Inspection of Public Records Act.

The new police force has no idea what happened to the investigation; haven't seen it or heard about it apparently, since Reed left.

... if you can believe that.

photos Mark Bralley

Neville and Rehm enabling APS cover up.

2012-01-22T06:37:00.018-07:00

The leadership of the APS is covering up their self-investigation of felony criminal misconduct in their crooked as can be publicly funded private police force leadership.

They call themselves a Police Department, link, but they really aren't, and that's what State Senator Steven P Neville, link, and Representative William "Bill" R. Rehm, link, want to "fix".

The leadership of the APS had to go clear to Aztec New Mexico to find a Senate sponsor for a bill that would allow them to create their own Police Department. Incredibly, they found an Albuquerque legislator to carry their water in the House.

Secretly promoted to Chief of Police,
Steve Tellez says the internal criminal
investigation of former APS Police
Chief Gil Lovato, the only one done
by any agency of law enforcement,
is "gone".

I'm pretty sure it didn't "go" to
District Attorney Kari Brandenburg.

Brandenburg claims impotence in dealing with the admitted felony criminal misconduct, illegal NCIC background checks on whistle blowers and Tom Savage's fiance, and misappropriation of money left in "evidence" into "petty cash" to be spent without authorization or record.

Behind Tellez, APS Chief of Staff Joseph Escobedo. I think it's fair to say we are paying him to lobby in the Roundhouse, in support of legislation that will move oversight over the APS PD, from the Bernalillo County Sheriff, currently Dan Houston, to the school board and superintendent.

Houston made APS sign an
agreement that they would
stop self-investigating
felony criminal misconduct.

If Neville and Rehm are successful,
the board and administration would
again have permission to self-
investigate, and in so doing, create
unlawful, and easily avoidable,
appearances of conflicts of interest
and impropriety.

Those same appearances are created by their current efforts to move their whistleblower program, completely "in house".

APS Supt Winston Brooks is to be put in charge of everything, including more self-investigation of legitimate allegations of his own mis, mal and non-feasance.

I hope we find that both Neville and Rehm were hoodwinked into sponsoring the bill, and do not understand the magnitude of the public corruption and incompetence they are enabling.

Although the bill gives any school district the ability to create their own stand alone police department, as far as I can tell, APS is the only school district that actually has publicly funded private police force, soon to be completely autonomous "department".

photos Mark Bralley

"APS Family Policy On Hold Needlessly"

2012-01-21T17:52:00.016-07:00

That was the title Journal editors ran over a letter to the editors, link, Friday morning.

The letter was written by Sandi Moore and Alma Alvarez, who were identified as members of a group of APS interest holders called; Families United for Education.

They argued to the editors that they deserve due process; consideration of a policy they have proposed. They argue they have put in work and created a "cutting-edge" policy.

They complained to the editors and the express their views
in their headline; APS' Policy Committee has put their
Family Engagement Policy on a "needless hold".

The writers close with the old saw; justice delayed is justice denied.

They United Families feel "... marginalized and disrespected ...".

They should, they have been denied due process.

The Families United for Education have called for the Policy Committee to put their policy proposal on the table for discussion and a vote in February.

There are at least three groups of citizens looking for help from the leadership of the APS;

the Families United for Education, and
the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication, and
the Partners in Education & Advocates for Public Education

Only one of them, PEAPS; enjoys APS support, link, link. The leadership of APS even published the link to their website.

The other two citizen group efforts;

the United Families policy and
the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication petition, link.

are languishing in APS' Policy Committee.

While the United Families complain about waiting "months"
the CACoC petition was delivered in August of last year, link,
and still hasn't seen the light of day, or due process;
open and honest discussion and a role call vote.

The Policy and Instruction
Committee Chair David Peercy
is afraid.

He's afraid of opening Pandora's
Box wikilink.

How do you start a discussion of open and honest two way communication without ending up having to actually provide it?

When he figures that out, the United Families will see their policy discussed and
the Citizens Advisory Council petition will see the light of day.

On that same day, pigs will fly, link.

photo Mark Bralley

APS Police Chief never saw the Caswell Report!

2012-01-20T10:55:00.006-07:00

I'm sifting through some records surrendered to me by APS pursuant to a request under the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act.

I've come across the record of an email exchange between then APS Chief of Police Bill Reed and APS Director of Communications and Custodian of Public Records Rigo Chavez.

Chavez wrote;

"I asked (APS Executive Director of Human Resources) Andi Trybus for a copy of the RCI (Robert Caswell Investigations) investigation of Gil Lovato (APS Chief of Police) that MacQuigg was asking for, but she does not have it.
Do you have a copy?

To which Reed responded;

"I don't think he wants the RCI investigation, he wants the criminal one that we are wrapping up. I don't have the RCI one, I was never given a copy by APS."

Consider what has been admitted here;

clearly Reed was aware of the RCI investigation of felony criminal misconduct by APS senior administrators, and

though he is "wrapping up" his criminal investigation (more than three years! after it began), he still has not asked to see the RCI investigation, or he did ask to see it and
the people who decided to have their own publicly funded private police force self-investigate is own felony public corruption, "has not given a copy" to Reed, for his investigation, of Caswell's evidence and credible testimony of felony criminal acts,

Apparently they never gave one to their Executive Director of Human Resources Andi Trybus. either.

That or they did send her one, and she lost or destroyed it.
She told Rigo Chavez she "does not have it."

Perhaps Chavez lied to Reed about having asked Trybus, or
about her claiming she didn't have it.

But why would he do that?

I have another email indicating Modrall claimed they never got a copy (or lost, or destroyed it).

This is either a Keystone Cops version of an investigation of public corruption and incompetence, or it is the cover up of one.

Kent Walz and the Journal. and KRQE, KOAT, KOB, and KKOB refuse still, to investigate and report upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

Keystone Cops or cover up?

The answer apparently, is a little of the one and a lot of the other.

"... turn to educators ..." for how and where to spend money.

2012-01-18T23:59:00.003-07:00

APS Supt Winston Brooks appeared on KOAT TV, link.

There will be some money coming to public schools and
Brooks thinks locals should decide how and where to spend it,
not the Governor. According to KOAT;

"Brooks said, Governor Martinez and lawmakers should be turning to educators to figure our how and where to spend an extra $97 million for the classroom."

By "educators" he does not mean teachers and teaching assistants.

Between them, APS teachers have nearly 100,000 years of teaching experience and no seat at the table where it will be decided; how and where to spend our power and resources.

""Those of us who work locally know better about what our communities need than probably the governor does," Brooks said."

By "those of us who work locally", he means senior administrators and board members.

Brooks found ourselves in agreement about the efficacy of using scarce education dollars to by every first grader a book, link.

""Getting every first grader a book is a great symbolic gesture on the part of the governor - do I think that's meaningful school reform? Not at all," said Brooks."

photo Mark Bralley

Was it Access or Caswell?

2012-01-18T15:39:00.007-07:00

When the Journal exposed public corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS and its publicly funded private police force, link, the leadership of the APS was compelled to hire a private investigator to conduct and impartial and independent investigation, link.

The investigator reported to leadership and their findings named the names of APS senior administrators who had committed felonies.

The report has been kept secret ever since.

Even while statutes of limitation expired on felony criminal misconduct.

There was a time, for a long time, when APS Custodian of Public Records Rigo Chavez had me convinced that the investigation into public corruption in the leadership of the APS Police was conducted by Access Investigations, link. He even gave me a copy of the contract.

At some point, it morphed into an investigation done by Robert Caswell Investigations instead.

I have been at different times and with conviction been told by Rigo Chavez, that it absolutely was one or the other. Which? Both? Who knows?

If they're hiding the truth, we have no idea
what we don't know.

When the question is will you tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the ethically redacted truth about public corruption in the leadership of the APS police force, any answer except yes, means no.

All we know for sure is, they won't tell the truth.
They won't surrender the ethically redacted public record
of the investigations of felony criminal misconduct involving
senior APS administrators.

That, and that Kent Walz and the Journal are in cahoots.

photo Mark Bralley

And this is why they don't let Governors run schools.

2012-01-18T12:20:00.010-07:00

Governor Susana Martinez has some cash burning a hole in her pocket, link. She proposes re-appropriating the half million dollars a year she is generating by having sold the state jet, and

"... taking that same amount of money and buy every New Mexico first grader a reading book of their very own."

A book first graders can't read.

Hell, third graders can't read; isn't that her whole point?

You can't teach a non-reader to read by buying them a book.
A half-million dollars a year can be put to better use.

Still nothing from the Guvnor,
or from her Public Education
Secretary Hanna Skandera,
about the curving they had
to do, link, to the grades
they gave public schools,
to avoid the public revolt
the un-spun truth would
have created.

photo Mark Bralley

Grading Ramirez

2012-01-18T12:12:00.003-07:00

Former PIO, turned TV reporter Chris Ramirez is running a series called Grading the Governor. The whole thing is built on an unscientific poll done on the TV station's website, link.

I went looking for the science and couldn't find any.

As far as we know this whole series could be based on a handful of "votes". Usually a poll is accompanied by the polling data.

Ramirez is accustomed to spinning data, not reporting it.

photo Mark Bralley

Social promotion forced choice lacks insight

2012-01-18T06:52:00.015-07:00

The debate over whether to promote public school students who lack third grade reading skills has settled on two choices;

continue promoting students who cannot compete or even survive because of their lack reading skills, or
make poor readers repeat third grade in its entirety, including coursework they have already learned.

The choices are narrowed to two, by rigid thinking; we must do things the way they have always been done regardless of the myriad of changes that have taken place in how students can learn.

There is no shaking the belief that children learn best when they are sitting in classrooms in five rows of six, each with a textbook open on their desk (whether they can make sense of it or not), each expected at any given moment, to be in the same book and on the same page.

"Third grade" standards represent the performance standards for the average eight year old. The underlying premise being, if they're eight years old, they are all equally mature and fully capable of meeting the same standards as every other eight year old child.

Why can't a student follow a prescribed curriculum, at their own pace? Why do they have to march together in a thought choir for twelve years? Why can't they be allowed to slow or stop when they need to and race ahead when they want to?

Twenty five years as a public school teacher have led me to conclude that textbooks are among the least useful of all the teaching and learning tools available to teachers and students.

For no more money than we spend on textbooks, obsolete before they are published, we can give every student access to the internet. I say "internet" to connote the magnitude of the resource, not to suggest giving children unlimited access to the actual internet.

Let's call their machine a "laptop", their "internet" a thumb drive.

Instead of reading in a textbook about history or science or math, they could watch a video production of a moment in history, an experiment in a laboratory, or mathematical concept explained by an awesome computer generated effect. All without having to be a "reader".

Against my better judgement, I tried to present an alternative to social promotion and retention, on KKOB. Immediately, my alternative was defending itself, by itself, of proposing students never have to learn to read. For the life of me, I can't explain that leap; it's almost like they don't want to understand.

We're talking about elementary education here.

The social promotion debate is about third graders not about
high school graduates, though there is that debate yet to be had.

My argument is;
third graders can continue to be challenged in all subjects, including reading, though the use of audio, visual, and participatory learning activities, while we are doing every thing that we can do to address that student's individual difficulties in learning to read.

And that we can do that by using teachers and textbooks as two of many reference sources, and not as the only ones.

The greatest stumbling block to changing the way we educate students in public schools is an unswerving belief in an untested and unexamined apothegm;

Students must learn to read by the third grade
or they cannot continue to learn at all.
And all the while seated in five rows of six, each
with nothing but a textbook in front of them.

No one will admit that there are ways to learn without reading. Students can also learn by watching, listening and doing.

No one will admit that there can be classroom arrangements other than cemetery seating.

Reading is learned by non-readers. One can practice reading skills by reading, but the skills themselves were learned by listening, watching and doing.

If non-readers can be taught to read; they can be taught everything else a third grader needs to know to succeed in any discipline except reading, while they learn to read.

photo Mark Bralley

APS Community Advocacy Group

2012-01-17T07:05:00.019-07:00

APS Supt Winston Brooks has twice touted an "APS Community Advocacy Group" in the Journal; once last month, link, and again this month, link. A search of APS' award winning website and Google, yielded no information linking to the group nor any evidence that it actually exists.

Since posting, a reader has supplied a link to Partners in Education & Advocates for Public Schools; PEAPS.

The leadership of the APS spends around a million dollars a year to improve their public perception.

There are two ways to improve public perception;

do a better job, or
make the public think you're doing a better job.

APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta and the million dollar a year "communications" effort have a job to do, and that job is not communication.

Their job is to improve public perception.

Without which, they might all loose their jobs.

There is only one group I am aware of trying to improve APS' public perception legitimately; by open and honest public discussion of the obstacles to our children's education; the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication.

Whose petition languishes still, in the denial of due process by the leadership of the APS (ok, only the corrupt and complacent ones).

Due process is being denied by two classes of APS leaders;

those whose personal corruption compels them to fight against transparent accountability to the people, and
those with guilty knowledge of that corruption.

The denial of due process for a legitimate petition violates,
if not the letter, then the spirit of the First Amendment to the
Constitution, and the protection it provides for the human right to petition one's government for redress of grievances.

The First Amendment reads in significant part;

Congress shall make no law ... abridging the ... right of
the people ... to petition the Government for a redress
of grievances.

If the amendment doesn't compel government to consider petitions, what is the point in protecting the right to deliver them?

These people, and I do mean these people, represent a "model" of public education administration;
strictly oligarchical with at will standards and accountability.

While it is the most widely agreed upon model among the oligarchs, it isn't necessarily the best.

The fact that it hasn't worked in more than a hundred years of "trying", is not unimportant.

It will never work, because it is fundamentally flawed.

The model these people prefer for the actual educating of students, is commonly called "cemetery seating". Students find themselves arranged like grave markers in five rows of six.

They're expected to join a thought choir that will think in unison for next twelve years. At every minute of every day, they will be expected to be in the same book, and on the same page, preparing for the same test.

This despite that these groups of young human beings, kittens if you will, have nothing in common but the year of their birth.

If you really looked at a graduating class of third graders, you would find that some are "third grade readers", some fourth, some fifth, maybe one or two, twelfth grade readers.

You would find a fair number reading below grade level.

If you looked at their record, you would find some of them are fourth grade mathematicians; and fifth. And some of them, in addition to being second grade readers, are first graders in something else.

Yet all are expected to proceed together in exactly the same direction, at exactly the same speed, for twelve years. Even if this could be accomplished, why would you want to?

Why would you want to, except to enable a oligarchical model whose existence depends upon centralized power and decision making?

The fundamental goal of education is to create independent lifelong learners who have no real need for schools. Because they learned how to learn independently, all they need is a reference library; the nearly unlimited digital data base.

The common refrain is;

students need to learn to read by third grade because
after third grade third grade they need to read to learn.

It's clever, it has a nice rhyme and meter, but that doesn't make it true.

The fact that non-readers can learn to read, is proof that
non-readers can learn without being able to read.

A third grade who cannot read at a third grade level, might have an interest in higher level math, or science or any one of an unlimited number of other worthy interests. That student can watch a video or listen to an audio file how ever many times they need, at what ever complexity they can grasp, in whatever language they need, in whatever font they prefer, or even read to them, in any language they want, by an electronic device.

For what we spend on textbooks, we could give every student electronic access to whatever database we choose. We could teach them to be critical and independent lifelong learners.

It is only because we insist that they
read their way out of the their ignorance,
that they are doomed to continuing ignorance.

photos Mark Bralley

The impasse in Española

2012-01-16T07:11:00.010-07:00

In the Journal this morning, link.

The is a confrontation going on in Española NM. The fight is between the free press and the government. More specifically, the Rio Grande Sun, link, and the leadership of the Española Public Schools.

Under dispute; whether the press needs permission from the government, to investigate and report upon it?

The complete dependence of Democracy upon a free press,
requires no further explanation or defense.

Only when the press is able to report the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the ethically redacted truth, are the people empowered to create and sustain government of the people, by the people and for the people.

The First Amendment addresses the issue by prohibiting government from creating laws that restrict a free press; by prohibiting schools boards from creating rules that keep the press from getting to the truth.

According to the Journal, Rio Grande Sun editor Lou Mattei is looking into possible legal action over what appears to be a pretty clear example of conduct the Constitution specifically and explicitly prohibits. One would hope they would. Bear in mind suing the government requires dedicating stretched resources to sue an opponent with an unlimited budget; in this case a large bore pipeline to education funding.

The leadership of the Española public school has reportedly backed down from their original demand that reporters must get permission from district Superintendent Evelyn Maruska before going on campus or interviewing staff or students, including pre-approval of their specific questions.

The Supt, Evelyn Maruska said:

“What I have requested of the Rio Grande Sun is … that they would provide what their questions are, and also state the who, what, where and why. … That’s only because I want the principals or the directors to be able to answer the questions, or if they did not have all of the answers, they would have time to be able to research.”

What she said was, if there are principals or directors who are unable to answer questions because they don't know the answers; they will have time to do research to cover up ignorance that could be evidence of incompetence.

The premise is so indefensible, the Superintendent is reported to be backing down. Her current and equally indefensible position is;

“All that I am asking for is the subject or the topic. Let’s say that they want to do a piece on uniforms in the school. Tell me it’s about uniforms — that’s all.”

As is the custom, the retreat came without any explanation, defense, or even acknowledgement of the former, even more blatantly unconstitutional position.

The press must have unlimited access to government in order for the people to have unlimited access to the truth about the spending of power and resources that belong to them.

The government is protected from unwarranted intrusion of the press by laws that specifically restrict access. It cannot be allowed to protect itself by inventing restrictions of its own.

Nor can it be allowed to protect itself through indefensible interpretations of legitimate laws.

The leadership of EPS avers; their interpretation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, link, requires them to keep Sun photographers from taking pictures of students without their parents written permission.

The simple truth is the Act only requires schools to have written permission from the parent or eligible student in order to release any information from a student's education record.

The EPS, if it's anything like the APS, will use operational funds, tax dollars that could be spent in classrooms and on education, to hire lawyers to litigate their exception to the law.

As is customary, any legal bills and fines resulting from deliberate misconduct by politicians and public servants, will be paid by taxpayers and not those politicians and public servants themselves.

If you are wondering about the relationship between the press and the leadership of the public schools here in Albuquerque; there is no impasse. The leaderships of the schools and the establishment's media are in accord; the leadership of the APS can violate the civil rights of the press, even to the point of using a publicly funded private police force to arrest members of the press who insist upon asking inconvenient questions, as long as they; the Journal, KRQE, KOAT, KOB and KKOB have as much access as they want.

Honest and flawed

2012-01-15T09:39:00.006-07:00

It would be nice to have candidates for political office that
were both;

scrupulously honest and
possessing of an absolutely flawless record according to the standards we apply.

That candidate does not exist.

At best, we can hope for an honest candidate with a marginally "flawed" record.

The best we have offered to us, is candidates who are neither honest nor flawless. And the only way they can get elected is to manipulate public opinion by spending millions of dollars on negative and frankly dishonest campaign ads.

With few exceptions, currency carries elections.

There are a handful of candidates that don't need to sling mud to win elections.

The best candidate I've ever seen running for any office, is Rep Janice Arnold-Jones, link, who is as honest as anyone I know and whose record is as flawless as any I've seen.

She adds manifest character, competence, and courage to a process that pays no attention them.

It will be up to the people then, to pay them the attention they deserve.

photo Mark Bralley

If a half truth really is a whole lie ...

2012-01-15T08:27:00.020-07:00

Then Journal editors lied to us this morning, link, though
it could be argued I suppose, that one can't lie in an editorial.

The editorial is about the new school grading system. The editorial is entitled;

A-F Has N.M. on Track To Serve Its Students

It is the opinion of the editors that, A-F grading of schools will foster improvement in the outcome of public schooling.

As any educator and most other people know; the grades A-F are based on performance; performance that is measured in percentages. There is an ideal outcome for any educational endeavor and students achieve some percentage of success.

It varies, but for the most; 90% success earns an A, 80% a B, 70% a C, 60% a D.

Imagine you are a student sitting in one of the five rows of six desks, and your teacher is returning test papers to your class. Imagine your grade is important to you.

Your paper is handed to you and is scored;

89%/B+

Further imagine; you are disappointed because you would have been especially rewarded at home, for an A.

The student next to you is very excited. S/he shows you their paper;

76%/A

Imagine how you would feel.

It is an important fact to know; the school grades were curved enormously. Beyond what one would expect. Beyond what the people would or will accept.

The editors do not know, do not understand, or do not care
to tell their readers that the schools were graded on a curve.

Or that, the best explanation offered so far is, that the 76 isn't a "percentage", rather, it is the number of points accumulated out of 100 points possible (hand to God).

NM Public Education Secretary Designate Hanna Skandera (and Governor Susana Martinez) have been asked to explain in words that any middle school student can understand, why that student's school gets an A,
and the student doesn't.

They won't, and why should they,
if the press won't make them?

Skandera and Martinez are not being candid, forthright, and honest with interest holders.

Neither are the editors.

photos Mark Bralley

APS looking to legislature to legitimize their cover up

2012-01-14T15:33:00.014-07:00

The leadership of the Albuquerque Public Schools has it's
own police force. It is a publicly funded, private police force;
accountable to no one, except the leadership of the APS.

Individually, APS police officers are as qualified as any other police officer. Many are retired from the Albuquerque Police Department.

The police force itself however, is not. It is not certificated,
certified, or accredited by anybody but the leadership of the APS.

They employ it as a Praetorian Guard, wikilink.

Five years ago, the Albuquerque Journal investigated and reported upon felonies committed by senior APS administrators, link.

The leadership of the APS decided to use their private police force to self-investigate its own public corruption and incompetence. No other law enforcement agency, not even the District Attorney, has seen one scintilla of the evidence they gathered. They managed to hide it all until statutes of limitation expired on felony criminal misconduct.

The truth of those allegations lies in the ethically redacted public record of several investigations; including but not limited to an independent investigation culminating in the Caswell Report. That allegation, though true, can't be proved because they won't surrender the public record that convicts them.

They are spending dollars that would otherwise end up in classrooms; to pay Modrall lawyers to litigate exception for them, from the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act, and from having to surrender evidence of their own corruption.

Their self-investigation of felony criminal misconduct reeks of the appearance of a conflict of interests, the creation of which blatantly violates the APS School Board Code of Ethics which reads;

Avoid conflicts of interest or the appearance thereof ...

There is a conspiracy to cover up public corruption.
If the public record exonerated them from that allegation,
they would surrender it.

It the truth will exonerate them, they wouldn't have had to have their own police force do the investigation, and they wouldn't be hiding the evidence.

They wouldn't have had to promote their Chief of Police Steve Tellez in secret; they wouldn't have to be paying him $90K to make sure the criminal investigation never sees the light of day.

It was he who signed Marty Esquivel's unlawful restraining order, promising to deploy police force in support of Esquivel's efforts to cover up the corruption by violating my Constitutionally protected human rights to expose it.

Their expressed intention, link, pasted in significant part;

"... APS Police be recognized as an independent police department authorized by the Board of Education and overseen by the superintendent."

The problem is, APS' axis of evil; Supt Winston Brooks, School Board enforcer Marty Esquivel, and School Board President Paula Maes (currently enforcing Esquivel's unlawful order), are up to there eyeballs in the conspiracy to cover up corruption in the leadership of the APS and their police force.

As an example of the ties that bind the media and the board, Brooks is a recent recipient of a Hero of Transparency Award, despite his unswerving efforts to hide public records from public knowledge. The award was given to him by Marty Esquivel and Journal Managing Editor Kent Walz who either bamboozled the NM Foundation for Open Government Directors, or, who also new about the cover up and gave Brooks their highest honor anyway.

Paula Maes' fist pounds last on the table at the New Mexico Broadcasters Association. Co-incidentally, not one NMBA member has shown the least inclination to investigate and report upon public corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS.

They will be in the
Roundhouse next week
to try to talk legislators
into giving them even
more police force to abuse, link.

photos Mark Bralley

APS' disregard for Houston's MOU.

2012-01-12T23:23:00.008-07:00

The leadership of the APS is trying to create a rubric for handling allegations of criminal misconduct in the APS.

The language they would like, link, reads in significant part;

If the nature of the whistleblower complaint is an allegation of criminal activity, felony or misdemeanor, of an employee, student or activity, the chief of the Albuquerque Public Schools Police Department, or his/her designee, shall complete an inquiry into the concern. Criminal activity may include, but is not limited to, substance abuse at the work place, threats, physical violence, and theft, falsification of information and destruction of property. The chief of the Albuquerque Public Schools Police Department, or his/her designee, forward the information, resolution and any necessary recommendations from the inquiry to the director of Internal Audit for appropriate follow-up.

No where is it mentioned,
the Memorandum of
Understanding they signed,
link, in which they promised
Bernalillo County Sheriff
Dan Houston, that in exchange
for commissions, they would
stop investigating their own
felony criminal misconduct;
strictly limiting them instead
to;

APS police may pursue a violent felony in progress if the violent felony was witnessed by the APS police officer. Upon witnessing a violent felony, the APS police officer will immediately notify BCSD or the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) .

That particular stipulation be enforced, is important in light of the APS PD's ongoing, five year long, self investigation of felony criminal misconduct, link, and the surrounding cover up; proof of which lies in an ethically redacted version of the Caswell Report, and in similarly redacted public records.

The Sheriff is doing nothing apparent, in response to the allegation that APS police officers watched kids get drunk for a couple of hours one night at Valley High School, link.

Maybe this will get his attention.

photo Mark Bralley

Robbins admits APS is misleading public

2012-01-12T22:35:00.012-07:00

School Board Member David Robbins was on KOAT's news, link. He admitted that interest holders were misled by the way "it was put into a press release" telling them, APS Supt Winston Brooks' contract did not include a raise - a concern I first raised, link, on December 23, 2011.

The persons responsible for the misinformation being "put into a press release" would like taxpayers to believe that because it wasn't his base salary that they increased, he received no raise.

It is a spin on the truth calculated "... to create beliefs or leave impressions that are untrue or misleading ..."; behavior prohibited in the APS student standards of conduct and engaged in (by students) at the forfeit of their good character.

According to KOAT, a unidentified district spokesperson said Brooks was "too busy" to answer the questions raised by Robbins' admission.

photo Mark Bralley

The establishment media is complicit or complacent or something!

2012-01-12T13:56:00.017-07:00

If the establishment media do not understand what it means to grade on a curve, wikilink, they are incompetent.

If they cannot comprehend the importance of the fact that the
recently released school grades were curved significantly;
curved beyond the point where the average parent or
community member will correctly intuit, they are incompetent.

If they don't understand that the NMPED curved their recent grades (to make schools look better) they are incompetent; the grading scale was handed to them.

Some would argue the curve went too far; it is unjustifiable.

A 75-100%
B 60- 74.9%
C 50-59.9%
D 37.5-49.9%
F less than 37.5%

Students are expected to put out 90% to earn the same grade
their school gets for 75% performance.
They must perform nearly twice as well to pass.

I cannot accept that this is not newsworthy.

If they chose to not investigate and report, for any reason
other than an honest lack of newsworthiness, they are complicit.

If the media simply don't care, they are complacent.

In the absence of any place where the people can make demands of their own, it is especially important for the fourth estate, wikilink to compel politicians and public servants to deny, defend, explain, or at the very least, acknowledge the curving they have done.

On doing nothing, while evil prevails

2012-01-12T12:31:00.009-07:00

It's difficult to use the word evil without sounding histrionic.

It is the word Edmund Burke chose to use when he wrote;

All that is necessary for evil to prevail in the world, is
for good men to do nothing.

I'm not saying that all of the members of the leadership of the APS are evil, but when Burke wrote about evil, these were the people he was writing about.

And when he wrote about good men doing nothing,
he was writing about us.

Bess Myerson observed;

"The accomplice to the crime of corruption is frequently
our own indifference”

We don't really care enough apparently, to create

honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct
and competence for politicians and public servants within
their public service (in the APS)

despite overwhelming evidence that they have no intention of creating it for themselves.

photo Mark Bralley

The next public forum

2012-01-12T12:24:00.003-07:00

The next school board meeting public forum happens Wednesday, the 18th of January.

It will begin at 5pm, long before anyone with a job can get there.

Signs ups for public forum close at 5pm as well, long before anyone with a job can sign up.

There is no reason they can't take sign-ups up until the last two minutes of public forum.

I should say, no good and ethical reason.

Just like there is no good and ethical reason why the agenda, link, cannot be posted as built, rather than waiting until the last minute allowed by the law.

The only place they allow you to petition your government regarding the difficulty with getting on the forum, is at a public forum you cannot attend.

Deliberate, or accidental?

Some assurance please ...

2012-01-12T10:20:00.020-07:00

It is nearly two months now since APS
Chief Operating Officer Brad Winter
promised to tell the truth about
spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

If the records were flattering or if
the Journal was asking, they would
have been surrendered long ago,
and before they violated the law by
not surrendering them in a timely
manner.

To date; he has produced public records of barely $150K they spent on electronic gadgetry for the board room; likely as little as 10% of total spending.

When, if, they ever find anymore public records, they will not be forwarded to me electronically. I am told they don't exist in electronic format, there is not a scanner anywhere in the whole Communications offices, and even if there was, the law does not require them to scan them instead of coping them.

I will be required to go to APS Communications offices to inspect and/or copy them (at 50 cents a page).

Worse, by going I will expose myself to more of APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta's libelous and completely unfounded accusations that;
I am in her office everyday,
I am "stalking her" and that
I am whispering to her,
threats against her family.

No complaint was ever filed regarding her allegations, and no investigation was done.

She is seen above, giving an unlawful order to APS Praetorian Guard to eject me from the Eldorado HS Gubernatorial Debate.

By going into the castle keep at 6400 Uptown Blvd, I will subject myself to additional harassment by APS police officers following unlawful orders from School Board enforcer Marty Esquivel.

I would like some assurance that if I go to see records that could have been sent to me electronically, I will not be subject to Armenta's defamation or police force harassment.

We'll see what APS Director of Communications and Custodian of Public Records will offer in the way of assurance. To date; he has not acknowledged the threats from Armenta or their Praetorian Guard.

It has been several years since Kent Walz and the Journal decided to not get to the bottom of outlandish spending on administrative and executive accoutrements for the board room, or anywhere else in the APS, for that matter.

photos Mark Bralley
I took the shot of Armenta

APS and "unethical" behavior

2012-01-12T08:30:00.018-07:00

The changes in whistleblower policy, link and link, that are being considered by the school board, use the word "unethical" specifically, as in;

The Board of Education shall not permit unlawful or
unethical behavior by district employees.

... including Supt Winston Brooks.

Questions are begged. What does unethical mean?
It means, failing to meet ethical standards of conduct.

What are ethical standards of conduct?

There are two standards of conduct in the APS; one applies to students and the other to senior administrators and board members.

The one, is a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct. Whether those standards should or should not apply to students; whether those standards are the "right" standards is moot; it is school board policy, link.

The other standards, the ones that apply to board members and senior administrators, is the lowest of the lowest standards of conduct; whatever legal loopholes, technicalities and legal weaselry will allow. Whether that is right is moot; it is the school board's evident intention.

I offer;

It is manifestly unethical for the leadership of the APS to refuse to hold itself honestly accountable to standards of ethical conduct; in particular because they hold students accountable to standards of ethical conduct.

The leadership of the APS does not want to be held accountable to the Pillars of Character Counts! They have gone so far in their effort to evade accountability as to remove the role modeling clause from their own standards of conduct; the one that used to read;

In no case shall the standards of conduct for adults,
be lower than the standards of conduct for students.

There are two reasons that senior administrators and board members will not hold themselves honestly accountable to the Pillars of Character Counts!. There are only two reasons. The reasons are abhorrent. They are especially abhorrent in the senior-most role models of the standards they establish and enforce upon students.

I have asked, and asked, and asked; I have even offered a cash reward to anyone who can offer a third reason that adults will not step up as role models of accountability, honest accountability, to meaningful standards of conduct and competence.

If we really want students to grow into adults who embrace
character and courage and honor, someone has to show them
what it looks like. The school board and senior leadership
need to show them what it looks like.

Role modeling is a conspicuous activity.
"Inconspicuous role modeling" is oxymoronic.
If students, staff and community can't see it, it isn't happening.
If they cannot point to it, it doesn't exist.

APS Supt Winston Brooks is not a conspicuous role model of accountability to the Pillars of Character Counts! Nor is School Board enforcer Marty Esquivel. Nor is the senior-most executive role model of the APS Student Standards of Conduct Paula Maes.

Ergo; they are behaving unethically.
They are modeling the very behavior they say they shall not permit!

... for either one or both of two reasons;

they haven't the courage and/or
they haven't the character

to hold themselves honestly accountable to standards of ethical conduct.

The same two reasons that keep the Journal and NM Broadcasters Assoc members from investigating and reporting upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

photo and frame grab Mark Bralley

Controversial policy changes tabled

2012-01-12T07:45:00.002-07:00

In response to a query of the School Board office, I am informed that the Policy Committee tabled three controversial items;

an effort to deny whistle blowers due process by abandoning Audit Committee review of whistleblower complaints,
an effort to allow the Supt in investigate complaints against himself, and
an effort to allow complaints against the Supt to be investigated by School Board cronies.

I received the following reply;

The following agenda items from the January 10, Policy and Instruction Committee meeting were tabled:

II. Consideration of approval of Board of Education policy D.05 Internal Audit to be renamed D.05 Audit Committee and Reports (Discussion/Action)
III. Consideration of approval of revisions to Board of Education policy GB7 Whistleblower Complaints (Discussion/Action)
IV. Board of Education review of new Internal Audit Procedural Directive (Discussion)

Suggestions were made for changes to the language, which the board members requested to be brought to another Policy and Instruction Committee meeting for review.

I am still illegally banned by Marty Esquivel's unlawful restraining order, so I have no idea which board member deserves credit for moving to table the issues.

Another APS supervisor on administrative leave

2012-01-12T07:03:00.004-07:00

KOAT reports, link, another APS administrator has been put on administrative leave.

As usual, APS is providing no information that interest holders can use to evaluate their performance in preventing misconduct or in dealing wayward administrators.

KOAT reports;

An APS representative would not shed any light on the situation, except to say that it's a personnel matter that should be resolved in the next few days.

Action 7 News was told a second IT worker is involved in the case, but APS won't confirm that.

APS officials said Gail will go through due process and be able to share his side of the story with his supervisors and then go in front of a disciplinary committee.

... and that's the last interest holders will ever hear.

Brooks and I agree

2012-01-11T08:17:00.010-07:00

In his report to interest holders, link, on the A thru F grades for APS schools, APS Supt Winston Brooks wrote,

Regardless of what your school’s scores may be, my message is simple: Keep striving for excellence.

I could not agree more, though we would pursue excellence
by far different paths.

I would pursue it through honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence for APS employees and students.

He would pursue it by the same path the good ol' boys have been following for more than a 100 years; creating and maintaining a culture of fear of retaliation against whistleblowers; using a publicly funded private police force to arrest them if necessary.

He would pursue it retaliating against whistleblowers and denying due process to their complaints.

photo Mark Bralley

How about loss prevention for a change?

2012-01-11T07:32:00.010-07:00

In the Journal this morning, we find that three city workers have been fired for stealing our resources. The day before, another story of a city worker stealing resources.

It is good that they were fired.

It would have been better if they hadn't stolen from us.

With thievery, as with every other vice, there is a battle between temptation and moral courage. If the temptation is irresistible; there isn't moral courage enough in anyone, to resist it. That's what irresistible means.

There are two solutions to public corruption;

hire and elect people who can stand irresistible temptation, or
remove the temptation.

If there is nothing to steal, there is no temptation to steal it.

If there is nothing that can be stolen (without certain accountability), there is no temptation to steal it.

Every one of these thieves made a calculation. Every one of them concluded that they could steal from the people and get away with it.

People don't come to that conclusion unless there is a substantial likelihood that they will, in fact, get away with it.

Every time a politician or public servant is caught stealing,
the politician or public servant whose job it was
to keep them from stealing in the first place,
should be fired as well.

This is not rocket science.

Casinos do it all the time, and I do mean, all the time.

Schools graded on a curve

2012-01-11T06:46:00.015-07:00

Parents and community members regard an "A" as indicative of 90% achievement. Older parents and community members might remember having to perform at 94% to earn their "A"s.

They will be surprised to find out that NM schools only needed to earn 75 points out of 100, 75%, to be given an "A". The whole grading rubric was changed to make it look like schools are doing better than the really are.

A 75-100%
B 60- 74.9%
C 50-59.9%
D 37.5-49.9%
F < 37.5%

The whole idea behind creating an A through F grading system, was that parents and community members understand what A, B, C, D and F mean.

I asked Governor Susana Martinez and Education Secretary Hanna Skandera to justify what appears to be a lowering of the bar for schools. Their response was couched in statistical jargon; more about how they did it than, why?

I should have qualified my question by asking that they explain the overly lenient curve in words that students can understand.

I found their explanation deeply unsatisfying, and not just because it was so hard to understand. I suspect the people will not be satisfied either; if they find ever out.

The NM PED pulled a fast one and the people will never hear about it. None of the legacy news outlets I searched, seems to have noticed the double standard for students and their schools.

Or, they see the double standard and choose to not investigate and report upon it.

Either way, the wool has been pulled over the people's eyes.

Interesting aside; The wool refers to a powdered wig.
To pull the wool down over a man's eyes is to temporarily blind him.
It is an Americanism, dating to the 1830s.

photo Mark Bralley

APS mum on Brooks' extended contract

2012-01-10T10:16:00.005-07:00

If you check APS award winning website, link, you will find no mention of the inflation of APS Supt Winston Brooks' golden parachute to $750K.

Just like you find no mention of Steve Tellez being promoted to Chief of their Praetorian Guard, link, and guardian of all evidence and testimony regarding felony criminal misconduct by the leadership of the APS and their so-called Police Dept.

Why not? except to protect their public perception.

Why not? except for their cowardice and corruption.

APS should abandon the Pillars of Character Counts!

2012-01-10T08:11:00.002-07:00

The leadership of the APS needs to fish or cut bait on Character Counts! They cannot continue to insist that students "model and promote the Pillars of Character Counts!", and abdicate their obligation to show them what that looks like, link.

Albuquerque Public Schools; Support the potential; the video.

2012-01-10T07:19:00.012-07:00

Not long ago, you were hearing
APS Executive Director of
Communications Monica Armenta
in radio ads, asking listeners to
support "APS' potential", link.

The plea is out in video, link;
Armenta is still the star.

The problem is still the same.
The money being spent creating
and airing these ads in the hope of
raising the public perception of the APS, could have been used instead to increase performance, which would have raised the public perception legitimately.

Instead, the warm and fuzzy will make people feel better about APS' leadership without APS doing anything to earn it.

A communications coup if ever there was one.

The as yet undisclosed cost of the ad campaign is being borne by the APS Foundation and Paula Maes' NM Broadcasters Association.

"The APS Education Foundation, link, is a non-profit organization established for promoting private support of the district and its students."

The mission of the Foundation reads;

The mission of the APS Education Foundation is to encourage, solicit, receive and administer gifts and bequests of property and funds for educational purposes for the advancement of the Albuquerque Public Schools.

What, exactly, is the educational purpose of an ad campaign,
the primary purpose of which is to make people "feel better"
about the leadership of the APS?

photo Mark Bralley

ABCDF; say what?

2012-01-10T07:09:00.007-07:00

When I was very young (if memory serves), in order to earn
an A, proficiency between 93-100% was required. 85-92%
earned a B, 75-84 a C, 65-74 a D, and below 65, an F.

More recently; 90-100 earned an A, 80-90 a B, 70-79 a C,
60-69 a D, and 59 and below an F.

The NM PED has a new rubric, link;

A 75-100%
B 60- 74.9%
C 50-59.9%
D 37.5-49.9%
F < 37.5%

and "performance" is up!

The conclusion; the lower the standards, the better we do.

The Journal will be there, and then let them slide.

2012-01-09T14:47:00.006-07:00

The Journal will (should be) attending the policy committee meeting tomorrow; the subject of the following two posts.

It fair to hold them accountable for their response.

Editorially, I expect they will take no exception at all;
same as with Brooks' $750K golden parachute.

From the standpoint of investigate reporting;
they will follow the lead of their editor.

You'll see.

Audit committee will bail on due process for whistle blower complaints.

2012-01-09T14:18:00.009-07:00

Unless they are stopped, the APS Policy Committee intends to rewrite board policy to divorce themselves once and for all, from their obligation to provide due process for whistle blower complaints.

APS whistle blower complaints do not get due process. Complaints against administrators and board members are adjudicated by fellow (and possibly subordinate) administrators. It creates the appearance of a conflict of interest and of impropriety.

Until tomorrow night, school board policy requires the executive branch (the board) to evaluate every single whistle blower complaint. The administration of whistle blower complaints is accountable to the people whose power is being spent, through the school board.

They have not reviewed and approved of the administration of even one single complaint. Hundreds of whistle blower complaints have been, continue to be, and apparently will in the future be, denied the due process of executive review of a blatantly compromised administrative self-adjudication.

Their proposed new language, link, here pasted in significant part;

The Audit Committee shall receive and review ... program evaluation reports from the superintendent, or his/her designee, about ... whistleblower complaints ....

Instead of doing their job as board members and making sure that every whistle blower got due process, they will take Winston Brooks' word for the fact that he gave due process to the complaints filed against him personally.

I'm sorry - that's bullshit.

Their agenda, link, includes no public input.

photo Mark Bralley

Brooks to handle whistle blower complaints; even the ones against him

2012-01-09T14:10:00.009-07:00

APS' Policy Committee will meet tomorrow at 5pm.

Unless they are stopped; they will rewrite school board policy on whistle blower complaints. The new policy will read, link;

GB7 – Whistleblower Complaints

The Board of Education shall not permit unlawful or unethical behavior by district employees. Albuquerque Public Schools shall provide employees and the community a means to confidentially file, in good faith without fear of retaliation, whistleblower complaints regarding such conduct. These complaints shall be investigated by the superintendent and/or by his/her designee.

The superintendent shall develop an administrative procedural directive to implement this policy.

APS Supt Winston Brooks will investigate all whistle blower complaints. Complaints against him will be investigated by one of his subordinates. It reeks of conflicts of interest and impropriety.

On what planet is denial of due process, good faith?

Their agenda, link, includes no public input.

free press and journalists wrongly conflated

2012-01-09T08:44:00.007-07:00

I went looking for legal decisions recognizing bloggers as the pamphleteers of this day and deserving of the Constitutional protection written for the pamphleteers of that day.

It looks like members of a free press are having to prove they are "journalists" in order to prove they are enjoy the Constitutional protection of their human right to be "a free press". Why?

Did the founding fathers really intend to protect only a subset of the entire free press who qualify as "journalists"? whatever that means. Did they intend to let politicians and public servants control access to the public record?

Or is it just an "establishment" effort to repress that part of a free press, they cannot control?

Heads should roll.

2012-01-09T07:38:00.005-07:00

Recently, auditors found the leadership of the APS remiss in keeping records about the vehicles entrusted to them, link.

No heads rolled. In fact; one head was even given a golden parachute and a hero of transparency award at about the same time.

Now we find, link, the Public Regulation Commission is remiss in keeping records about the vehicles entrusted to them.

Will heads roll?

Those who stole our resources and betrayed our trust should be fired.

Those whose job it was to not let this happen should be fired. Those who could have, and should have created an environment where it is impossibly difficult to hide corruption and incompetence (casinos do it), failed to do so.

Their heads should roll.

But they won't.

Their heads won't roll any more than Winston Brooks' head rolled over the COSO audit.

That's the way the culture of corruption works;
it's the way they really "roll".

photo Mark Bralley

Nobody ever went to jail for not keeping records

2012-01-08T14:26:00.005-07:00

From New Mexico Watchdog, link, State Auditor Hector Balderas is investigating the Public Regulation Commission found "... a time when the agency had virtually no formal internal controls over use of its 120 vehicle fleet."

We can take comfort in the fact that PRC spokesperson Arthur Bishop says,

“We’re acknowledging that was a huge issue and we’re correcting it.”

Bishop went on to admit;

“From what we know of the situation right now it seems it would be very hard to line up the forensics and see who was doing what. There’s no record."

begging a question; How many other state agencies are spending billions of dollars with "virtually no internal controls"?

It is a fair question and one that will likely go unanswered except for the regular exposure of criminal activity enabled by the lack of those internal controls.

It's about preventing the theft of public resources, not about addressing problems only when someone gets caught. Is it too much to expect from politicians and public servants to make it just a little harder to rip us off?

Is casino-like security on the spending of our power and resources really so impossible to provide?

If not cronyism and complicity, then what?

2012-01-08T07:56:00.018-07:00

I was asked yesterday at Conspiracy Brews, why I think the Journal is not investigating and reporting upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

My answer; conspiracy.

I can tell, people are finding the pill hard to swallow;
a conspiracy of community leaders including the leadership of
APS, the Journal, and member news agencies of the
New Mexico Broadcasters Association KRQE, KOAT, KOB.

You decide.

My credibility doesn't play; I am not asking to be believed.

I'm saying look at the facts and try to imagine any good and ethical alternative explanation of what looks, walks and quacks like a conspiracy.

My allegation is that they won't tell the truth about;

their relentless denial of due process for the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication petition, and
the Caswell Report, and all (ethically redacted) public records of investigations into public corruption in the leadership of the APS and their publicly funded private police force, and
their denial of due process to hundreds of whistle blower complaints against senior administrators and board members, and
their abdication as senior role models of the APS Student Standards of Conduct, the Pillars of Character Counts! and,
(in the words of School Board President Paula Maes), their expressed intention to obstruct the commission of "... any audit that individually identifies ..." corrupt or incompetent senior administrators or board members.

I accuse APS Supt Winston Brooks, Journal Managing Editor Kent Walz, and School Board enforcer Marty Esquivel of lacking the character and the courage to communicate openly and honestly about the standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

The Walz, Esquivel, Brooks axis and the NM FOG "Hero of Transparency" Award, link, ties the knot pretty squarely.

All any of them has to do to prove my accusation unfounded, is to actually do what they're supposed to by doing anyway.

Winston Brooks, seen here, arresting peaceful protestors at a community input meeting, can surrender an ethically redacted copy of the Caswell Report and the public record of investigations into felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators and board members.

Kent Walz can tell his readers that he asked Brooks for the records with the intention of publishing them, and Brooks refused to surrender them.

Walz knows about the corruption; the Journal broke the story, link; he's had his nose rubbed in it more times than a puppy with a weak bladder.

He's between a rock and a hard place, they all are. How can they report credibly on corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS, without first reporting credibly on their failure to do so heretofore?

Marty Esquivel can explain to students, why they are expected to "model and promote the Pillars of Character Counts!", and
he is not.

Every other board member and senior administrator can immediately exonerate themselves of allegations of complicity or complacency in the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, by simply stating their intention to be held honestly accountable to the same standards of conduct that they establish and enforce up students.

All they have to do is step up as a role model;
something they're supposed to be doing anyway.

When the question is;

will you tell the truth? about the public interests
and your public service

any answer except yes,
means no.

photos and frame grab Mark Bralley

Brooks contract extended until 2015

2012-01-07T06:47:00.009-07:00

When APS Supt Winston Brooks' contract last came up for extension early 2011, KOAT ran a poll, link, on the extension. They asked viewers whether Brooks contract should be extended. 1,032 people responded (a huge response); the results;

Yes 162 (16%)

No 861 (84%)

The board extended his contract anyway; filling his golden parachute up to $750K.

Journal editors were also miffed, link, that lame duck board members were extending Brooks' contract well beyond their tenure on the board.

Now the board has done it again. In two meetings in secret, allowing no public input whatsoever, they extended Brooks contract to 2015; well beyond their elected terms. The Journal reported on the decision, link, but expressed no objection.

As far as I can tell from their website, KOAT viewers haven't even been told it happened.

Though the establishment's media is reporting that Brooks didn't get a raise; he is ending up with more money in his pocket.

The decision was revealed late on a Friday, the best time to break bad news if your interest is in minimizing its negative effects.

There is no mention of the extension on APS' award winning website.

A hundred years not enough, apparently.

2012-01-06T21:10:00.008-07:00

If the goal following statehood in 1912, was to create a state government with standards, accountability and transparency enough to protect public power and resources from abuse;
they failed.

"They" failed because, for a hundred years, the people who elected them, didn't watch over them and direct their spending of power and resources that belong fundamentally to the people.

The solution, eluding "them" for a century now, beyond
the people retaking control over the spending of their power
and resources, is government that is transparently accountable
to the people, by systems beyond undue influence and powerful
enough to hold even the most powerful accountable, and
even against their will.

Make it impossible to squander the public trust and treasure
without being exposure and prosecution to fullest extent of the law.

Create casino security on the spending of the people's power and resources.

Give "them" no opportunity to hide their corruption and incompetence.

"They" have being doing it their way for a century now without success. It's time for new leadership and a new direction. It's time for government of, by and for the people whose power and resources they are.

The terms of public service are the prerogative of the people,
not of their servants.

Least among those terms are transparent accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence within their public service.

"The right time, to do the right thing, is always right now." unk

Or, we could give "them" another hundred years
to come up with something.

Little known fact about the new APS Calendar

2012-01-06T12:35:00.021-07:00

APS has published the 2012-13 bare bones school calendar, link.

This isn't one of the world class calendars that Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta has grown famous marketing. That will come next summer and fall.

Notice the one thing that never changes in APS calendars;
never has, and never will; first semester finals are administered before Christmas break.

The reason; if finals are administered in January, scores plummet because of the "learning" that disappears over the intervening two weeks. A mini version of the price we pay for giving students three months respite from "learning", during the summer.

Transient "learning" is the manifestation of students memorizing material for NCLB testing, as opposed to understanding the material; the basis of real and long lasting learning.

Straight biz, for what it's worth.

Raises serious questions about the transience of what is being taught and learned in the APS, and about where we might better spend our power and resources.

Too bad questions aren't allowed.

photos Mark Bralley

"reasonable specificity"

2012-01-05T06:26:00.017-07:00

The School Board intends to meet in secret from stakeholders tomorrow morning when they get together to extend APS Supt Winston Brooks' already twice extended contract. It amounts to a golden parachute; guaranteeing payment even without performance a la those ridiculous packages UNM coaches are given.

A majority of them will vote to extend Brooks' contract beyond their own tenure on the board; they're forcing their decision on a majority of board members who have not yet stood for election.

There are a number of good reasons to not extend Brooks' contract. The only reason to extend it is to give the impression that the board did the right thing in hiring Brooks in the first place.

The Board is aware of the law; the Open Meetings Act. They point to it in the agenda, link. They are accustomed to picking and choosing the parts they follow and ignore.

This time, as usual, they will ignore that part of the law that requires them to disclose "with reasonable specificity", what they intend to discuss in secret from those whose power and resources will be spent behind those closed doors.

They say they intend to adjourn "... for the Purpose of Discussion of the Superintendent’s Contract". Perhaps some parts of that discussion should be, for good and ethical reasons, discussed in secret; but, the whole discussion? A disclosure with "reasonable specificity" would give us a better idea of what is really going on.

Do we really have no right to know what "problems" are being discussed and addressed?

The law "allows" secrecy, it doesn't require it.

The standards of conduct the board established and enforces upon students is clear on the issue; people of character often have to do more than the law requires, and less than the law allows.

The board is in hiding because, when they evaluate their Superintendent, they are at the same time evaluating their selection of him; they are evaluating themselves.

That they are doing that at all, much less in secret, points to real problems with the way they do business and goes a long way toward explaining why they need to go into hiding to do it.

Some folks would argue, he's little more than a misogynist and a bully.

Is that going to come up in their secret evaluation?

Still nothing on the subject from the Journal, giving their tacit approval of a golden parachute worth three quarters of a million dollars to a Supt who can offer little to no objective evidence that he is doing any good at all.

It's official, Brooks' contract extension is on the agenda

2012-01-04T17:42:00.005-07:00

The agenda for the Special Board Meeting Friday at 7:00 am, has been published, link.

They don't admit that they're there to give APS Supt Winston Brooks another quarter million dollars to add to his golden parachute; they call it "contract revision". A majority of them will be voting to extend the parachute beyond their own tenure on the board.

They do admit that they will go into secret to talk about it, but will vote to do it in public.

They have not scheduled a public forum.

If you are opposed to extending Brooks' contract for another year, it's just too damn bad.

The Journal's "special obligation"

2012-01-04T16:07:00.005-07:00

If you go the Society of Professional Journalists and read their code of ethics, link, to the very last tenet, you find;

Recognize a special obligation to ensure that
the public's business is conducted in the open and
that government records are open to inspection.

Then I think about APS Supt Winston Brooks getting a contract extension in a meeting whose agenda is still secret from public knowledge, and less than two days away, link, and the Journal's failure to investigate and report upon their shenanigans.

I think about the Caswell Report on felony criminal misconduct by senior APS administrators; a "government record" by any reasonable standard, and the fact that the Journal is not only not demanding its immediate surrender, they are actually enabling it to be hidden.

As for Journal Managing Editor Kent Walz and the other editorial role models of the Journalist's Code of Ethics, they are fortunate that their code, like APS' Code of Ethical Conduct, is utterly unenforceable.

"You can't make me."

2012-01-04T08:31:00.007-07:00

APS Director of Communications and Custodian of Public Records Rigo Chavez, is in the process of responding to my request for public records.

I went looking for the truth about how much money APS Chief Operation Officer Brad Winter and the boys spent building themselves a monumental and yet to be justified, new "community" room.

That was November 17th, link.

Would you believe I still don't have it?

I asked Chavez to surrender the record in electronic format. I prefer to avoid subjecting myself to more of Monica Armenta's slanderous allegations, or harassment by APS publicly funded private police force.

Chavez says much of the information they're getting ready to dump on me, does not exist in electronic format. Further, he reminds me that according to the Inspection of Public Records Act,

"... public bodies are not required to create documents in order to respond to records requests."

And even if it did, his

"... office does not have a scanner."

Why not? Except as a deliberate effort to obfuscate the surrender of public records.

photos Mark Bralley

What goes around comes around for PIO Huffman-Martinez

2012-01-03T18:01:00.006-07:00

I will begin by admitting some childish delight at 10:30 one night, when I saw my one time nemesis reporting from the corner of Bumfuhc and God Knows Where, about how miserably cold it was there.

Chris Ramirez, before he went off on the establishment's media, was the Public Information Officer for Mayor Richard Berry.

I can still remember the smirk on his face, when it became apparent that Berry was going to let Ramirez decide who and who is not protected by the First Amendment.

Ramirez argued; you have to own a printing press or a broadcast license to be included under the protection the First Amendment provided for the political pamphleteers of the day, and continues to provide for the political pamphleteers of this.

Berry, to his enduring shame, let him get away with it. As far as I know, he still let's city PIOs decide who gets to ask them questions, and who doesn't. PIOs get to decide who and who doesn't enjoy Constitutional protection of their human right to be a free press.

It gets better.

While we're on Ramirez' and journalism; how does the Mayor's go to guy, get to report on the Mayor or anyone else at City Hall, without creating the appearance of a conflict of interest?

I remember that from an email exchange with Ramirez where he was pontificating on Journalism, Journalists, and Journalist's ethics, link, among which is written;

Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived.

And better still.

Last night, I happened to see Ramirez chasing after someone, and trying to get a candid, forthright and honest answer to a legitimate question, and the guy blew him off.

You have to love the irony in it.

photo Mark Bralley

Extending Brooks'contract wrong on so many levels

2012-01-03T17:26:00.012-07:00

Not the least of which is, if the sitting school board extends Brooks' golden parachute, wikilink, past the next election of school board members, they will have effectively disenfranchised a majority of voters who might well oppose extending APS Supt Winston Brooks' Contract even one more day.

The same problem occurred the last time they inflated Brooks' golden parachute, link using lame duck members to grant another huge bonus on their choice for Supt; board members bestowing bonuses far beyond the terms of their own election.

Still to be seen; the Journal's take on APS' under the radar, Locksley like contract for a coach with a loosing record.

Is Kent Walz going to "see nothing" and say nothing while his Hero of Transparency makes off with another quarter million operational (classroom) dollars while no one is watching?

frame grab Mark Bralley

Chump stumped

2012-01-03T15:33:00.037-07:00

APS Supt Winston Brooks,

seen here about the time
he was ordering his
Praetorian Guard to
arrest peaceful protestors
at Manzano HS, link,

ended each of the District Goals Setting meetings playing "stump the chump" and proving even clever self-deprecation can grow tedious.

He claimed he would answer any legitimate question.

I called his bluff.
He folded.

All I had to do was ask him why we never talk about student discipline? and he can't answer.

He can't tell us the truth about why he won't hold an open and honest public discussion about;

executive and administrative standards of conduct and accountability compared to;
student standards of conduct and accountability, and
executive and administrative responsibilities as the senior-role models of student standards of conduct, or about
student misbehavior in general; historically, currently and in future, and
the effect of chronically disruptive students; historically, currently and in future, and
whether crime statistics will continue to be falsified and hidden in order to improve the public perception of the APS.

He won't point to the time, the day, and the place where they will finally come clean with the truth.

He cannot summon the character and the courage to stand still somewhere and explain why he will not tell the truth, the whole truth and, nothing but the ethically redacted truth about student behavior in public schools.

I asked him to step up as a role model of the same standards
of conduct he holds up for students, link, and
the chump is stumped.

Stay tuned; he gets a pay raise Friday.

photo Mark Bralley

Special Board Meeting posted; agenda hidden

2012-01-03T06:56:00.004-07:00

A Special Board Meeting has been posted for Friday. The agenda is not posted, though the board knows exactly what they plan to do; extend APS Supt Winston Brooks contract (golden parachute) out to three years (worth three quarters of a million dollars).

There is no public forum at "special" board meetings.

Journal editors hit and miss on public notice

2012-01-01T09:38:00.008-07:00

The Journal editors offered, link;

kudos to state Rep. Jim Smith, R-Sandia Park, for recognizing that in these busy times and considering the technology available, New Mexicans deserve more than 24-hours’ notice that their public officials are taking action.

And kudos to Gov. Susana Martinez for her second.

A few months ago, link, when APS' Board of Education decided to continue to offer their constituents and stakeholders the bare minimum meetings notice required by the law. the editors voiced no objection at all.

It would appear the editors were;

(willfully) ignorant of the board's disrespect for interest holders, or
simply chose again, to not object to the actions of their cronies on the board.

Submitted this day, as further evidence of the Journal's ongoing lack of fair, balanced and honest coverage of the APS board and administration.

Walz et al, pile on with editorial rehash

2011-12-26T06:50:00.020-07:00

It has been more than a week since the Journal published reporter Hailey Heinz' take, link, on an APS employee, who also happens to be a State Senator, and who wrote a letter to her APS bosses complaining about the character and competence of APS Supt Winston Brooks' Chief of Staff Joseph Escobedo.

As I've written before, Escobedo, seen here pointing out other former students I might recognize in a photo of their class trip to Washington DC, has been nothing but courteous and professional in our interactions.

The validity, or not, of her complaints against Escobedo have not been established and are not in point. The Journal editors either have not seen the entire letter ( a public record), or simply chose to share only the parts that support their position.

Their position, consisting largely of cutting and pasting from Heinz' piece, appears to be; APS employees are guilty of inappropriate behavior and misconduct if they write a letter to the Supt and the board and complain about the character and competence of senior administrators. Witness; Assoc Supt Ruby Ethridge's fall from power and grace, link, after calling out APS Supt Winston Brooks on his bullying, in a letter to board members.

The editors concede; "Declining (an invitation to a confab)is fine...", but then argue "... Sanchez took it too far with her dismissive attitude and dictating to whom she would deign to speak."

The editors' illogic in it "being fine to decline an invitation" but wrong to "dictate to whom she would ...speak" is confounding.

It isn't misconduct of course, except in the minds of senior administrators and board members who don't want subordinates filing complaints against them. A recent audit by the Council of the Great City Schools found a "... culture of fear of retribution and retaliation" against employees who complain about the character and competence of their superiors.

When I was still a teacher, and filing complaints about the character and competence of my principal, Wayne Knight, I was told straight out by then Human Resources Director Ron Williams; I faced termination unless I stopped making (legitimate) complaints about Knight.

It would appear little has changed in the intervening decade.

Walz et al, again published the opinion of school board enforcer Marty Esquivel;

“If you can separate your responsibilities as an employee and as a legislator I’m all for it, but if you start throwing your weight around and acting inappropriately because you’re in the Legislature, then I think that’s wrong."

Esquivel's complaint that Senator and School Counselor Bernadette Sanchez was "throwing her weight around and acting inappropriately" is unsupported by any evidence that either he or his crony Walz have presented.

Esquivel and Brooks' position; that making waves is insubordinate, inappropriate and warranting punishment, is bullying; pure and simple.

Journal editors praise in print of APS' anti-bullying activities while enabling administrative and executive bullying on the front page and in their editorials, is hypocrisy;
pure and simple.

photos Mark Bralley

APS fight card quite impressive

2011-12-24T08:09:00.009-07:00

They don't want you
to know about it.

"They" being APS' Executive
Director of Communications
Monica Armenta and Journal
Managing Editor Kent Walz.

They don't want you to know
about the scale of the violence
on APS campuses.

I'm given to understand this represents "only a few";
a small sampling of what's going on.

link, Volcano Vista beating victim faces more threats

link, Rio Grande fight club; smalls WSLO3 vs Gayer

link, Big Jesse vs Jose Rio Grande fight

link, Rio Grande fight Minus vs Jose

link, Alfredo vs Gayer You Tube

link, Smallz (david) vs gayer

link, Lil bill vs Israel

Despite their several obligations to tell stakeholders the truth about what is going on at school; she as a public servant charged with communication; he as a member of the fourth estate, wikilink, they will tell you nothing.

Armenta will get in touch with YouTube and get them to take down the videos.

And Walz, seen here extolling APS' hero of transparency Winston Brooks, will continue publishing Brooks' monthly spin on the truth, and cover up of the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

You cannot solve a problem and hide it at the same time.

photo and frame grab Mark Bralley

Journal chasing public records

2011-12-24T06:47:00.011-07:00

The Journal reports, link, they have asked for security video of the now infamous dust-up between Reps Sheryl Williams-Stapleton and Nora Espinoza.

They have been informed by the Legislative Council Service that security videos are not public records and not subject to surrender. We are told that the LSC made an audio recording of the meeting, but that the recorder was turned off at the beginning of the (working?) lunch break.

According to the Journal, Legislative Council Service Director Raul Burciaga, responded to the Journal's Public Records Request by arguing;

“I believe that the security videos of the state Capitol are not public records.”

Burciaga offered the following instead;

a promise to provide a written explanation "by the end of the month", though the Inspection of Public Records Acts requires;
if the inspection is not permitted within three business days, the custodian shall explain in writing when the records will be available for inspection or when the public body will respond to the request.

His personal opinion that recordings “really don’t relate to public business.”

His assurance that (despite the fact that it was a "working" lunch break);
“There’s no policy being set. … "

His opinion that the recordings are public records because, "
There’s no context to them,” particularly because of the lack of audio ..."
Begging a question; if it was in fact, a "working" lunch break, was the audio recording actually turned off, and if so, why?

His opinion that because "... a policy manual specifies that the surveillance cameras are for safety, security and law enforcement purposes", they are not public records, and

finally, since
"it has been the Legislative Council Service’s long-standing practice not to release security videos."
they cannot be expected to start releasing them now. This is a particularly curious argument since, according to the Journal;
Neither Burciaga nor New Mexico Foundation for Open Government Executive Director Sarah) Welsh was familiar with any previous IPRA requests for Capitol surveillance tapes. (emphasis added)

Welsh offered;

“Everything that is produced in the course of government business is assumed to relate to public business.”

Most oddly, Burciaga inferred that one of the reasons he was not going to release the video was because he informed both Williams-Stapleton and Espinoza about the public record request for the video and

“Neither of them felt I should release the tape.”

Espinoza telling him;

“There’s no need to, when you already have so many witnesses that saw what took place.”

Like so many aspects of government in New Mexico, this would comic if not so tragic.

If nothing else, it points to the need to overhaul governmental transparency law, top to bottom.

photos Mark Bralley

Hysterical; except that it's true

2011-12-23T08:13:00.006-07:00

I was forwarded this link to a Daily Show bit on the
White House Press Corps.

enjoy

I insist

2011-12-23T07:36:00.004-07:00

The following letter to the editors was submitted this day.

Evaluation process reeks of conflict of interest

The Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education has three primary responsibilities; writing district policies, approving budgets, and hiring the Superintendent.

When the School Board evaluates the Superintendent, they evaluate their own performance in (re)hiring him.

That represents the appearance of a conflict of interest.

Creating the accompanying appearance of impropriety; there was no public input; no public forum. There was no government of the people, by the people, for the people. There was no opportunity to exercise the Constitutionally protected human right to petition one’s government for redress of grievance. There was no free speech; no opportunity to peacefully assemble.

The entire process took place in secret from stakeholders.

It is possible to evaluate administrations and administrators impartially; expertly. It is possible to evaluate them without creating appearances of impropriety and conflicts of interest. It requires only the character and the courage to conduct them.

These same board members have yet to give due process to a petition to end undue secrecy in the spending of power and resources that belong fundamentally to the people.

The power belongs to us, the resources belong to us; we have the right to a seat at the table where decisions are made that affect our interests.

The Citizens Advisory Council on Communication seeks to provide a venue where the leadership of the APS can stand and deliver candid, forthright, and honest responses to questions about the public interests and their public service. It seeks to provide a venue for open and honest two-way communications between the leadership of the APS and the community members they serve.

Their petition is being denied due process by a school board bent on hiding the ethically redacted truth about the spending of our power and resources. Their petition is being denied due process by leadership bent on covering up felony criminal misconduct in the leadership of their publicly funded private police force; bent on covering up their abdication as role models of the APS student standards of conduct; and bent on covering up their denial of due process for the hundreds of whistleblower complaints that have been filed them.

I insist that you investigate and report in earnest, upon credible allegations and evidence of an ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

If you would like to add your insistence to mine,
you may at; http://www.abqjournal.com/letters/new

Brooks wants "no raise"; will accept >16% bump in his retirement annuity and an extension of his 3/4s of a million dollar golden parachute

2011-12-23T06:20:00.012-07:00

The School Board met in secret yesterday to evaluate Supt Winston Brooks; seen here ordering the arrest of peaceful protesters at a Goals Setting meeting at Manzano High School, link.

The evaluation is tainted by the appearance of a conflict of interest; when the board evaluates his performance, they evaluate their own selection of him as superintendent. When the board finds Brooks has done a great job, they find also, they did a great job in hiring him. If the Board pans his performance, they pan their selection of him.

In effect, the board is evaluating itself; a blatant conflict of interest.

Does the board have to evaluate the superintendent, or could the evaluation be completed by an independent third party?

The simple truth is that the evaluation could be done independently, removing the cloud of a conflict of interest. Further, an independent evaluation could be done by people who actually know something about evaluating administrative performance. The school board is no more expert in evaluating administration than they are in selecting administrators. It comes with their job; they don't have to any manifest expertise or experience in administrative evaluation, to get elected.

The Board won't allow an independent evaluation of the Superintendent for the same reason they won't allow an independent evaluation of administrative and executive standards of conduct and competence; they have much to hide.

According to the Journal, link, the board has scheduled a meeting for January 6th, where they will extend his contract (golden parachute) until 2014.

The Journal reported that Brooks was praised for his "community outreach", no doubt based on the recent seven meeting tour of the District for the purpose of establishing goals. Never mind the fact that his community outreach included reaching out to arrest peaceful protestors of the leadership's denial of due process to their legitimate petition.

His evaluation included, or should have included, his success in hiding the Caswell Report, link. on corruption and incompetence in the leadership of their publicly funded private police force. An honest and courageous board would have held him accountable the betraying the public trust. Our board, decided to reward him instead.

The Journal reported as well, Brooks will not be asking for a raise, though he will accept a $5K per year increase in the district's contribution to his "retirement annuity", bringing it to around $35K per year. Apparently the $35K is not included in his "salary" of more than $250K per year.

The Board made no attempt, apparently, to include any manner of subordinate evaluation of the Supt, figuring they know more than the District's 11,500 employees, 6,500 of whom are teachers who between them have the better part of 100,000 years of teaching experience (that Brooks is ignoring).

The whole process is a sham, and the Journal dutifully reported upon it with scrutinizing the process in the least

photo Mark Bralley

Abandon Character Counts!

2011-12-22T09:16:00.006-07:00

The leadership of the APS is about to review and approve, link, changes in the APS Student Behavior Handbook, link.

On page 3 of that document, it is written;

CITIZENSHIP

Students are expected to be good citizens. They are expected to:
model and promote the pillars of CHARACTER COUNTS! (Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, and Citizenship)
respect authority, property, and the rights of others.
avoid confrontation and any activity that has the potential to cause a verbal or physical conflict.
maintain standards of integrity and responsibility.
maintain a safe school environment.
report any/all information/circumstances related to campus safety and problems (fights, weapons, or drugs on campus).

Let's look at them bullet by bullet.

model and promote the pillars of CHARACTER COUNTS! (Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, and Citizenship)

If you are aware of the tenets expressed in the Pillars, you know that fundamental to them is holding one's self honestly accountable to meaningful standards of conduct. Given that premise, there is only one way to "model" the Pillars; that is to hold yourself honestly accountable to them.

There is not one single person in the entire leadership of the APS willing to hold themselves honestly accountable to the Pillars of Character Counts!, even for the few hours a day they're expecting students to hold themselves accountable.

Two standards of conduct; a higher standard for students and lower one for adults is untenable; it is morally unacceptable.

That the leadership of the APS removed and will not restore the role modeling clause to their own standards of conduct, is proof of their intention.

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

The leadership of the APS have abdicated as role models of the student standards of conduct.

Students are expected to respect authority, property, and the rights of others.

Yet the leadership of the APS is using their publicly funded private police force to deny the free exercise of Constitutionally protected human rights, at school board meetings.

avoid confrontation and any activity that has the potential to cause a verbal or physical conflict.

Yet that seems to be normal for many members of the leadership of the APS. Witness APS Supt Winston Brooks many blow ups and Marty Esquivel's emails.

maintain standards of integrity and responsibility.

There is not one whit of difference between the highest standards of conduct and the lowest, in the absence of honest accountability to them. Maintaining standard means enforcing them.

maintain a safe school environment.
report any/all information/circumstances related to campus safety and problems (fights, weapons,or drugs on campus).

An audit by the Council of the Great City Schools found administrators "routinely" falsifying crime statistics at schools to protect their image.

If the Pillars of Character Counts! are too high a standard for administrators and board members, they cannot be the standard for students. Why would we, how could we, expect them to hold themselves honestly accountable to a higher standard of conduct than their adult role models will?

If we really want kids to grow up to embrace honor and character and courage; someone has to be willing to show them what it looks like.

Better to have low expectations than high expectations with no role models.

If the leadership of the APS is unwilling to hold themselves accountable to same high standards as students, we have no choice but to lower the expectation for students to a low enough point that the leadership of the APS will step up as role models.

To do otherwise is simply to model hypocrisy; at its worst.

Sheriff acknowledges allegation against APS police

2011-12-22T08:52:00.004-07:00

Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston's Legal Adviser and Public Information Officer Jennifer Vega-Brown has conceded that the Sheriff's office is aware of an allegation that APS police officers watched minors consuming alcohol for as many as two hours before doing anything to intervene.

Beyond that, she had little to offer; writing that she would have to check with a Deputy Chief in charge of APS police officers, who may be out of the office until after the holidays.

Walz enabling Esquivel

2011-12-22T08:36:00.007-07:00

Journal Editors at one time wrote, link, Marty Esquivel was out of line when sent an email to a lady in Topeka, calling her a "nut job", link. He has sent worse emails to me, much worse, but that's a whole different story.

Now those same folks,
Kent Walz et al,
have given Esquivel space in
a front page headline, link,
to threaten employees who
send "disrespectful" emails,
even if they're legislators.

Esquivel is a bully and a hypocrite.

He gets away with it because
Kent Walz and he are cronies.

Together, they managed to bamboozle the NM FOG into giving Winston Brooks a transparency award for hiding the Caswell Report and covering up public corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS Police Force.

Their hypocrisy would be a hoot
if it weren't so down right scary.

photo and frame grab Mark Bralley

Brooks, in secret, evaluation process begins

2011-12-22T06:49:00.005-07:00

The School Board will meet today. According to their agenda, link, they intend to adjourn into executive session; "... for the Purpose of Discussion of the Superintendent’s Evaluation (Action)".

The results of their previous, in secret, evaluations have seen them extend Brooks' golden parachute (if he leaves we pay him anyway) to as much as three quarters of a million dollars!

For the most, these in secret evaluations are allowed by the law; not required by the law. That they are exploiting weakness in the law will become evident in their "statement of closure".

They are supposed to swear that they didn't discuss or decide anything that wasn't disclosed with "reasonable specificity" before they closed the public meeting, and disclosed again with "reasonable specificity" when they reconvene in public.

There will be no reasonable specificity in their closure statement on this meeting. They will not be able to create a list of things they discussed and decided upon, that will justify the amount of time they spend in secret.

That they are willing to be less than honest in that regard,
is manifest in the unlawful decision (made during executive
session and not disclosed before and after the secret session),
to have their Praetorian Guard eject Mark Bralley and me
from an audit committee meeting, and further manifest in the
(unlawful) banning letter they created in that same secret session, that revoked my several First Amendment rights.

There are things in a legitimate evaluation of a Superintendent
that should be keep secret from public knowledge; matters of opinion in personnel files for one.

Every other truth that is not specifically and explicitly excepted from surrender, belongs to the people.

They don't get to hide our truth from us, just because it's inconvenient.

Expect Kent Walz and the Journal to take no stand on the issue.

"Albuquerque Public Schools: Support the Potential"

2011-12-21T16:57:00.007-07:00

hawks APS' Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta.

The radio and TV campaign is underwritten by the APS Foundation and Paula Maes' New Mexico Broadcasters Association.

Armenta's fans will be overjoyed to hear her voice in APS' latest effort to improve their public image. Her voice follows the testimony of a number of successful graduates of the APS, by suggesting a need to "support the potential".

Let's examine APS' potential.

In the first place, we can assume the potential she is talking about is potential for something good; increased success in educating nearly 90,000 of this community's sons and daughters.

In this context potential means that it is;

feasible, likely, obtainable, possible, probable, reachable, realizable, conceivable, imaginable, plausible, thinkable, undeveloped, and

within realm of possibility,

that the leadership of the APS will be able to substantially improve their performance.

They have had, literally, more than one hundred years to put in place, an administration that was capable of more than mediocre performance. They have failed.

Honestly, what is the likelihood that they will do substantially better next year than this, and better still the year after that? These are the same people after all, who just told us how excited they were to be doing no worse than anyone else.

They are crippled in any effort to improve by their steadfast unwillingness to be hold themselves honestly accountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence within their public service.

Even that thought, would not address the fundamental flaw with APS, the one that has held it back for more than a century; the mistaken belief that eight people know more about education than the teachers who are actually doing it.

The old saw about no one of us being smarter than all of us, is completely lost on oligarchs bent on acquiring power.

That isn't going to change, and APS is never going to be substantially better.

There is in fact, no potential to support.
The thing to support is a whole new leadership.

photo Mark Bralley

Brooks, Esquivel threaten APS employees. Journal publishes it for them.

2011-12-21T07:01:00.022-07:00

That's not the way the Saturday Journal front page top of the fold headline reads, link; it uses the word "caution" instead, applying it only to "employee/legislators". One doesn't have to read too far between the lines to perceive the threat and to conclude it doesn't really apply to only those employees who serve are legislators.

Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Winston Brooks said Friday he plans to take a harder stance against misbehavior by employees who are also state legislators.

He spoke in response to two "incidents" involving APS employees who are legislators; Rep Sheryl Williams-Stapleton and Senator Bernadette Sanchez.

We are familiar with the Williams-Stapleton incident, a racist comment that Brooks "plans" to have reviewed (some day) by his own Human Resources people. Unclear, why the review is still in the "planning" stage, apparently yet to begin.

The other has to do with an email written by Sen Sanchez, to the Supt and the School Board complaining about Brooks' Chief of Staff Joseph Escobedo. Sanchez apparently declined an invitation to attend a meeting with APS senior administrators and area legislators, citing problems with Escobedo as justification. According to the Journal; Sanchez wrote:

“Please do not have Joseph Escobedo contact me as the last time I spoke to him he was rude and I have no tolerance for that behavior. It has been difficult enough to communicate with him due to his lack of experience and knowledge in regards to education and the system.”

I feel obliged to add that Escobedo,
a former student of mine, has never
been anything less than courteous,
respectful and professional in all our
interactions.

The Journal chose to not ask for or, to not publish the whole letter, though it would seem to qualify as a public record under the NM Inspection of Public Records Act.

Board enforcer Marty Esquivel assailed the Senator claiming the email was unprofessional and that she was "throwing her weight around" and acting "inappropriately".

While board members might not want to receive emails complaining about administrative conduct and competence, interest holders have every right to send them; doing so doesn't reasonably constitute "inappropriate" behavior.

Esquivel, who has a history of disrespect in his own emails, calling people nut cases and worse, said differences should be worked out through "respectful" dialogue. By which he means in private, beyond the attention of interest holders who might want to pick a side.

Esquivel has expressed no interest in respectful dialogue with those who signed the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication Petition; happy to join the rest of the board in denying them and their petition even rudimentary due process.

Esquivel would rather "differences" be discussed in secret from stakeholders, not out in the open. He regards open and honest public discussions of "differences" as "disrespectful" and has gone so far as to use his Praetorian Guard to arrest those who insist upon public, rather than private, dissent.

According to the Journal;

Brooks also said he thought Sanchez’s email was inappropriate, although he does not think it warrants disciplinary action.

Brooks argued that he is walking a fine line between abiding by school board policy that prohibits retaliation against legislators for their speech, actions and votes, and disciplining her for "bad behavior".

A question is begged; did Sen Sanchez "behave badly" by emailing the board with her concerns about Escobedo? What exactly, did she do wrong except complain (rather publicly) about the conduct and competence of a senior administrator?

A recent independent audit of the leadership of the APS found "... a culture of fear of retribution and retaliation ..." against those who try to expose administrative or executive misconduct and incompetence.

Esquivel has suction with the Journal and its Managing Editor Kent Walz. In fact, he and Walz together, managed to bamboozle the NM FOG Directors into giving Winston Brooks a Dixon Award for, in effect, hiding the Caswell Report on APS administrative incompetence and corruption, keeping it secret from public knowledge even in violation of the NMIPRA.

Walz, unfortunately, is clearly comfortable with helping to suppress the Caswell Report.

He is, in fact, the heavy in the scandal. If he weren't all about covering up the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, it would be made public and the people could throw board members like Esquivel out of office and replace them with board members who would hire a Superintendent who would end the culture of fear of retaliation against those who try to improve the system by exposing incompetence and wrongdoing.

photos Mark Bralley

"Honestly, I am sorry"

2011-12-20T10:40:00.012-07:00

And with that, Rep Sheryl Williams-Stapleton paid her penance for calling the Governor a "Mexican".

She won't even accept personal responsibility for the slur.
She apologized "... for the hurtful words that were said ...";
not for the words she said. The words apparently,
said themselves.

Any sane person is sorry for their misconduct.
They're especially sorry when they get caught.
If they've done something really, really bad,
then they're really, really sorry.

With that as the bar, Williams-Stapleton has done no more
than anyone in the same situation would do. That makes her,
not a leader.

Williams-Stapleton's Democratic colleagues won't ask her to resign, though they would be howling for her resignation if she were a Republican and everyone knows it. She should resign her leadership position anyway.

A leader does not simply accept consequences for their mistakes, they provide them. They show subordinates what it looks like to step up to real consequences for real failure to meet agreed upon standards of conduct. They show subordinates that they are willing to hold themselves honestly accountable to the same standards of conduct they establish and enforce upon others.

They stand aside when they can no longer lead.

Lujan lets Williams-Stapleton slide on slur

2011-12-20T10:01:00.006-07:00

Rob Nicolewski reports, link,

Speaker of the House Ben Lujan has admitted he will not seek to remove Rep Sheryl Williams-Stapleton from her leadership post in the House for calling Governor Susana Martinez a "Mexican".

I have to wonder, if Williams-Stapleton was a Republican, or if she had called Lujan a "Mexican",
would he be so accommodating?

On hypotheticals, as good a source as any for an answer is
my Magic 8-Ball, wikilink.

... shake, shake, shake;

It says; very doubtful

photo Mark Bralley

APS leadership takes a break

2011-12-20T08:41:00.008-07:00

APS administrative offices will be closed from December 23 through January 2nd, link.

The school board has cancelled the three meetings they scheduled for this week, link. They always do; schedule meetings during the week of Christmas Break and then cancel them.

Forget for a moment whether they should be taking the week off, why schedule meetings if you know you're going to cancel them anyway? And if there's really nothing else for them to do, why are they still claiming to be too busy to give the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication Petition it's due process?

Granted, with students gone for two weeks there's little point in having teachers and site administrators at school, but what about senior administrators with their digs in Sleepy Hollow?

Should senior administrators, people making between $100-250K a year to raise APS success rates above 50%, be taking a long holiday too?

APS Supt Winston Brooks for example, has a lot on his plate
whether students are in school or not. He has to find time to
figure out what to do about the conduct unbecoming a senior
administrator; Rep Sheryl Williams-Stapleton.

Brooks told the press he needed time to "review" the situation
before deciding what to do.

There are really only two facts to consider;

did Williams-Stapleton call the Governor a "Mexican" and
was she getting paid by APS at the time?

In truth, those are the only two germane facts and it doesn't
take three weeks to review them. What he really needs to do
is to let the furor die down before he "decides" to mete out the
standard consequence for senior administrators gone wild;
no real punishment at all.

In three weeks, interest holders will have lost interest, he can
do whatever he wants, and nobody will take notice.

photo Mark Bralley

Brooks is hypocrite; they all are.

2011-12-20T07:08:00.011-07:00

APS Supt Winston Brooks has reminded employees, link,
they serve as role models to students.

He, however, does not.

Nor does any other senior administrator.

Nor does any board member.

Students are "expected to model and promote the Pillars of Character Counts!" link, senior administrators and board members are not; not since they removed the role modeling clause from their own standards of conduct.

Ask any senior administrator if they will hold themselves honestly accountable to the same standards of conduct they established and enforce upon students; a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct.

They won't answer;
they won't even look
you in the eyes.

None of them will.

Character is taught by example;
it is taught only by example.

All leadership is by example only.

That's what lead means.

photos Mark Bralley

Journal ignores teachers

2011-12-20T06:40:00.009-07:00

I read with interest, everything the Journal publishes on student discipline in the APS, from supposedly fair and balanced investigation and reporting, to editorial opinions based on who knows what.

I have yet to read anything that indicates that a reporter or editor has actually talked to a teacher about the problem. Editors are so clueless they're writing things like; link,

Police and APS officials agree that repeated disruptions by unruly students are often better handled by calling parents or in-school suspension.

You would be hard pressed I think, to find many, if any, teachers whose experience includes calling the parents of chronically disruptive students and seeing their disruption end. These kids are as out of control at home as they are at school.

Who is more qualified to opine on the issue of students disrupting classrooms and campuses, than teachers. Yet, as far as I can tell, not one has been asked for their input on the issue.

Teachers in the APS have between them as many as 100,000 years of teaching experience, and no one (in a position of influence or authority) seems the least bit inclined to listen to them or take their advice.

The leadership of the APS isn't going to survey teachers because their input would condemn the administration for their failure to enforce district and school discipline policies. The Journal, editorially or otherwise, isn't going to survey teachers either.

The leadership of the APS is only covering their own asses.
How else would you explain seven meetings on District Goals
and never talking about the issues student discipline and
chronically disruptive students even once?

These are after all, the same folks who removed the role modeling clause and obligation, from their own standards of conduct;

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

The media's interest in avoiding teachers' input is less easy
to qualify. It could be as simple as APS Supt Winston Brooks
or Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta
simply calling their cronies in the establishment's media and
asking them not to.

How else would you explain their failure to investigate and
report upon the district wide issue?

Williams-Stapleton should resign

2011-12-17T06:48:00.003-07:00

Rep Sheryl Williams-Stapleton called Governor Susana Martinez a "Mexican".

The Republican Party thinks she should resign from her leadership position in the House; the Democrats don't. If she were Republican, the Dems would be calling for her resignation and the Republicans would be soft peddling her slur.

Williams-Stapleton would have us believe the outburst was an anomoly; it hasn't happened before and wont't happen again. Even so, she should resign, but not just for the racist slur. She should resign for what she did afterward;

blaming it on "the Republicans"

pretending she wasn't referring to Governor Susana Martinez; and

a soft apology to anyone who "might have been" offended.

calling a newsconference and not inviting KRQE because of their story on her violation of District policies and being paid for her legislative service (a violation of their civil rights).

Leadership is not so much about never making a mistake, as it is about how you handle the mistake afterward. We tell children about George Washington and the Cherry tree as an example of holding one's self honest accountable for their conduct, as an example to subordinates.

Williams-Stapleton's apology; I would like to apologize for any damage that might have been done to the tree by the axe, falls short.

Too short for real leadership.

Brooks and Williams-Stapleton bullying role models

2011-12-15T10:06:00.002-07:00

and not in a good way.

APS Supt Winston Brooks has a widespread reputation as a bully.

Now we have another APS senior administrator vying for the title;
Rep Sheryl Williams-Stapleton.

Yelling "Don't mess with me!" and a blatantly racist reference to the Governor is not the behavior that should be role modeled in front of students and the community.

Like Brooks, she will get away with it; how can they hold her accountable for bullying and ignore Brooks even more egregious conduct, link.

They both get away with it because the School Board had the foresight to remove the role modeling clause from School Board Policy; the one which once read;

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

Student standards of course, prohibit both bullying and racist remarks.

photo Mark Bralley

An Open Letter to the Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education:

2011-12-15T09:52:00.007-07:00

I was asked by a reader, to publish this letter. The writer asked that their identity not be revealed for fear of retribution and retaliation.

As a product of Albuquerque Public Schools, a taxpayer, and most importantly, a parent of an APS child, I feel it is imperative that I express my utter disgust Sheryl Williams Stapleton’s conduct yesterday during yesterday’s Legislative Education Study Committee. If you are not aware of her racist outburst, you can find it documented on many websites, including the national political website Human Events.

To briefly recap, at one point during the session, Ms. Stapleton yelled at another State Representative, shouting "Don't mess with me," and then accusing her of “carrying water for ‘The Mexican.’” Even more tragic is her defense – it seems she has grandparents from Cuba and Puerto Rico, implying that she is entitled to talk to people that way. Consider the ramifications of this poor defense. I have spent most of my life living in the deep South and the Hispanic Southwest. Using Ms. Williams-Stapleton’s conduct, I can pretty much use any racial epithet I choose. Hardly – this upbringing taught me a lot about diversity, a lesson that Ms. Williams-Stapleton clearly did not receive. For that, I wish to thank APS.

However, the point of my correspondence is not to criticize Ms. Williams-Stapleton’s actions. I doubt the Board of Education would be concerned with addressing highly politicized issues like this. Rather, I have three concerns that I feel must be addressed by both the Board of Education, and Ms. Williams-Stapleton’s Supervisor, Winston Brooks.

1 – With this sort of conduct being demonstrated publicly by highly-placed administrative employees, how can I be confident that my child is receiving a culturally diverse education at Albuquerque Public Schools? And, "don't mess with me?" How can I be confident that my child is learning mature conflict resolution skills?

2 – On Tuesday night, I watched Winston Brooks explain how APS is dealing with continued budget cuts from the Legislature. How does the Board of Education think this will help endear themselves to the Legislature, and what is the plan of action to ensure that this bombastic racism does not affect my child’s quality of education?

3 - As has been well documented by many television reports, Ms. Williams-Stapleton is a paid APS employee during her work as a State Representative. Is the Board of Education going to tolerate this sort of behavior from an employee representing the Board of Education?

As a parent and taxpayer, I will not be satisfied until Ms. Williams-Stapleton is terminated immediately. I can only assume that, if Ms. Williams-Stapleton continues to be employed by APS, the Board of Education is endorsing this behavior. As a parent, if it does not happen, I will have no choice but to remove my child from an institution that endorses racial hate speech. As a voter and a taxpayer, I will yield no benefit from APS, and will vote down any and all bond issues, and urge my representative to continue to cut funding.

APS is at a unique crossroads in the news right now. On one hand, you see great news stories about the anti-bullying club at Sandia High School. On the other hand, you hear about budget crises, and quality of education being impacted. This event is a tragic collision at that intersection as we watch APS wasting $167,000 paying an employee to bully people while yelling racial hate-speech.

"Justly" arrested?

2011-12-14T07:33:00.016-07:00

An anonymous backsider wrote that I had been "justly arrested", link.

At the very most fundamental level;
I was arrested for peacefully petitioning my government.
I was arrested for exercising my Constitutionally protected
human rights.

At the level of the thinking of the leadership of the APS,
I was arrested for violating a "banning letter".

The banning letter was penned by School Board enforcer Marty Esquivel.
He wrote the letter in violation of the law or, in violation of School Board Policy.

School Board Policy prohibits the writing of "banning letters" on behalf of the board without the expressed authority of the board. The Open Meetings Act prohibits the board from expressing that authority in a secret meeting.

On top of that, I was arrested by a Praetorian Guard; a publicly funded private police force whose leadership is covering up their own felony criminal misconduct, link.

Where is the justice in that?

In a just world, I would go to the media, tell them what's going on, and they would investigate and report upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

Just deserts would be served, in a just world.

But the world isn't just.

The establishment media;
Kent Walz' Journal, KRQE,
KOAT, KOB, and KKOB,
know about, or remain willfully
ignorant of credible allegations
and evidence of a coverup of
felony criminal misconduct by
APS senior administrators, and they won't investigate and report upon them.

Where is the justice in that?

Where is the character and courage?

photo and frame grab Mark Bralley

APS cops watch kids drink for two hours

2011-12-14T07:00:00.001-07:00

I have been informed that a number of APS Police Officers, stationed at Valley High School on the evening of October 27th, sat in their car(s) and watched students drinking for up to two hours. One wonders, why?

I'm told that the incident was reported to Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston's office, as he commissions the officers and should deal with what appears to be nonfeasance; perhaps malfeasance.

I emailed BCSD Legal Adviser and PIO Jennifer Vega-Brown and asked her if Houston was going to do anything about officers sitting and watching kids getting drunk on APS property.

Vega-Brown acknowledged receipt of my email Friday last, and has not yet responded.

What conclusions can be drawn from their refusal to respond to the legitimate question candidly, forthrightly and honestly?

the report is false, the Sheriff is going to do nothing.
the report is true, the Sheriff is going to do nothing.
the investigation is ongoing and cannot be commented upon.

If either conjecture 1 or 3 is correct, Vega-Brown could respond by simply pointing to the circumstances. She did not.

Which leaves conjecture 2 and begs a question; why not?

Unfortunately, asking them that question is no more likely to generate a response than did the original question.

Round and round we goes,
where we stops, no one knows.

Peercy's mettle tested; he comes up short, again.

2011-12-13T10:34:00.006-07:00

David Peercy chairs the APS Policy Committee. The agenda is up to him. If he wants something on the agenda, he can put it on.

Peercy's mettle has been tested before, link. He had the opportunity and responsibility to conduct an open and honest discussion of administrative and executive role modeling of the APS Student Standards of Conduct, and he chickened out. That or he is simply lacks the character to hold himself honestly accountable as a role model.

If he is afraid or unwilling carry on an open and honest discussion of even the most legitimate issue, all he has to do is ignore it until it finally goes away (the role modeling clause conveniently disappeared from his list of tabled issues).

He has been tested again. Again, he has come up short.

At any meeting between the time the petition was submitted, August 10th, and now, he could have, should have, put the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication's petition on the table for open and honest discussion, and he chickened out. That or he simply lacks the character to allow open and honest communication about the public interests and his public service.

Peercy lacks the character and the courage to talk openly and honestly with the community members he serves.

How many times must he prove it?

photo Mark Bralley

More propaganda from Brooks

2011-12-13T07:38:00.006-07:00

The Journal gives APS Supt Winston Brooks a column a month to spin whatever he wants, however he wants, without fear of contradiction even in a letter to the editor. In the Journal this morning, link, Brooks latest column;
Community Voices are Being Heard.

Spin one;

"I’m always delighted when I’m approached by parents, grandparents, concerned citizens and others who want to play an active role in making our school community better."

The controverting truth; Tell that to the peaceful protestors at the District Goals Setting Meeting at Manzano High School, link. Tell that to those whose petition is being ignored. Brooks could act administratively to support the Citizens Advisory Council on Communications, but has not.

Spin 2,

"... we've begun" a partnership to advocate for strategies and policies that trigger positive change.

The truth; there is nothing more fundamental to a partnership than open and honest two-way communication. Yet Brooks cannot point to a venue where actual two-way communication takes place. He cannot and will not, point to a time, a day and a place where he will stand still and answer questions about

his abdication as a role model of the student standards of conduct,
the hiding of the Caswell report on felony public corruption in his publicly funded private police force,
the obstruction of an independent audit of administrative standards and accountability, or
a whistle blower program that denies due process to legitimate complaints.

Spin 3;

APS administration has offered the public information necessary to be informed on some of the critical issues ahead ...

The truth; one of the most critical issues in education is student discipline and chronically disruptive students. Where is any information at all, on student discipline? A recent audit found APS routinely falsifying crime statistics to protect their reputation.

Spin 4;

"The advocacy agenda will be set by the group, not me or the district."

The truth; the leadership of the APS has no intention of allowing the agenda to be controlled by anyone but themselves. It is the inability of the leadership of the APS to control the agenda of the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication which has them stonewalling the petition.

Perhaps the most disingenuous spin of all;

I hope all of us welcome ... questions.

Talk is cheap.

photo Mark Bralley

"No individual to blame"; really?

2011-12-13T06:47:00.008-07:00

The Journal editorial, link, begins;

"It should have been a no-brainer, but it wasn’t — for a very long time."

APS has what they call a "capital improvement budget"; a running account of the money the district has for capital improvements and a plan for spending it. Over a period of several years, the list of promised capital improvements grew $128M larger than the money available to pay for them. The Journal editors aver the imbalance was the result of lackadaisy; a lack of interest, vigor, and determination, listlessness, lethargy, laziness and indolence.

A "consultant" was paid six teacher salaries to find that cost overruns, funding of projects not on the master plan, and even a failed bond issue were not taken into account by APS leadership. Their excuses include; turnover in the office of the Chief Financial Officer, inability to use software upon which they spent millions of dollars, overspending, and poor accounting.

The buck stops squarely on the desks of the people we pay the most; a quarter of a million dollars a year, to make sure this stuff doesn't happen; Beth Everitt and now APS Supt Winston Brooks, and the person they put in charge of making sure this didn't happen; APS COO Brad Winter.

Yet Brooks, and the Journal would have us believe; no "individual is to blame'. In fact, the editors would like kudos to be given to Brooks and APS CFO Don Moya "stepping up and fixing" the problem rather than continuing to ignore it.

The editors write;

The administration wisely put new fail-safe provisions in place so this doesn’t happen again, including moving the master plan from operations to the finance department.

Well duh!

Why is it that we cannot expect that this would have been done already, and hold people accountable for not having done it?

APS Chief Operations Officer and City Councilor Brad Winter has had his hand on the tiller throughout this entire fiasco. We pay him $136,680 a year for the expertise and experience that should prevent calamities such as these.

He could have, and should have, put fail-safe provisions in place long ago and did not, yet "no individual is to blame".

At least according to those who really are to blame, and their Journal cronies.

photo Mark Bralley

Brad Winter subject of nonfeasance complaint.

2011-12-12T11:21:00.006-07:00

APS Chief Operation Officer Brad Winter has been named in a complaint filed through Ethical Advocate; APS' whistleblower complaint and protection program.

I filed the complaint in no small part to demonstrate again that it will do no good to file a complaint; legitimate complaints against administrators and board members do not receive due process.

This though, the promise of due process for complaints is fundamental to the very integrity of any program whose purpose is to provide honest accountability to any kind of standards.

I filed it as well, as a matter of
principle; I believe APS' Chief
Operating Officer Brad Winter
is guilty of nonfeasance at the
very least; malfeasance at worst.

He promised to surrender the
public record of spending in the
John Milne Boardroom, if a
formal request for public records
was filed. It was, and he reneged.

The complaint reads in significant part;

Please describe in detail the situation or event
APS' Chief Operating Officer Brad Winter made a commitment to surrender a candid, forthright and honest accounting of spending on the John Milne Boardroom. He made the commitment in front of witnesses at the Goals Setting Meeting at Manzano High School on November 17th, 2011.

He promised to surrender the record in response to a request for public records.

I filed a bonafide and accepted request for the public records, and Winter (the APS) has failed to surrender the record in violation of the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act.

While he may argue that the surrender of public records is between me and their custodian of public records, it was his commitment to surrender the record. If he was in no position to ensure the surrender, he should not have made the commitment.
Please provide details, including who, when, and where:
If there is anyone at all, in the entire senior leadership of the APS or on the school board, who is unaware of the effort to hide the public record of spending on the John Milne Boardroom, they are willfully ignorant.
How do you think this situation should be resolved?
Brad Winter should honor his commitment to (see that) a candid, forthright and honest accounting of spending on the John Milne Boardroom be surrendered to public knowledge.
Do you have any additional comments?
Winters, and the leadership of the APS, have been hiding this information, since my first formal request in January, 2008.

His, and their, nonfeasance is willful and deliberate.

Winter's refusal to surrender public records enjoys the tacit approval of the entire leadership of the APS, all of whom have a self interest in keeping the information secret from public knowledge.

They have an ongoing record of hiding public records. Witness; their unlawful hiding of the public records of felony criminal misconduct in the leadership of the APS and their publicly funded private police force, circa 2006-7, and since.; the Caswell Report.

photo Mark Bralley

More school board shenanigans?

2011-12-12T07:26:00.005-07:00

During "Board Member Comments" after the public forum at the last regular school board meeting, David Robbins suggested that the Petition for standing for the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication, would finally see due process at the next Policy Committee Meeting.

That is my recollection. The video for the meeting was supposed to have been posted on APS' website on Friday; it's still not up, so I cannot confirm his commitment or link you to it.

The Policy Committee meeting (rescheduled from the 13th to the 14th) agenda has been published and does not include discussion or action on the petition.

There is another committee meeting scheduled; the District and Community Relations Committee meeting. This committee would also be a reasonable venue to bring up the stonewalling on the petition, except that, for the first time in a long, long time, there is no public forum on the agenda, link.

Update; District Relations Committee Chair Lorenzo Garcia has offered an explanation for the removal of the public forum and the substitution of a "round robin discussion";
The meeting is with the leadership of the Legislature from Albuquerque. It is a special District and Community Relations meeting, hence no public forum. The intent is to have a dialogue with Legislators and the APS Board and key administration officials about upcoming legislation and issues.

The denial of due process for petitioners and their petition continues unabated. Why?

If petitioners are successful, a venue will be created that will end unwarranted secrecy in the APS; corruption and incompetence will be exposed. The corrupt and incompetent in the leadership of the APS have much to fear.

Neither the board nor the administrations wants to discuss the petition in public.

If they're not afraid of exposure, then, of what exactly, are they afraid?

"Candor is undisciplined"

2011-12-11T10:19:00.007-07:00

This morning on Face the Nation, Rep Steve King, Iowa,
suggested that Presidential Candidate Newt Gingrich has shown
a "lack of discipline" in bringing up "the Palestinian question", link, and questions about immigration, link, when he didn't have to.

Let's see;

a candidate with candor; willing to lay issues on the table for open and honest discussion, willing to take whatever lumps that brings,
or
a candidate with discipline; willing to confine their remarks only to approved sound bites, never leaving the party line.

... hmm

Trevor gets it

2011-12-11T06:50:00.005-07:00

The Journal editors may be willing to cut the leadership of the APS more slack than they deserve, but their political cartoonist Trevor, is not so accommodating.

In case you missed it, APS Supt Winston Brooks, seen sitting in Santa's lap, was very excited to point out that, though we're failing nearly two students out of three, we're not doing any worse than other "similar" districts, link.

APS cop cleared

2011-12-09T12:00:00.015-07:00

Bernalillo County Sheriff
Dan Houston has completed
his investigation of an APS
police officer who's commission
he had withdrawn after the
handcuffing of an out of control
student, link, found no criminal
wrongdoing, and restored the
officer's commission.

He was reportedly upset apparently,
because the leadership of the APS
had not been candid, forthright or honest with him regarding the incident.

APS' Executive Director of
Communications and Crisis
Manager Monica Armenta
has already assured us that
no APS polices were violated.

The officer has been cooling
her heels on administrative
leave for nearly a month for
no other reason than that
APS Supt Winston Brooks
thought she had acted "inappropriately", though apparently within the law and APS policies.

That, and it made good press.

photos Mark Bralley

Proving corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS

2011-12-09T08:15:00.004-07:00

I have never said or suggested that every single administrator and board member in the APS is corrupt or incompetent; though I have gone so far as too say, there is not one single administrator or board member who does not have guilty knowledge of administrative and/or executive corruption and incompetence.

They do not act on their knowledge because of the documented culture of fear of retribution and retaliation if they do.

It would be nearly impossible for me to prove that there is corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS. I would be fighting against an unlimited budget for the litigation to prevent the exposure. I would be fighting against an establishment media inbred in the leadership of the APS.

Much easier to prove; by both the leadership of the APS and their media; the converse. The converse being; it is impossible for corruption and incompetence to exist in the leadership of the APS.

More specifically; there are standards and accountability to those standards that make corruption and incompetence impossibly difficult to hide.

APS' million dollar communications effort could compile a candid, forthright and honest communication about administrative and executive standards of conduct and competence. They could point to standards of conduct and competence that are clear, unequivocal, and high enough to control and prevent corruption and incompetence. If they exist.

They could show us systems and procedures for holding them accountable to those standards that do not reek of appearances of conflicts of interest and impropriety.

The establishment media could just as easily prove that they're not part of a cover up; by asking the leadership of the APS to explain and defend their standards of conduct and their actual accountability to them, and then reporting the truth to stakeholders.

That neither of them will do either, means something;
a lack of courage, a lack of character, or, both.

APS ranks 6th

2011-12-09T06:34:00.008-07:00

According to APS' award winning website, link, if you count up the teachers who have earned their National Board Certification, link, this year, APS ranks 6th in the country. 340 APS teachers have earned the certificate, just over half of all of the certificate holders in the state.

APS Supt Winston Brooks said;

"We’ve always said we have great teachers in APS.
This is just more proof.”

All of which begs a question;

If APS has so many great teachers, why aren't they doing a better job of educating our children? Why are two-thirds of students failing to meet proficiency standards?

Why does all this education and expertise seem to make so little difference on the ground?

Two possibilities occur to me; the first is that the certification is meaningless in terms of measuring or predicting teachers' real effectiveness. The other possibility is that, these people really are highly qualified and are being held back by a system that fails to recognize what they bring to the table.

The truth is that none of the 340 National Board Certified APS teachers have any more input at the table where decisions are made, than any of the other APS teachers who between them have more than 100,000 years of teaching experience.

Students have more influence on the Supt than teachers, link.

It's kind of like hiring world class chefs and then making them follow recipes from a Betty Crocker Cookbook.

What would you expect except run of the mill output?

Only following orders?

2011-12-08T09:04:00.009-07:00

The Nuremberg Defense, link, is used by people who don't want to be held accountable for their actions which were ordered by a superior.

APS' secretly promoted Chief
of Police Steve Tellez probably
has probably sworn some kind
of oath to defend the
Constitution, and he probably
doesn't want to keep arresting
me for trying to exercise my
Constitutionally protected
human rights to speak freely
and to petition my
government, but he does.

$90K a year probably helps assuage his discomfort.

He is enforcing an unlawful restraining order (they call it a "banning letter") created by school board enforcer Marty Esquivel.

Tellez enforced it last night, my sixteenth unlawful arrest by Tellez or his subordinates, who are only "following orders".

They were taken aback last night when I moved my peaceful protest indoors. The unlawful restraining order, link, revokes my "privilege" attend board meetings. It does not prevent me from entering the building where a board meeting is taking place.

After a confab with Chief Operations Officer Brad Winter, and Supt Winston Brooks, Tellez was "ordered" to arrest me and force me out of the building.

The practical difference between standing inside and outside, and holding the same poster a half inch further away, escapes me, other than the kick they seem to be getting out of doing it.

photos Mark Bralley

Board acknowledges CACoC Petition

2011-12-08T08:26:00.009-07:00

At the public forum last night, the board was again challenged to provide due process for the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication's Petition, link.

Board President Paula Maes reiterated what she said was a commitment, link, to deal with the petition after the conclusion of the recent series of District Goal Setting meetings. Never mind that the meetings provided nothing material to the discussion of whether to recognize the standing of the only group, citizen or administrative, with a workable plan to create open and honest two-way communication between the leadership of the APS and the community members they serve.

Board Member David Robbins also stepped up to the plate; "promising?" that the Petition would be on the agenda of the next Policy Committee Meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, December 14.

Robbins claimed the board has been "too busy" to deal with the Petition, though since the Petition was submitted, fourteen board meetings have been "cancelled" (presumably for lack of anything to do).

The Policy Committee is chaired by Board Member David Peercy.

That Peercy can summon the character and courage to put the Petition on the agenda remains to be proven. Peercy owns the fact that "administrative and executive role modeling of the APS Student Standards of Conduct, was first tabled and then vanished from his Policy Committee's agenda, link.

In the absence of any good and ethical reason to prolong the delay, if the Petition is not placed on the agenda of the Policy Committee Meeting, it can only be because the board's interests are served by continuing to deny the petition, its due process.

photos Mark Bralley

APS "average" Halleluiah

2011-12-08T08:06:00.006-07:00

APS Supt Winston Brooks and
the Journal, link, are pleased
as punch to report that APS
isn't the worst school district
in the country.

Brooks is "ecstatic" that APS,
while failing 2 kids out of 3,
isn't doing any worse job than
"similar" districts.

The testing that pleased Brooks and the Journal so much, revealed;

APS performed better than average in fourth-grade math, with 34 percent of students scoring “proficient” or better on the NAEP test. For all large cities combined, the percentage was 30 percent. That difference is statistically significant, ..."

While the difference between a failure rate of 66% is "statistically' significantly better than school districts which fail 70%, I fail to see anything to get excited about - we're still failing two kids out of three.

Brooks admits being "ecstatic" that for "the first time APS has been able to compare itself to districts with similar demographics and challenges. “I think it’s very instructive to know.”

Ok, so it's instructive to know we're not failing worse than most.

We're still failing.

photo Mark Bralley

Winter stonewalling, and breaking the law.

2011-12-07T07:16:00.007-07:00

APS Chief Operating Officer Brad Winter doesn't want to tell the truth about the spending on APS new board room.

I've been trying to get the truth out of him for years.

At the District Goals Meeting at Manzano High School on Thursday November 17th, I called him out again and he promised to surrender the truth, but only if I filed a formal request for public records.

I did, the following morning.

According to the law; the NM Inspection of Public Records Act, the records must be surrendered within 15 calendar days of the request. That would be have been Friday last; maybe Saturday depending on whether the day of request counts or not.

APS is in violation of the law.

I could sue for the records of course; take on APS lawyers with their unlimited budget for litigating exception to the law for APS senior administrators and board members. But why should I have to?

It's our board room, it's our money. The truth about the spending of public resources belongs to the people.

I shouldn't have to sue to see it.

Nobody should.

photo Mark Bralley

Another budgeting snafu in the APS

2011-12-07T06:52:00.002-07:00

The Journal comes with a report, linkless; the district comes with its own report, link, and taxpayers find there's a $128M gap between the capital improvements the district has promised, and the money they actually have to complete them.

According to APS,

There is no evidence of incompetency or inappropriate behavior, so there’s no individual to blame.

Rather,

"a perfect storm of the events ... caused the need for readjustment."

According to the Journal,

"the Albuquerque school district has a $128 million gap in its capital program due to overspending, accounting errors and the economy, ..."

The Journal offers;

Many problems found in the report stemmed from failure to adjust the master plan when circumstances changed. For example, the plan was not updated in 2002 when a bond question was defeated by voters. It was also not adjusted when projects ran over budget or when capital money was spent on projects outside the master plan.

Those who aren't responsible, APS Chief Operating Officer Brad Winter, and Chief Financial Officer Don Moya, just finished seven public meetings where they presented the successes enjoyed by their capital planners and the Finance Department and no mention was made of the report, 18 months in the making.

New District Goals to be presented

2011-12-06T21:21:00.011-07:00

The agenda for the December 7 School Board Meeting has been posted at last, link.

On the agenda; a presentation
by Supt Winston Brooks.

They're calling it;

Preliminary Input and Consideration of Approval for Plan from Community Meetings Regarding District Goals (Discussion/Action) Presenter: Winston Brooks, Superintendent

This is where the leadership of the APS presents the conclusions they drew from seven meetings on seven nights in seven different corners of the district.

This is where we see what a couple of million dollars a year worth of APS senior leadership is worth. This is where their mettle is tested.

I can't wait to hear Winston Brooks tell us how important communications are; or in the alternative, not use the word at all. He's between a rock and a hard place; on the one side, the need to utter all the usual and meaningless platitudes about the importance of establishing communication with stakeholders, and his other side, his manifest denial of due process for the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication Petition. Ouch.

Noteworthy; the only public notice about the planned presentation, the agenda, was published at the last moment. Noteworthy; they are not proudly promoting their presentation; encouraging attendance rather than discouraging it.

I will be kept out of the meeting and away from the public forum by officers in APS' publicly funded private police force. They will be obeying their own corrupt leadership and enforcing Marty Esquivel's unlawful restraining order.

If you cannot attend in person, you can watch the meeting live, link, in real time. Real time for meeting goers means 5pm, earlier if you want to sign up for the public forum.

If you can't watch it live, you'll have to wait a few days for them to push the button that makes the web-stream available as an archive.

photos Mark Bralley