DA Brandenburg Now Tied to APD Corruption

There are letters to the editor, which are carefully edited
for effect;

and then there are letters to the blogs, which are not.

(This depends of course on the blog owner. But I think it is fair to say
that if readers are able to discern between the wheat and the chaff,
they are considerably more likely to find, in blog comments,
the whole truth about public corruption and incompetence,
than they are to find it, in the Journal or the Trib.)


And among those comments, more allegations that
Kari Brandenburg is corrupt. link

Is she corrupt, or is she not?
Personally, I think she is.


But so what? So what if she is corrupt and/or incompetent?

What will be done about it?

Do you really think that she is honestly accountable to
the political system that she and the other good ole boys
own lock, stock, and barrel? wiki link


This situation is exactly analogous to playground bullying:

• the bully has his way with the victim,
• the victim protests,
• and the bully says,

"So what are you going to do about it?"

Kari Brandenburg is a public servant.
She has been accused of corruption.
Over and over again.

How is it that she is obligated to discuss cookie recipes
on the taxpayer's dime, link

but she is not obligated to explain, defend,
or even acknowledge credible allegations of her mis, mal,
and non-feasance as a public servant?

How does Darren White escape his obligation
to address the allegations made against him?

And Mayor Martin Chavez

Chief of Police Ray Schultz

APS School Board President Paula Maes

and her Modrall Law Firm?

Beth Everitt and Linda Sink?



Is it really up to the little guy
to police powerful public servants?

Are we supposed to hire millions of dollars worth
of shyster lawyers (wiki link) of our own,

and try to litigate all of public service into accountability?

How much would Modrall charge taxpayers, do you suppose,
to litigate in their interests instead of Paula Maes'?


Who stands between the little guys and good ole boys?

... and their cronies

Thomas Lang, Kent Walz, Phill Casaus,
Michelle Donaldson, Thomas Pearl, and
Sue Stephens

in the "news".

FBI to Investigate Criminal Misconduct by APS Senior Administrators, Board Members, and Modrall?

It is difficult, to say the least,
to get local authorities to pay any attention to allegations
of criminal misconduct by the leadership of the APS.

Perhaps, Mr. Lopez has found someone in authority
who is not under the influence of Paula Maes and Modrall.

Pray for his success.

link

In the APS, "Trix are for kids."

Apparently so are the Pillars of Character Counts.

There is not one single senior administrator or board member
in the entire APS, who is willing to hold themselves honestly
accountable as a role model of the Pillars of Character Counts;

the student standard of conduct.


Not even the

President of the APS Character Counts Leadership Council,
and the President of the APS Board of Education,
the senior most public servant;
and the senior most role model in the APS,

Paula Maes.



Which begs the question;
are we expecting too much from kids,
or are we expecting too little from the leadership of the APS?


If the Pillars of Character Counts
are too high a standard of conduct and competence for

• Paula Maes,
• Beth Everitt,
• Linda Sink,
• Tom Savage,
• Gil Lovato,
• Darrel Harrel
  
• Michael Vigil,
  
• Brad Allison,
• and every other administrator and board member
  

why is it still the standard of conduct for students?


... oh yeah, it isn't.

The leadership of the APS recently rewrote
the student standard of conduct.

Students had been required to model and promote
the Pillars of Character Counts for more than a decade.

They no longer are;

by the deliberate, and considered, and secret decision
of the leadership of the APS.

Rio Grande High School Teachers Are Angry

according to the Journal link sub req

They are unhappy that every single administrator,
board member, and employee of the NMPED,
responsible for the grade gate fiasco
has escaped scot free.

And they are a bit disillusioned as well,

I would suspect.

Darren White; A Higher Standard of Conduct

The lowest standard of acceptable conduct; the law,

the standard of conduct that draws the line
between acceptable conduct and
conduct so abhorrent as to warrant criminalization,

applies to everybody.

Some choose to believe that
there is a higher standard of conduct than "the law",
and that standard applies to public servants;
those who must be entrusted with the people's considerable
power and resources.

If there is such a thing,
as a higher standard of conduct for public servants,

then refusing to tell the truth
about the fate of the people's power and resources,

violates that standard.

Darren White, Kari Brandenburg, Paula Maes,
Beth Everitt (she's still on the payroll) and Linda Sink

are senior public servants who refuse to tell the truth,

(as measured by any higher standard of conduct
such as the Pillars of Character Counts;
APS' Student Standard of Conduct.)

and they are violating their standard of conduct.

Is there a higher standard of conduct for public servants?

What difference does it make
if the standard is completely unenforceable?


They will get away with it.


Because the standards of conduct for journalists,

like Thomas J Lang, and Kent Walz,
and Phill Casaus, and Michelle Donaldson,
and Sue Stephens, and Thomas Pearl,

are every bit as unenforceable
as the standards of conduct for public servants.

... coincidently.

KRQE Gradegate Coverage is Marginally Truthful

If you watch Jessica Garate's report on Elsy Fierro's appearance before the school board;
link
you will see a fair and balanced report
of only a small part of the whole truth.

I absolutely do not hold reporters responsible
for the scope of their stories.

The issue that I have raised; the hiding of public records;
is an issue resolved much further up the food chain than
Jessica Garate, Susie Gran, Andrea Schoellkopf, or Zsombor Peter.

A senior administrator in the Albuquerque Public Schools
was scapegoated by Beth Everitt and the rest of the
leadership of the APS in the still largely secret
decision making process that led to the grade change.

This was her first and only public defense.

Paula Maes, the senior most public servant in the APS
had an obligation to create a public record.

Her diametrically opposite decision
was to prevent the creation of a public record,
by turning the cameras off for all public forums.


The record that KRQE holds is not a legal public record.

It is never the less a public record,
it is the only public record,
and it is still unavailable to the public.

Along with a million other records of corruption and incompetence
in the leadership of the APS.

because of the deliberate and considered decision of KRQE
news director Michelle Donaldson (and Thomas Lang,
Sue Stephens, Thomas Lang, Kent Walz, and Phill Casaus)

Michelle Donaldson,
or someone else at KRQE who's identity remains secret,
appears to be helping NM Broadcasters Association President
Paula Maes, and her Modrall law firm,
keep the truth about the ethics and accountability scandal
in the leadership of the APS secret from stakeholders.

The video record of Elsy Fierro's public defense
is a public record that just begins to illuminate the corruption
and the incompetence in the leadership of the APS;
Beth Everitt's corruption and incompetence,
Paula Maes corruption and incompetence
...


If Michelle Donaldson is not part of a conspiracy,
then let her identify the person at KRQE who is;

deliberately deceiving Albuquerque Public Schools stakeholders.


I will publish whatever response Michelle Donaldson offers.


But, in the absence of any alternative explanation at all;


I will continue to insist that Michelle Donaldson,
Thomas Lang, Sue Stephens, Thomas Lang, Kent Walz,
and Phill Casaus are part of a conspiracy to hide the truth

from APS students and staff, parents, teachers, tax payers,
and voters.

"character counts gate"

The leadership of the APS has excepted itself
from accountability to the Pillars of Character Counts!

... a widely recognized, accepted, and respected
code of ethical conduct.

It is the code of conduct to which the leadership of the APS
still holds students accountable.

It is the

Student Standard of Conduct and Competence.

And the leaders of the APS
have abdicated as the senior most
role models of that standard.


I give readers then,

one of APS' oldest, and most deeply malignant "gates";

"The considered and deliberate betrayal
by the leadership of the APS,

of the principles of Character Counts!"


Character Counts! Gate

Darren White, Kari Brandenburg, and Linda Sink Are Guilty

They enjoyed innocence until they were proven guilty.

And now their guilt is proven,
beyond any reasonable doubt.

Pleading the fifth, stonewalling, "no comment", ...
however "not telling the truth" is framed,
is proof of guilt.

Because there are only ethical justifications for"not tell the truth"
and none of them apply.


They are guilty.

Maybe not in a court of law,
where the lawyers of APS/Modrall hold sway,
where legal loopholes and technicalities allow their practice
of Juris Mustelidae (legal weaselry) against the public interest.


But certainly they are guilty in the hearts and minds
of the voters, tax payers, and stakeholders who's interests
they have betrayed.


There is only one reason not to tell the truth
about the conspiracy to cover up Peanut Butter Gate.

And there is only one reason not to tell the truth
about the conspiracy to cover up all of the other "gates"
in the relentless shit storm of "APS Gates".

There is only one reason not to conduct an immediate,
full scale forensic administrative accountability audit of
the administration of the APS, by the leadership of the APS.


And, that reason is proof of their guilt
beyond any reasonable doubt.


Now, how do we hold them accountable?

if Thomas Lang, Kent Walz, Phill Casaus,
Michelle Donaldson, Sue Stephens, and
Thomas Pearl

are each and every one of them,

willing to help Darren White, and Kari Brandenburg
and Linda Sink, hide their guilt.

Paula Maes; APS' "Teflon Don"a

Paula Maes is the President of the
APS Character Counts! Leadership Council.

She is also the senior most role model
in the entire APS, of the student standard of conduct;

the Pillars of Character Counts!

Yet, she has renounced the Pillars of Character Counts!
as the standard of conduct for herself and her cronies
in the leadership of the APS, for even the few hours a day
that they are public servants.


If that doesn't stick; what will?


It has to be at least the second most egregious hypocrisy
in the history of Character Counts!

The first being Character Counts! Natl VP Jessica Ellis
and Michael Josephson's look and leave on Character Counts!
in the APS.

Third I guess, would be the ongoing hypocrisy of the members
of the APS Character Counts! Leadership Council
themselves.

The logic requires examination

If a student athlete is currently failing in one aspect of his or her life; character,

what is the real advantage of denying them success
in an unrelated aspect of their life, such as their athletic prowess?


Cited as flawed policy
unsupported by any district wide
discipline philosophy (which does not exist).

We should not be so worried that our children are not always listening to us

as we should be worried that they are always watching us.

upton sinclair

Being a role model, is not the result of a choice to be
a role model.

Any one, who does any thing, within the sight
of an impressionable other person,
has role modeled.

Student athletes are role models.

If they are negative role models,
then they should be held accountable.


But so should those who hold the athlete accountable,
be accountable themselves,
to a meaningful standard of conduct.

They are obligated (whether they choose to be or not)

to model honest accountability
to a meaningful standard of conduct.


If they are not willing to model that accountability,
they have forfeited the moral authority
to hold students accountable for anything at all.

wiktionary moral authority




And that is why students are in charge in schools,

and that is why schools are out of control,

and that why schools fail to succeed.

KRQE TV News; Hiding Grade Gate Evidence

I am prepared to allege that KRQE news
is violating the public trust.

Elsy Fierro and her attorney Gail Stewart
went to the public forum of a regular school board meeting
to petition their government.

They could have done it in a letter, or a phone call.

They chose to do it in public and on the record.


Except there is no record of public forums.
Not since Paula Maes has ordered that
the APS cameras be turned off during the public forum;
... all of them.

In order that stakeholders would not see her response
and the responses of every single member of
the leadership of the APS to a question;

why are APS' most senior role models;
not accountable as role models
of the student standard of conduct?

The broadcast record of the board meeting
will not include the statements of Fierro and Stewart.



This is not the first time the public has been deliberately
deceived by the means of (deliberately falsified)
broadcast records of board meetings. link

KRQE then, has the only record of these statements;

statements alleging public corruption at the highest levels
of the leadership of the APS.

And they won't put them up on the internet
for voters and stakeholders to watch.

And they won't give a copy to me
so that I can put it up on the internet.

Who, at KRQE, is responsible for this betrayal?

Good ole boy membership lists are secret of course.
But, I am supposing that it is Michelle Donaldson
who owns KRQE's betrayal of the public trust.

An allegation which she can either acknowledge and deny;
or not.

A denial, of course would need to include the good and
ethical reason that the public should not be allowed
to watch Fierro and Stewart petition their government.

Paula Maes/Modrall will not furnish that reason.

I suspect,
neither will her cronies in the media.



I will bow to controverting fact.
link forwarded directly to Donaldson
8:51 am this day.
She or someone at KRQE used the link
at 9:02 am this day.

EHS Athlete Punished For "Role Model Failure"

According to an un-linkable report in the Journal;
a student athlete has been punished for
"being under investigation" of criminal misconduct.

Never mind that he has been convicted of nothing;
APS Spokesmodel, Rigo Chavez says;

"He's been suspended from the basketball team for conduct deemed detrimental to the team."
"Athletes have the responsibility to serve as role models, and because of this investigation, the school determined he was not fulfilling that role."

• Never mind that the President of the School Board,
  Paula Maes, is accused of far worse and more sinister
  criminal misconduct; and still sits on the school board.
• Never mind that Maes is the senior most role model
  in the entire APS, and has personally renounced the
  student standard of conduct as her own.
• Never mind that Maes is the president of the
  Character Counts Leadership Council and has rejected
  the Pillars of Character Counts as the standard of
  conduct for adult role models in the APS.
• Never mind that the entire leadership of the APS
  has abdicated their responsibilities as role models.
• Never mind that no senior administrator or board member has ever been held accountable for their failure as a role model for students.
  

Let's never mind everything that leadership of the APS
does wrong.

Let's never mind their corruption and incompetence and the their egregious lack of honest accountability to any standard of conduct at all.


Let's punish the kid for violating
the student standard of conduct which requires that;

students model and promote the Pillars of Character Counts.
and never mind the conduct and competence of
the leadership of the APS.



And we are role model just what, exactly?

Elsy Fierro; I would have done things differently.

Not about the grade change,
but about signing her name to a decision made by
APS senior administrators; Susie Peck and Nelinda Venegas.

It would be egregiously naive to believe that
the decision did not include Beth Everitt,
board member Delores Griego, and who knows who else.

According to the Journal link sub req

"Maes said that former Superintendent Elizabeth Everitt repeatedly said in meetings and press conferences that the decision was made along with the upper administration "and the proper process was followed."

"It is clear you were acting with their approval," she said.

Why then was, a nd why is,
Elsy Fierro being scapegoated still.

If not to cover the asses of a bunch of more senior administrators and board members?

How Do You Feel; Your Taxdollars Used to Keep an Eye On Joe's Blog

Somebody, tax payers of course, is paying the lawyers
from APS/Modrall, three hundred dollars an hour
to read Joe's blog. link

Personally, I think there are more appropriate uses for
the power and tax dollars entrusted to the leadership of the APS;

like perhaps educating our children.

"Black Like Me"

OK, I'm not really black.

But "Elephant like me" would assume too many prerequisites
on the part of the reader.


I stood in the back of the board room for about twenty minutes; through the public forum and "through matters of importance".

It was surreal. Like in a movie, with a camera's eye view through the eyes of a mask worn by a character.

People walking into chairs because they couldn't look toward the elephant in the room.

And of course the reporter/cameraman from KRQE
who couldn't turn his camera that way either.

Elsy Fierro; "I think that they've left me hanging."

Elsy Fierro still wants to clear her name.

She finds herself among a large number of people who
have been victimized by one or more or the good ole boys
in the leadership of the APS/Modrall.

A fight with these good ole boys, always end up the same;

• senior administrators and board members are excepted from accountability,
  (by the unethical litigation by the Modrall law firm)
• and their victims never get to clear their name.
  

She has joined the battered league of "disgruntled former employees"
tossed on the dung heap and ignored for ever more.


APS/Modrall begins its its defense of any complaint
by assassinating the character of the complainant.

Legitimate complaints are resolved by giving away tax dollars
to pay off complainants, Just enough to settle, but never
enough to satisfy, the complaint)

no individual administrator or board member is held accountable,

and the victim never gets a chance to clear their name.


Look what I have been through to clear my name.

Look what Joseph Lopez has been through,
and is going through, to clear his.

Elsy Fierro is lucky.

She can afford a lawyer; Gail Stewart and she doesn't seem
to be much afraid of APS/Modrall.

Which begs the question; How can she not be afraid of
one of the state's largest and most "connected" law firms?

Especially knowing that when Modrall defends Maes,
they are defending Modrall's President's wife.
They would be doing it for free, vigorously
using loopholes, technicalities and Juris Mustelidae. link

But they don't have to do it for free
because they feed secretly at a virtually bottomless trough
of unwitting taxpayer support of "education".

The litigation that provides exception to accountability
for Paula Maes and her cronies in the good ole boys club,
costs a lot of money.

So much money that they won't tell how much.

Maybe Gail Stewart can find out.

Maybe she can litigate the opportunity for Elsy Fierro to clear her name.



But I doubt it.

Beth Everitt will not be held accountable.
Nor will Nelinda Venegas, nor Susie Peck.



Shit doesn't roll up hill in the leadership of the APS.

Journal link sub req

Elsy Fierro Speaks Out

It was during the public forum of the school board meeting.

APS Administrator Elsy Fierro confronted the leadership
of the APS over her scapegoating by Beth Everitt,
Nelinda Venegas, and Susie Peck.

Speaking after Ms. Fierro; her attorney Gail Stewart.

Unfortunately neither was allowed to speak on the record.

As a result, the version of the board meeting that
will be broadcast to the community will not contain
the allegations damning the leadership of the APS,
and the NMPED.

There was a KRQE cameraman at the meeting; I never saw a reporter.

KRQE has tape of both presentations.

I cannot locate a link to the video on the KRQE website;
perhaps it isn't up yet;
perhaps they don't intend to put it up at all.


Also not reported on their website;

any record of a protester standing in the back of the room
wearing an elephant head.

He was apparently protesting APS' elephant in the room;

the continuing refusal of the leadership of the APS
to explain, defend, or even acknowledge that they have
deliberately and methodically excepted themselves
from honest accountability to any standard of conduct
and competence at all, even the law.

When asked if he had made any record at all of the protest;
the reporter replied that it might be in a wide shot
but not in a close up.

Certainly not close enough to read "Peanut Butter Gate"
written on the elephant's forehead.

As soon as Monica Armenta spotted elephant man,
she made a bee line over to the reporter.

The reporter/cameraman claimed, twice,
that no one told him to ignore the protester.

Does School Board President Paula Maes,
President and CEO of the NM Broadcasters Assoc.
carry enough weight, that she can tell KRQE's
Michelle Donaldson how to shape the news?

If else, then;

All we have to believe, is that the reporter sent to report on
the dull old school board meeting,
didn't think that it was newsworthy,
or even in the least bit interesting,

that a protester was standing in the back of the board room
wearing an elephant head.

I'm not buying it. Are you?

"... in no case shall the standard of conduct for an adult

be lower than the standard of conduct for students ..."

That is what the APS employee code of conduct
used to read;

before Paula Maes and the Modrall law firm

formally excepted themselves from accountability
to any standard of conduct at all;
even the law.


the elephant in the room
is now humping APS stakeholders.




It will be on display again tonight
at the "regular meeting" of the board.

Paula Maes. It's Just The Way She Rolls.

I have stumbled across an interesting blog post
from the American Journalism Review. link

In 2002, Gloria Tristani was running for the U S Senate
here in New Mexico.

At the time, Tristani was a member of
the Federal Communications Commission.

At that time, the commission was considering a plan to license hundreds of tiny, low-power radio stations across the country.

The broadcast industry (Paula Maes) hated this.

It's main lobbying arm,
the National Association of Broadcasters,
a la New Mexico Broadcasters Association,
of which Paula Maes is the President and CEO,
was threatening ... dire measures.

Broadcasters were "taking off the gloves,"
the NAB's president warned.

Tristani told the writer Charles Layton, writing for the AJR,
that Jerry Danziger, vice chair of Albuquerque's KOB-TV and
board member of the New Mexico Broadcasters Association,
told her,

"If you're coming back here to run for Congress, you'd better not vote for low power, because you won't get on a radio or TV station again."

Tristani said Danziger made the threat twice, once to a member of her staff and a second time to her personally.

Danziger says he doesn't recall making such a threat.

Maes confirmed to Layton that the statement was made.

And then and "she refused to name" the broadcaster
who made the threat.


It is the "refused to name him" that bugs this reporter.


Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education President
Paula Maes also refuses to name,

(by refusing allow the impartial audit which would name)

even one of the corrupt and incompetent
administrators and board members in the leadership of the APS.

"I will not allow an audit
which will identify individual administrators
"... like Tom Savage for example ..."
... and allow them to be held personally accountable
for their conduct and competence as public servants,
within their public service."

Paula Maes (derived)

Honor above all else, except of course,


the interests of members of the good ole boys club;

the "privileged class" here in River City.

Senator Pete Domenici and the Peanut Butter Gate Scandal

Pete Domenici is a bona fide founding father of Character Counts.

He was actually in Aspen Colorado for its birth.

But when Paula Maes and the leadership of the APS

renounced the Pillars of Character Counts
as their standard of conduct and competence
as public servants, and within their public service,

he did nothing.


In fairness, there is an outside possibility that
Lisa Breeden may have hidden it all from him.


But surely he knows about it now; right?


And if he does,
and he does not draw some attention to such an
egregious betrayal of the principles of Character Counts,

if he like "founding father" Marty Chavez,
dumps his baby in a dumpster,


... then peanut butter breath it is.

Mayor Martin Chavez Is Linked To Peanut Butter Gate Cover Up

Martin Chavez, when it suits him, identifies himself as
a founding father of Character Counts in Albuquerque.

Yet when Paula Maes and the leadership of the APS
abdicated as role models of the student standard of conduct
the Pillars of Character Counts;

he left his baby in a dumpster.

Had he not, there would be no peanut butter gate.


Still, he will not stand in support of an impartial audit
of the public interests in the public schools;

nor of course, would he stand in support of auditing
city government either.


Marty Chavez. Peanut Butter Breath.

APS Board Plans Secret Vote

It will take place during the board meeting tomorrow night;
in plain view during the open discussion of "important matters".

Each board member has the opportunity to speak
on whatever issue seems "important" to them.

They will reveal by the substance of their offering;
a vote for or against ending the culture of corruption
and incompetence in the leadership of the APS.

To cast a vote in favor of changing the culture and
the future of the APS,
a board member would have to stand up
and announce their support of an immediate
and impartial, full scale forensic audit of
the administration of a billion tax dollars a year,
by leadership of the APS.

In order to cast their vote in favor of
sticking with the good ole boys administrative model;
they will follow their leader, Paula Maes,
and ignore the subject of any audit
which would hold individual senior APS administrators
and board members;
"... like for example, Tom Savage..."
accountable for their conduct and competence
as public servants.

They will manifest their support of continuing
the cover up of;

peanut butter gate,
and grade gate,
and bookkeeping and accounting gate,
and special ed gate,
and the principal shuffle gate,
and character counts gate,
and M&O gate,
and Upscale Administrative Complex gate,
and APS/Modrall gate, ...

and all of the other APS gates;




... by talking about anything else instead.

Time To Push Someone Under The Train

Someone is going to have to take one for team APS.

And someone is going to have to take one for team media.


I suggest the captain of both teams; Paula Maes.

But she and APS/Modrall have no intention
of taking one for the team.


So someone is going to have to
push them under the train.


Or neither the leadership of the APS;

nor Thomas J Lang, Kent Walz, Phill Casaus,
Michelle Donaldson, Sue Stephens, and
Thomas Pearl

can expect to be trusted,
ever again.

PR Push for Sink?

It has been reported that Linda Sink is out and about
with a contingent of paparazzi.

I smell a last minute media blitz

in support of the anointment of Linda Sink

as APS' new Queen of (dodging) Honest Accountability.

Why Won't They Defend Themselves; Wouldn't You?

If you were wrongfully accused of participating in
the Peanut Butter Gate cover up,
the Grade Gate cover up, and
the cover up of every other APS Gate;

and the cover up of
the fundamental lack of ethics and accountability
in the leadership of the APS,

Wouldn't you say, by and through your lawyers,

"This is bullshit,
and here's the proof."

Except they have no proof.
They are absolutely damned by their record.


There is no defense of an indefensible position
except to hide it.


Darren White
Kari Brandenburg
Paula Maes
Beth Everitt (still on the payroll)
Linda Sink, and the
Modrall.

And in the "news";
Thomas J Lang,
Kent Walz,
Phill Casaus,
Michelle Donaldson,
Sue Stephens and
Thomas Pearl.

There are three legitimate defenses of the news media's failure to investigate and report upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS;

1. it's not true,
   
2. it's not news worthy;
   (it is not more important than say, the column inches spent on school lunch menus), and
3. they didn't know about it.

Which we all know is;

1. bullshit,
2. bullshit,
   
3. and more bullshit.

There Are Only Two Kinds of APS Administrators and Board Members

1. the corrupt and/or incompetent, and
2. those who have guilty knowledge
of the incompetent, and of the corrupt.


Guilty knowledge is a form of corruption.
It is moral turpitude. link


Therefore, there is in fact,

only one kind of administrator and board member
in the leadership of the APS.

They are the ones who have said nothing.

At their moment of truth; they said nothing.
They did ... nothing.

No one; not one administrator in the APS,
has stood on the record in defense of the principle;

(a principle that we swear,
is a principle that we want our children to embrace)

there must be honest accountability
to meaningful standards of conduct and competence.


The record is;
there in not a single administrator in the APS who will step out of the crowd of good ole boys

and stand up for what they believe in.

Where are the "leaders" in the Albuquerque Public Schools
who believe that character counts?

There is only one kind of administrator and board member in the APS

and it is their absolute intention to hire Linda Sink full time;

to perpetuate their culture of exception from accountability.


There is only one kind of leader in the leadership of the APS.




...and by similar logic, I would argue that

there is only one kind of reporter.



"You pick a side when you don't pick a side." unk

APS Executive Director Of Communications, Monica Armenta will have no comment on Peanut Butter Gate.

Not that people have a right to the truth,
however salacious or disturbing.

She is being paid to cover up
the cover up.

So is Paula Maes/Modrall.

So is Linda Sink.



It isn't the sex with peanut butter.

It isn't even that the sex with peanut butter,
on the public dime.

What it is, is;

That sex with peanut butter on the public dime

was reported to,
the most senior administrators in the APS,

and they did nothing.

except cover it up.


And they are still.

Peanut butter gate co-conspirators in the media;

Thomas J Lang
Kent Walz
Phill Casaus
Michelle Donaldson
Sue Stephens
Thomas Pearl

Pre-K Gains Evaporate. Why?

The Journal reports; link sub req

Studies support investment in pre-Kindergarten and full day kindergarten.

"...the evidence is that the preschools ...delivered children to kindergarten with improved language and reading development."

"...the evidence is that full-day kindergarten programs were doing their job, sending children on into first grade with reading skills that had caught up with the average for all APS kindergarteners.

But, the report continues;

By third grade almost all the initial benefits of full-day kindergarten disappear.
So while both preschool and full-day kindergarten programs were successful during the time they operated, most advances in achievement appear to have washed away by grade four. (emphasis added)

Why?

I will posit that; in pre-K and K,
the student teacher ratio is low, and
classrooms are continuously under more control.

As students progress, they progress into environments
where the authority and control of adults over children diminishes.


With a result as predictable as it is inevitable.


Lets try an experiment.


Lets identify the "worst" school in Albuquerque.

• At that school, restore the authority of adults over children, and
• Commit meaningful amounts of decision making power and resources directly to the educational interface at that school.

... and then let's see what happens.

What do teachers know anyway?

The educational "experts" in Santa Fe
want to lengthen the school year by three days now,
five days sometime in the future.

(The plan has less to do with improving education,
than it has to do with a thinly disguised effort to adjust
the tension between teachers hourly and yearly salaries.)
link and link

Teachers of course, don't believe in the fix.

From the editorial in the Journal;

"Some teachers are questioning the value of a few extra class days..."
"five days is nothing ... You need weeks with these kids that are behind."

My experience leads me to believe the teachers.


The Journal editor argues that it is at least,
a step in the right direction.

S/he is wrong.

The truth is that, whatever you do,
you do instead of doing something else.
And if Veronica Garcia can get an increasingly disgruntled public off her back for a year;

while the three more days experiment is tried;
and fails;

that is one more year that she and the other experts
won't have to even acknowledge the problem of
chronically disruptive students, and of students who
no longer recognize the authority of adults over children at school.

"Albuquerque Teachers Federation president Ellen Bernstein says every extra day— well spent— counts." (emphasis added)

"Well spent"

Students days in the APS are not "well spent".

That they are not, is a secret well kept
by the leadership of the APS and the Journal.

Show me the article where,
Thomas J Lang and Kent Walz, even recognize
that there is a problem with student discipline in the public schools.

Show me where they have reported that
the leadership of the APS,
has relinquished control over schools, to a bunch of children.

Kids could go to school every day of the year;

but if when they get there
they just sit around waiting for order to be restored,

nothing at all will be gained.

Except putting off for another year,
even the discussion of honest accountability
to meaningful standards of conduct and competence,

for the leadership of the APS,

and for the leadership of each of the other 87 school districts in New Mexico.

Darren White, Kari Brandenburg, Peanut Butter Breath

Do Darren White and Kari Brandenburg have guilty knowledge of APS' Peanut Butter Gate?

Peanut Butter Gate is the scandal involving senior members of the leadership of the Albuquerque Public Schools,
the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office,
the District Attorneys Office, and the surrounding cover up.

The scandal is of public corruption and criminal conspiracy
in the leadership of the APS; and in particular,
in the leadership of the APS Police Department;
their Praetorian Guard.

The scandal gets its name from the salacious tip
of the enormous and sinister iceberg hiding underneath.


In any event,

Darren White and Kari Brandenburg are not telling the truth.


And their breath smells of peanut butter.

Good Questions All,and Legitimate Too.

Joe wants to know. link

Paula Maes is responsible.

Paula Maes casts a big shadow.

She is the President of the APS Board of Education,
the President of the Character Counts Leadership Council
the President and Chief Executive Officer
of the New Mexico Broadcasters Association, and
she is married to the President of the Modrall*.

(*a law firm that has made millions of tax dollars
litigating exception to the law for APS senior administrators
and board members )


She is responsible for all of the corruption and incompetence that interferes with the education of 89,000 of this community's sons and daughters.

And not in some noble or gallant the buck stop here,
kind of a way.

She is responsible by the following logic;

As but one example; "chronically disruptive students".

The problem can be successfully addressed.

It has not been.
It has not been successfully addressed
because it has never been discussed;
and you can't solve a problem without discussing it.

The problem has not seen discussion
outside the circle of good ole boys.

What? ??

(teachers and students and parents talk about it of course, but since they have no real decision making power or resources to employ, they are not party to the discussion of the employment of power and resources.)

The reason that the discussion (of the employment of decision making power and resources) does not extend outside the circle of good ole boys,
is that the discussion cannot take place at all,
without at some discussing the issues of accountability and role modeling.

The solution to the problem of chronically disruptive students, includes

• holding them accountable for their conduct,
• holding the administration accountable for holding the student accountable, and
• perhaps changing the course of the kid's life; by role modeling more appropriate behavior
• including holding one's self honestly accountable
  for their own conduct and competence.

It is the message of the Pillar of Responsibility.

Maes knows that.

Surely she came across it somewhere in her service as
the President of the Character Counts Leadership Council.


Maes/Modrall and the leadership of the APS
have renounced both;

• honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence, and
• their responsibilities and obligations as role models.

In order to continue to deceive stakeholders, she and
they, cannot begin any discussion on the record,

(meaning; outside the circle of good ole boys),

if that discussion reasonably leads at any point;

to an honest and open discussion of accountability and
role modeling in the leadership of the APS.


Now;
think of a problem that presents an obstacle to educating our children,

that does not have its roots in their lack of accountability,
in holding themselves, and then students accountable,

and in the abject failure as role models,
of Paula Maes,
and the leadership of the APS;

... by their own considered, and deliberate, decision.

APS' Peanut Gate Gate Scandal Guaranteed to Offend.

Some will be offended by the sex.

Some will be offended that the sex
happened on the public dime.

Some will be offended that the misconduct
was duly reported to the most senior levels
of the leadership of the APS, and they did nothing.

The real scandal in Peanut Butter Gate is not the sex,

it is the cover up of the sex, and the cover up of
everything else that was and is going on
in the leadership of the APS.

But what should really offend everybody,
is that nothing has changed.


There is no reason not to believe that

if the new chief of police turns out to be as corrupt
as the chief he replaced;
and the chief before him;

the interests of stakeholders will still be unprotected

by a the leadership of the APS.

Because; the number one priority of the APS leadership;

the axis of the board, the administration and Modrall,

is still;

to except each other from the consequences
of their corruption and incompetence,
by hiding the truth.

And, we should be offended by the aid and abet of

Thomas Lang, Kent Walz, Phill Casaus,
Michelle Donaldson, Sue Stephens and Thomas Pearl

as well.


link to Peanut Butter Gate

Administrative Support for APS Teachers; Wanting

Any teacher will tell you that the single greatest obstacle before education is, its disruption.

Every minute wasted on disruption, is a minute
or more, not spent on education.

School Board policy, and logic, and common sense
put the onus of maintaining discipline at school
on administrators.

In reality, the onus falls on the shoulders of teachers;

who have neither the decision making power,
nor the resources, nor,
according to the leadership of the APS,
the education, experience, or intellect to wield either.

The administrative response to disruptive students
has been to allow them to dress in uniform
and then come to school everyday to accomplish
what ever strikes them as "fun".


From the public record; sworn testimony, and evidence:

Student David B. had found himself some fun.
He was throwing rocks at elementary school students
on their way to school.

I delivered David and his discipline referral to
Assistant Principal Michael McNamara, Hoover MS.

The student, and his referral, where returned to me
in short order with a post-it attached
(to the referral, not to David).

The note read,
"Please handle this, and all similar situations
yourself."


So I grieved it.

The good ole boy ruling;
McNamara had not violated the negotiated agreement; which clearly and unequivocally required his continuous and unqualified support,

because there were "other times" when he had
done his job.

A few years later I took a photograph of McNamara
standing with his arms crossed and doing nothing
in a crowded hallway, surrounded by students
in blatant violation of school rules and board policy.

I was then fired for;

creating a hostile environment for Michael McNamara,
Wayne Knight, Ron Williams, Gil Lovato, Michael Vigil

and all of the other administrators who will neither enforce
nor follow the rules.

(The firing was reversed at the first honest and impartial adjudication of the evidence.
It remains however, the source of my "disgruntlement".)


A true story, which illustrates;

• the problem with leaving good ole boy accountability
  in the hands other good ole boys,
• the insurmountable problem teachers face,
• the real reason for schools that fail, and
  
• the real reason for teacher burn out.

A new superintendent is about to be hired.

S/he will or will not, make it a District priority
to restore the authority of adults over children
in school.


Teachers should not look to the leadership of the APS
to put chronically disruptive students
and their failure to control them, on the table.

Nor, should they look to the teachers union.

Nor, should they expect the media to generate public awareness.

• Clearly the number one priority of the leadership of the APS is to continue to hide the elephant.
• As clear, is the failure of the teachers union to stand up and be counted, on the issue of the abject failure of the leadership of the APS to maintain order in schools.
• And just as clearly, Thomas Lang, Kent Walz, Phill Casaus, Michelle Donaldson, Sue Stephens and Thomas Pearl; have no intention of investigating and reporting upon the effects of the administrations failure to provide educationally efficient environments for students and teachers.
  

If a few hundred teachers,
tired of a discipline philosophy that requires them to

"Please handle this, and similar situations, on your own."

showed up at a board meeting with torches and pitchforks;


maybe, just maybe, some sunlight will illuminate
the culture of corruption and incompetence
that created, and maintains

schools that are out of control.

APS' Elephant in the Room

Elephant in the room wiki link

APS' Elephant in the room is its cover up of the
Administrative Ethics and Accountability Scandal.

The scandal has resurfaced yet again;
this time in a particularly salacious and scandalous form.

The newest elephant in the spacious lobby of the
luxurious new APS Upscale Administrative Complex.

It is standing directly in front of you.

Its tail is draped heavily across your head


front to back.



And his butt smells strangely like peanut butter. LINK

Thomas Lang's name is now linked to the Peanut Butter Gate Cover Up.

As are the names of Kent Walz, Phill Casaus,
Michelle Donaldson, Sue Stephens, and
Thomas Pearl.

How do you say "no comment"

with a mouth full of peanut butter?

APS' Linda Sink is, of course, not directly responsible for Peanut Butter Gate.

She is responsible only for her part in the cover up
of Peanut Butter Gate.

Monica Armenta is accountable only for her part;


... spreading the jelly.

And Now ... APS "Peanut Butter Gate"

APS senior administrator, Gil Lovato is alleged to
have been eating peanut butter.

Not so much that he ate peanut butter, as it is,
where ,and when, and how, and with whom,
he ate it;

As to where and when; the allegation is;
at the La Quinta Motor Hotel, and during the work day.

As to how, and with whom,
I am going to provide a link to another blog.

I would not; if I did not believe the allegation
and in the allegater.


Is this why Beth Everitt paid Gil Lovato a half year's
salary to keep him on administrative leave and
out of a courtroom?

Is this part of the testimony that taxpayers paid $35K
not to hear?

Is it just a small part of the evidence that Gil Lovato and
Sam Bregman said; if it came out in open court,

"... would leave no APS senior administrator standing..."

Is this what taxpayers were paying Gil Lovato
thirty five dollars an hour for?

Shouldn't he have been tracking down the other pervs;

the ones who prey on school children,

and not their subordinates?



Peanut butter-gate will not be covered by the media.

Even if they weren't part of the cover up,
no news anchor would be able to keep a straight face
while they read the headline, which writes itself.


Don't link if you will be offended by graphic language
and/or credible allegations of criminal misconduct by
the leadership of the APS.

... the link then.

Who Cares if Bill and Bill Watch the Super Bowl Together?

A quick perusal of the blogs reveals much interest in whether or not Bill Clinton and Bill Richardson will watch the Super Bowl together in Red River.

I am considerably more concerned that,

The control over enormous amounts of power and resources that belong fundamentally to the citizens of New Mexico;

has been usurped by a bunch of thugs
who are using our power and resources against our interests;

to advance their own interests,
including the interests of their friends and "donors"

and who cannot be held accountable for their

abject lack of transparent and honest accountability
to meaningful standards of conduct and competence

as public servants.



To each his own, I guess.

APS Leadership; Desperately, Endlessly , Clinging to Plan A

Re: Letter to the editor, Parents Key Factor, Not Poverty.
>>link<<

The writer, APS Administrator Phil Ewing, claims 30 years of experience in the APS. He wrote in response to a letter from APS Deputy Superintendent of Something or Another,
Dickie Gallegos.

Gallegos had argued that poverty is the cause of poor student performance.

Ewing argues, it is not poverty, but parents who play the key role. Ewing concludes;

"I challenge the parents of all our public schools to participate in your children's education, volunteer at your school, and support your child throughout their high school years and you will see "academic success" as your child evolves through his or her high school years."

APS' Plan A: take parents whose lives are overwhelmed with all manner of personal obstacles and calamities; and turn them into wonder parents who will stay up late helping their kids with homework and then, get up early to go volunteer at school.

The "parenting" dynamic is far to complex and untenable to affect. It is a waste of time and effort to try to change it. It is delusional to even suppose that you could.


Plan A did not work yesterday, it will not work today,
and will not work tomorrow.

Students will get it done, or not,
based on what happens at school.

All Plan A is good for, is filling another floor
in the Uptown Administrative Complex
with with good ole boys claiming to be
parent involvement "experts".

What happened to Marty Esquivel and Brad Winter?

Marty Esquivel was at one point standing on the record
demanding an impartial administrative accountability audit.

Brad Winter was a one point standing on the record
with a commitment to surrender a candid, forthright
and honest accounting of spending at the UAC.

Neither is now.

Which begs at least a few questions;

have they turned their back on their principles? Or,

is an audit now unnecessary? And,

do stakeholders now have no right to the truth
about the squandering of the public trust and treasure
at the Uptown Administrative Complex?


Or have Esquivel and Winter simply given up,
crushed beneath the onerous weight of Paula Maes,

APS/Modrall,

and their friends in the media;

Thomas J Lang, Kent Walz, Phill Casaus,
Michelle Donaldson, Sue Stephens, and
Thomas Pearl?


What does this mean for the future of the APS;

if every wo/man of character that takes a stand
against the corruption and incompetence in the APS;


... is summarily handed their ass?

Sagging

Every kid who sags is being bad. Even the "good" kids.

The single greatest cause of continuing misbehavior
by students, is our failure to provide appropriate consequences for those who deliberately break rules.

The leadership of the APS should not be teaching kids to ignore rules and the authority of adults over them at school.

It's not about whether or not
sagging should be against the rule.

It is about whether or not kids have to obey the first rule;



1. You are required to obey the rules.

Jessica Garate Would Be All Over It

Imagine the video tape that would accompany
Ms. Garate's report on her investigation of sagging,
and other prohibited behavior, that is being permitted,
by Albuquerque Public Schools administrators and
school board members.

90,000 kids in open defiance of the rules,
the authority of the school board,
and the authority of their teachers.

It's no wonder, that so little education is taking place.


It is a broadcast journalist's dream come true.

But Michelle Donaldson, the News Director at KRQE,
won't allow it.

Neither will KOAT's Sue Stephens, or KOB's Thomas Pearl.


I think it has to do with Paula Maes,
APS School Board President.

She has a lot to loose if the story gets covered.


And she also happens to be the
President/CEO of the New Mexico Broadcasters Association.

Are Donaldson, Stephens, and Pearl being coerced?

Are they currying favor with a powerful politica?

Is this the privileged class covering their ass?

Are they just helping out an old friend?



What difference does it make?

"... and now none of us care about it anymore."

It is a violation of school board policy for students to sag.

It doesn't make any difference at all whether or not,
sagging should be a violation of school board policy.

The negotiated agreement between the teachers union
and the district, the teacher contract,
stipulates that the burden of enforcing school rules
is a shared responsibility, and the ultimate responsibility
for enforcing discipline policies falls upon administrators.

"All" teachers enforce the rules for a while.

But it doesn't take them long to figure out that
they have neither the decision making power,
nor the resources to deal effectively with students
who are chronic discipline problems.

A teacher's only recourse with chronically disruptive students, is the administration.

If the administration doesn't step up, and it has not,

the teacher finds that the student back in the classroom
after having been given, for the umpteenth time the
"... if you do not stop your disruptive behavior immediately;
there will be consequences." talk.

Teachers, rule enforcers, are the bad guys
and the gutless administrators are the good guys.

After awhile, you start to hear teachers say;

"Several of us (teachers) at a NE High School (asked) our admin ... "why should we have to enforce the sagging pants policy if these kids walk through, and stay in, the admin office, with saggy pants, and no one does anything about it?"

They answer "We'll enforce it...some of us do"..and yet nothing changed and now none of us care about it anymore. (emphasis added)
--An APS instructor"

"In the last school I was in, teachers wouldn't even do duty anymore"

"All we teach kids by sweeping everything under the proverbial carpet, is that it is ok to ignore rules. They are running the schools right now."

"Discipline is a joke any more in APS."

The data that substantiates this allegation
is no longer collected by the leadership of the APS.

In past years, the APS and UNM collaborated on
a yearly survey that they administered to teachers.
It was a fairly comprehensive survey and included
many questions regarding discipline and the
negative affects of chronically disruptive students,
on the educational environment.

It solidly documented the fact that
an overwhelming majority of teachers reported the
loss of significant amounts of instructional time,
to discipline issues.

"We spend 80% of our time with 20% of the kids"

Then those questions were removed from the survey.

When I asked them why, they responded that they was no point in continuing to ask the question, because the answers never changed much.


Rather than address the problem,
the solution of the "leadership" of the APS
was to simply stop documenting their failure.

The time frame included the now famous explanation
offered by then APS Superintendent Peter Horoscak;
"You can't just tell the truth, you don't know how
someone might want to use it."

So now APS has their own in house data gathering.

They call it Research Accountability and Development.


And no one of all of the people that work there (link)
can tell you with any certainty,
the percentage of teachers who feel that they have
betrayed by the leadership of the APS. And who

... just don't care anymore.



It is important that this post be distributed to APS employees
who work at the educational interface,
in order that their voices on this important issue
might be heard as well.

The issue will not play in the selection of the next superintendent
except against the will of the leadership of the APS.

Why add 5 days to the school year?

Assume seven period school day.

If a kid wastes one minute, in every period
every day for the entire school year;

they will have wasted 1,280 minutes. (7 min x180 days)
Divide by 390 minutes in a school day, and you will find

that the student has wasted 3.2 school days.


Anyone who thinks chronically disruptive students
are wasting only a minute per period, every period,
every day;

may be an asshat. (asshat; wiki link) ( asshat picture link)
and should not be making decisions that affect
a hundred thousand teachers and students every day.

If the leadership of the APS restored order to schools,
if they restored the authority of adults over children,
if they started enforcing their own discipline policies,

as is their absolute responsibility,

the school year would be effectively lengthened by weeks, maybe months, and it wouldn't cost a dime.

Why won't one of Susie Gran, Andre Schoellkopf, or
Zsombor Peter report the truth on the abject failure
of the leadership of the APS

to do their job?

APS' W2 Snafu

APS printed and mailed 15,000 worthless W-2s.

"APS officials said someone in the payroll department or with its services should have caught the mistake and it plans to meet soon to figure out exactly what went wrong."

Don't you feel better already?