A schmoozing we will go, a schmoozing we will go, High-ho the dairy-oh, a schmoozing we will go.

Fresh off his Celebrate the 8! tour,
Winston Brooks is off on the Brown Bag Tour.

Under different circumstances, this would be alright.
A school district superintendent should be out schmoozing;

"Conversing casually,
especially in order to gain an advantage or
make a social connection." link

Schmoozing is only acceptable if it is honest.

Winston Brooks is trying to create an image with stakeholders;
he wants to look open and accessible, and honest.

The truth is that he is hiding the ethically redacted truth about a number of scandals involving the highest ranking members of the leadership of the APS.

The truth is that, Rigo Chavez won't reveal even the name of the private investigation firm that gathered evidence of felony criminal misconduct by senior APS administrators in the scandal in their Praetorian Guard; the APS Police Department.

And that secrecy is just fine with Winston Brooks.

As is the secrecy surrounding the likely missing millions of tax dollars revealed by the Meyners Audit.

As is the secrecy surrounding the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, and their steadfast refusal to allow any audit that names names.

As is the secrecy surrounding the administrative role modeling of the student standard of conduct scandal.

A schmoozing we will go, a schmoozing we will go,

High-ho the dairy-oh, a schmoozing we will go.

cc Winston Brooks upon posting.

The elephant in the room at the NMRP

Somebody flipped on the light switch and Jon Barela
and Allen Weh are standing there with their pants down.


Jon Barela, left, allegedly broke the rules of the NMRP.
Although it seems silly to use the word "allegedly" at this point.

Barela has had more than a month to explain, defend, deny, or even acknowledge his "alleged" violation of the rules; running against other republicans without vacating his state office in the NMRP.

There is only one reason to stone wall.
Stonewalling is the only defense of an indefensible position.

Colonel Allen Weh, right, is in command.

His obligation to enforce the rules has gone unmet.
The trust placed in him to protect the interests of stakeholders
has been betrayed.

Barela will not be held accountable for breaking the rules.

Weh will not be held accountable for not holding Barela accountable.



If this is not good ol' boys covering each others asses, what is?

If this is not corruption, what is?



photo by Mark Bralley link

The New Mexico Educators Ethics Bureau; not.

I once filed a complaint with the NM Educators Ethics Bureau.

The complaint was against Beth Everitt.

I argued that her deliberate refusal to be held honestly accountable as a role model of an ethical code of conduct,

was unethical.

I was told that

APS has lawyers; So I am sure they are not doing anything wrong.

among other things;
link State Auditor Balderas' mettle will be tested in a fight with Maes Modrall.
link New Mexico Educator Ethics (Shmethics) Bureau
link NMPED investigation; corrupt, incompetent, or both?
link So what ever happened to Elsy Fierro?
link APS Official Seeks Ethics Hearing
link the face of corruption and incompetence?
link Did Beth Everitt escape the NMPED "investigation" due to juice in the Governor's Office? and
link Gradegate; Final Score

NM State Statute 10-16-3. Ethical Principles of Public Service

NM State Statute 10-16-3 reads in significant part;

B. Legislators, public officers and employees shall conduct themselves in a manner that justifies the confidence placed in them by the people, at all times maintaining the integrity and discharging ethically the high responsibilities of public service.
(emphasis added)

and is available in it's entirety at link

The Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education,
"public officers", one and all, refuse to tell the truth*.

That refusal is unethical.

It is unethical by any reasonable definition of the concept of ethical behavior. It is unethical according to the standard of conduct that the board established for, and enforces upon, students in the Albuquerque Pubic Schools.

The Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education is not discharging ethically the high responsibilities of public service; in blatant and egregious disregard of the law.

A writ of mandamus, link, ought to compel them to tell truth.


It would be nice if a lawyer would help me prepare, pro bono,
a writ of mandamus.

It would be nice to have some help with the filing fee ($120)
as well.

*They steadfastly refuse to name a time, a day, and a place where they will stand up and answer legitimate questions, candidly, forthrightly, and honestly.

I once asked the clerk at the NM Second Judicial District Court, how many prosecutions have been pursued under
the, at least 40 year old law.

Her reply;

"None. I guess it has never been necessary."

What a hoot.

Jon Barela has a snowball's chance in hell

of becoming the next Chairman of the Republican Party
of New Mexico.

His only interest, at this point, in avoiding a rules committee hearing, stems from his unwillingness to take his "perp walk". wikilink.

He would rather his record not reflect that
he was removed from state office for breaking the rules.

And good ol' boys don't do perp walks anyway.

It's just not the way they roll.

Allen Weh too, would like to avoid the perp walk
for failing to enforce the rules in his command.

He too, would like to see the hearing take place after he leaves.

Or, even better, no hearing will take place at all.
Some good ol' boy will say the words that substitute for
accountability for the good ol' boys;

Let's forget about the past and look to the future.

In other words, no accountability for the good ol' boys;
they will slide, consequence free.

Self exception to the rules is the privilege of the privileged class.



It is important that we stop letting good ol' boys continue to
self-except themselves from accountability to the rules, and
from the consequences of breaking the rules.

Ignoring their misconduct just encourages more of it.

What the hell, and while were at it.

Why not call for the immediate resignation of
APS Superintendent Winston Brooks?

Superintendent Brooks

Either give us a time, a day and a place where
you will respond candidly, forthrightly and honestly
to legitimate questions about your steadfast refusal to
be held honestly accountable as a role model of
the Student Standards of Conduct

or;

resign.

cc Winston Brooks upon posting, at superintendent(at)aps.edu

Is it fair to hold Winston Brooks responsible?

APS' Custodian of Public Records, Rigo Chavez
has a record of obfuscating the surrender of public records
to public knowledge.

He has a record of ignoring simple requests for information.
I have asked three times now, for the name of the private
investigation firm that conducted the investigation of the
public corruption and criminal conspiracy in the leadership
of the APS (police dept). He is yet to surrender the truth.

So is Winston Brooks ultimately responsible for this effort to hide the truth from stakeholders?

I would argue that he is. It is difficult to imagine Rigo Chavez as rogue administrator trampling company policy and state law,

in order to cover the asses of the likes of Beth Everitt,
Tom Savage, and Gil Lovato.

And Darren White.

So is it Winston Brooks' will, that
Rigo Chavez hide the truth from public knowledge?

I think it is.

It would be consistent with Winston Brooks' steadfast refusal
to stand still and answer legitimate questions about the public interest, candidly, forthrightly, and honestly.

Winston Brooks is totally responsible for APS' failure to be honest with stakeholders.

The buck stops on Winston's Brooks' desk.



cc Winston Brooks upon posting, at superintendent(at)aps.edu

REQUEST FOR PUBLIC RECORDS

The following request was just emailed to APS' Custodian of Public Records, Rigo Chavez.

He will ignore my request for a return receipt because that's just not the way he rolls.

To: Custodian of Public Records,
Albuquerque Public Schools

From: Charles MacQuigg, (address)

This constitutes a request for all documents, papers, letters, books, maps, tapes, photographs, recordings and other materials, regardless of physical form or characteristics, that are used, created, received, maintained or held by or on behalf of any APS and relate to public business, whether or not the records are required by law to be created or maintained and excluding any records whose request is prohibited by any agreement between myself and APS.

1. All recordings of the regular school board meeting of 2/07/07
2. All recordings of the regular school board meeting of 11/5/07

My preference is that these be furnished in the form of a CD/DVD.

3. Any public record which contains the name of the private investigation firm that conducted an investigation of the APS Police Department in late 2006, and or early 2007. (one page will suffice)

4. any pages from the contract with that firm (item 3), that describe any stipulations regarding confidentiality, and or, dissemination of their findings.

cc Winston Brooks upon posting

"The most important decision any group can make, is their decision about how decisions will be made.

It should also be their first." unk

The Republican Party of New Mexico is about to regroup.

Apparently those who were driving the bus when it left the road
intend to be the ones who pick the next driver.

Will the game begin before the rules of the game are written?

Where in the process, is any respect for the opinions of the
great unwashed? Is this to remain the party of the few?



It is too early to make any decisions at all,
except for the decision about how decisions will be made.

Allen Weh; the call for his immediate resignation

Blogger Monahan reports link that Allen Weh is looking for
character and integrity in his replacement as
Chairman of the Republican Party of New Mexico.

In the meantime, he and Lou Melvin, NMRP Rules Committee
Chairperson, are up to their eyeballs in the cover up of a complaint filed with the Rules Committee of the NMRP over the apparent misconduct of NMRP First Vice Chair, Jon Barela.

It is time for Allen Weh to demonstrate that there is
character and integrity in the leadership of the NMRP
already, by acknowledging the complaint against Jon Barela.

In the absence of any acknowledgment of the complaint from
Allen Weh, Lou Melvin, or anyone else in the leadership
of the NMRP, I would argue that there is not enough
character and integrity and moral courage in the leadership
of the NMRP, for them to participate in the selection of
their replacements.

In the interests of the party, they should give the legitimate
complaint its due process or resign.


cc Allen Weh upon posting.
He will be allowed, of course, to post any rebuttal he might
have, as a comment on this post.




Important update from Peter St. Cyr's site link

In fairness to Marty Esquivel

When school board head honch, Paula Maes said that
she would never allow any audit which identified corrupt and
incompetent administrators individually,

Marty Esquivel voiced an immediate objection.


The Journal chose not to report upon the exchange,
denying Mr. Esquivel any constituent support for his
objection.

That is still the choice of the Journal.

And here we are.


Paula Maes has so far, successfully thwarted any audit
which individually identifies the corrupt and the incompetent
in the leadership of the APS,

including members of the school board.

Hector Balderas cannot ask for our vote

If Hector Balderas, by the time he asks for our votes,

has not surrendered to the public record,
a candid, forthright, and honest accounting of
what has happened in the APS Financial Division,

he has no right to ask for our trust, our confidence, or our vote.

According to the Meyners Audit, the APS Finance Division
is spending a billion dollars a year

• without adequate, written, financially sound, policies and procedures, and
• without adequate accountability to what polices and procedures there are, and
• without keeping records complete and accurate enough to send anybody to prison.

Subordinate administrators who did not blow the whistle on the corruption and incompetence, have been promoted to positions from which they can cover up the whole thing.

Unless there has been a miracle of biblical proportion,
millions of tax dollars have been lost to corruption and
incompetence. And taxpayer stakeholders will never know
the truth.


Before Hector Balderas can ask for our votes,

he will tell us about the miracle,

or he will tell us the truth about the squandering
of our trust and our treasure,

by the leadership of the Albuquerque Public Schools.


Fair enough?


cc Hector Balderas upon posting.

Naming names.

It is an essential difference between good ol' boy accountability
and real accountability.

How can you argue that a public servant is accountable for their
conduct and their competence, if the names of the corrupt and
the incompetent are kept deliberately secret, even in violation
of the law?


School board head honch, Paula Maes, said,
on the record and in front of reporters, and on videotape,
that she will never allow any audit
which will name the names of individual corrupt
and incompetent APS administrators.
(or board members)


How does this fly?


Why aren't voters and taxpayers screaming their heads off?



It is because the Journal, a newspaper of record, wikilink

won't tell them what she said.

The line between good and evil in the APS

There are APS administrators who welcome an impartial
standards and accountability audit of the entire leadership
of the APS.

There are APS administrators who stand four square against
any audit that will individually identify the incompetent and
the corrupt in the leadership of the APS.

Between them, is the line between good and evil.



The worst part?
As far as I can tell, they are all standing on the same side.

Why won't Jon Barela defend his honor?

He has been accused of violating NMRP rules, and is apparently part of an effort to deny a principled resolution of the ensuing complaint.

He has been accused of lacking the character and the courage to participate in a public discussion of administrative role modeling of the student standard of conduct,

even though he is one of the seven senior most role models of the student standard of conduct.

And still he has nothing to say.

For what reason except that,
I am correct in pointing out that the only reason he won't
defend his actions and his honor in these circumstances,

is that he has no defense for either?

And because stonewalling is the only defense of his
indefensible position.

cc Jon Barela at barela_jon(at)aps.edu, upon posting.

"APS Brass Could Use Transparency Training"

According to an editorial in the Journal this morning. link

Editors are still upset about the blatant Open Meetings Act
violations manifest in the school board's trip to Houston
last month.

The editors are concerned about;

"... the lack of transparency in having the elected body
that makes district policy and the superintendent
get together far from the prying eyes of the media and
taxpayers."

Unfortunately for APS stakeholders, the editors still are not concerned about the lack of transparency that surrounds;

• The scandal in the APS police department, now two years old and rapidly approaching the the deadlines of statutes of limitation which will except corrupt and incompetent senior APS administrators from accountability even to the law.
  
• The scandal in the Finance Division, which was reported in the Meyners Audit, and which has likely cost taxpayers millions of dollars lost to corruption and incompetence in that division.
  
• The scandal implicit in the overall lack of ethics and accountability in the leadership of the APS as evidenced by their refusal to explain, defend, or deny their refusal to begin an immediate standards and accountability audit of the administration of the APS.
  
• The scandal surrounding the leaderships' refusal to even to discuss administrative rolemodeling of the student standard of conduct.
• The lack of transparency implicit in the refusal of the leadership of the APS, to set a time, a day, and a place, where they finally stand still and answer legitimate questions about the public interests, candidly, forthrightly, and honestly.

Why are editors who are supposedly concerned with a lack of transparency, not concerned that the leadership of the APS will not answer legitimate questions about the public interests in the APS?

The editors are confounded apparently, by the obvious
connection between any lack of transparency in the APS,
and their refusing to simply tell the truth.

It really isn't that great a stretch.

Do you know your school board member?

If you passed them on a sidewalk, would you recognize them?

It is at least arguable that these people have as great an effect on our community as any other public servant. Who is your child learning more from; the school board or the mayor?

How does your representative to the APS Board of Education
comport themselves at a board meeting?

Are they one who hides their face when character and courage are on the table?

Does the lack of character and courage on the school board
trickle down to your kid? And by your kid, I mean our kids.

Where does the trickle stop?

Where is the line between character counts, and character doesn't count?

Your kid is told that their character depends on their moral courage.

They are required to model and promote the Pillars of Character Counts!

Are their teachers? their principals?
then all manner of mid level administrators and hangers on?
and then directors? then deputy superintendents?
then superintendent? and finally the school board,
required to model and promote
the Pillars of Character Counts!?

Students are accountable. Arguably, teachers are accountable.

Nobody else is.

Not the principals, not the directors, not the the deputy superintendents, not the superintendent, and not the school board.

Not one of whom will stand on the record and answer legitimate questions about administrative role modeling of the student standard of conduct.

Not one of them would replace in their own code of conduct
the following phrase;

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

This is not acceptable.

Larry Barker lacks follow through

Mr Barker uncovered an $43,000 scam involving APS good ol' boys.

And he is done.

The corruption and incompetence didn't even make the news the next day.


And the real story; that;

the system enables this, and no heads will roll

will never see the light of day.

Ignorantia juris non excusat, or, Ignorantia legis neminem excusat

"ignorance of the law does not excuse" or
"ignorance of the law excuses no one" wikilink

"... is a public policy holding that a person who is unaware
of a law may not escape liability for violating that law
merely because he or she was unaware of its content;
that is, persons have presumed knowledge of the law"

except for good ol' boys in the leadership of the APS.

An APS administrator cut a sweet deal for the husband of
another APS administrator. The deal cost taxpayers $43,000.
link

The principles claim that they didn't know that APS facilities couldn't be dedicated for their exclusive use, or that there were fees involved with that use.

No one has even been put on administrative leave with pay,
the usual consequence for good ol' boys who really screw up.

It sounds like a felony.

It will be investigated, no doubt, by a police department that reports directly to, and only to the leadership of the APS. Or, it will be investigated by a private investigator, who reports directly to, and only to the leadership of the APS.

The investigation will continue until what ever statutes of limitation that apply, have expired.

Just like they are doing with the investigation of felony criminal misconduct and conspiracy in the leadership of the APS Praetorian Guard, now almost two years ago.


How they continue to get away with this crap, dumbfounds me.

APS taxes teachers

The Journal reports that APS is cutting supply budgets in
an effort to make ends meet. link

As a former APS teacher,
I can tell you that though supply budgets may disappear,
the need for supplies doesn't,
and teachers will be forced to dig into their own pockets
to buy the supplies they need.

No mention was made of any supply budget cuts
at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

They apparently, will have all of the paper they need.

NMRP Chair, Allen Weh's replacement.

Joe Monahan link reports that Allen Weh is looking for his
replacement as the state chair of the NM Republican Party.

According to Monahan, Weh said;

"... I welcome a new chairman...
(one) who has character and integrity ..."

That makes two of us who will welcome that change.

I too, am looking for a state chair who has the character and
the integrity to give due process to my complaint against
Jon Barela .

The current leadership of the NMRP, Allen Weh, and NMRP Rules Committee Chair Lou Melvin, have come up short in the character and integrity department; my complaint has been languishing in some secret hiding place for well over than a month now.

Lou Melvin is ignoring emails and refuses to explain what
she has done with my complaint.

I am told that it will likely be ignored completely.

Will my next complaint, when Barela runs against other
republicans in the February school board elections, and
again refuses to vacate his state office in the NMRP,
as required by the state party rules, be ignored as well?

Seems likely.

Character and integrity in the leadership of the NMRP;

talk is cheap.

My credibility has been questioned.

I aver that, Winston Brooks will not answer legitimate questions, candidly, forthrightly and honestly.

"Anonymous" claims to be a witness and avers that;
Brooks will answer questions, that my "facts" are wrong,
and I need to "update" my blog.

Always willing to do my part; an update on the truth.

The truth and the proof are on Winston Brooks' plate.

All he has to do to prove that
he is willing to tell the truth to stakeholders,
is to tell the truth to stakeholders.

All he has to do is publish on the APS website
the time, the day, and the place
were he will stand still and answer any legitimate question
candidly, forthrightly, and honestly.


cc upon posting superintendent(at)aps.edu

Another silent public forum

APS records APS school board meetings, and then gives an
edited version to TalNet in order to have the meeting broadcast to stakeholders.

They hardly ever seem to get it right.

The more damning the coverage, the more likely that an "accident" will keep the truth from the public.

Last Wednesday, at the public forum of a board meeting,
I repeatedly alleged that

there never has been, and there is not now,
a single member of the leadership of the APS
with the character and the courage to engage in
a public discussion of administrative role modeling
of the student standard of conduct.

And now a reader informs me that, the audio of the entire meeting was missing from the TalNet broadcast of that meeting.

Oops, there must have been another "accident".

Rigo Chavez continues to hide the truth.

A third email has been sent to APS Custodian of Public Records, Rigo Chavez.

First emailed to you October 28, 2008
the second on 11/5/08

Mr. Chavez,

I insist that you stop playing games and identify the private investigation firm that investigated the APS Police Department in late 2006 and or early 2007.

Additionally, I would like to know how many pages there are in their report.

Tax payers pay Rigo Chavez probably $80-90K a year to tell the truth, both as the APS' Director of Communications and as APS' Custodian of Public Records.

Rigo Chavez refuses to reveal the name of the private investigation firm that looked into the public corruption and criminal conspiracy in the leadership of the APS Police Department.

For what reason, except to delay the release of the information until statutes of limitations expire on the criminal activity of senior APS administrators, and the good ol' boys go scot free?

Larry Barker covers another APS scam

KRQE investigative reporter Larry Barker has uncovered
what he calls a "sweet deal" in the APS that has cost
taxpayers more than $43K. link

KRQE says there are others who have used APS facilities
without paying $10K in user fees.

$53K would pay for half of an administrative accountability audit which would reveal the shortcomings in the system that allows these transgressions.

APS Superintendent Winston Brooks is opposed to such
an audit, in my opinion, to cover up for the good ol' boys who
allow and benefit from these and other sweet deals.

No other explanation for his refusal to begin an audit,
has been placed on the table by Brooks or anyone else in
the leadership of the APS.

Bottom line; there is no reason not to do an administrative accountability audit except to protect those whose corruption and incompetence would be exposed by such an audit.

If there were, Brooks and others would not be afraid to discuss the audit on the record, They would stand up and answer legitimate questions about the public interest, and

they steadfastly refuse to do so.

Robert Lucero's Tony Hillerman Middle School

A policy and instruction subcommittee meeting tomorrow morning will revisit the naming process for schools. link

There is a process in place for naming schools; School board policy F.02 link which Robert Lucero would happily ignore.

"Names of new facilities will be determined by the Board after public opinion has been solicited through a committee that includes representation from the Board and the administration, as well as the community, staff and student population of the proposed facility."

Lucero is spearheading an effort to name a middle school
after deceased author, Tony Hillerman.


What the heck, it is only a long standing past practice that protects the rights of stakeholders.

APS plans yard sale; proceeds could easily fund an honest audit.

APS is selling a bunch of used equipment worth $378,000 link
roughly three times as much money as they would need to pay
for a first class audit,

the net result of which would be a annual savings to tax payers
of perhaps millions of dollars.

Just me and the dead guys.

I place a great deal of importance upon role modeling.
Some would say that I place an inordinate amount of importance upon role modeling.

And yet, some would agree with me.

Example has more followers than reason.
John Christian Bovee

The best teachers of humanity are the lives of great men.
Charles H. Fowler

Very few men are wise by their own counsel, or learned by their own teaching. For he that was only taught by himself had a fool for his master.
Ben Johnson

No matter how lofty you are in your department, the responsibility for what your lowliest assistant is doing is yours.
Bessie Rowland James

My father didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.
Clarence Buddinton Kelland

We need to teach the next generation of children from day one that they are responsible for their lives.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Nothing is so infectious as example.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld

When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts.... A mother has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.
Sophia Loren

And that's just for starters.

These folks would go with me to a board meeting and stand up in favor of a public discussion of role modeling in the leadership of the Albuquerque Public Schools.

Unfortunately, they are for the most part, dead.

There are at least two exceptions; Michael Josephson and United States Senator Pete Domenici. They are both founding fathers of Character Counts!. They sat together years ago and decided that, if we did not teach our children to hold themselves honestly accountable to at least six pillars of character, we will have done them a huge disservice.

Michael Josephson will not stand up at a APS school board meeting and demand a public discussion of role modeling of the Pillars of Character Counts! I have asked him.

I have also asked United States Senator Pete Domenici,
founding father of Character Counts!,
to stand up at a board meeting and defend his found-child.

Josephson and Domenici are not alone in their refusal
to stand up for the Pillars of Character Counts!

I have asked the APS Character Counts! Leadership Council
and APS Character Counts Directors Carole Smith, and
Dee Dee Stroud to stand up in defense of the importance of
role modeling of the Pillars of Character Counts!

I have asked Mayor Marty Chavez, who calls himself a
founding father of Character Counts! to stand up at a
public forum and demand a public discussion of administrative
role modeling of the student standard of conduct.

United States Congresswoman Heather Wilson was asked to step up.

And yet, at the next public forum, when it comes time to stand up and insist upon a candid, forthright, and honest discussion of administrative role modeling of the student standard of conduct,

it will be just me and the dead guys.

The Rules Committee of the NMRP continues to disappoint

Lou Melvin, NMRPRC chair, is still in hiding.

She won't move on a hearing of my complaint against
Jon Barela, and she won't respond to my questions about
her failure. She won't explain to anyone else why the rules
committee has disappeared into secrecy on the issue of
Jon Barela's apparent violation of NMRP rules.

In the absence of a good and ethical reason to delay the
process, and in the absence of any explanation of the delay
at all,

it is fair to assume that Lou Melvin's process is corrupt.

And so is everyone else with their finger in this obfuscation
of justice, and the attendant cover up.

There is more than one reason that republicans were waxed
in this last election,

and this kind of conduct by the leadership of the NMRP
is one of those reasons.

Jon Barela challenged my standing.

I am told that Jon Barela's initial reaction to my complaint
that he violated Republican Party Rules when he ran against
other republicans, for the school board seat, without first
vacating his state office in the NMRP,

was to challenge my standing as a complainant,
arguing that I had "no right" to file a complaint.

This is exactly the good ol' boy behavior that I find so disgusting. Instead of stepping up to the complaint, he apparently wants to except himself from accountability to the rules, by dragging a red herring across the trail.

Well I do have standing as a complainant, and nothing that Jon Barela wants to do about that makes a wit of difference. My standing as a complainant does not play, at least not in any venue where character, and courage, and honor play.

Jon Barela's boat floats in many seas; one of them is the APS. In the APS, Jon Barela is one of the seven most senior role models in the entire district. More than a hundred thousand people look to him to set the example; 87,000 of them are students.

The example that Jon Barela is setting for students is worse than pitiful. Not only is he showing students that they should attack their complainant rather than addressing the complaint, but Jon Barela joins the eight most senior role models in the APS, without the character or the courage to talk about character and courage.

There is not one of them, with the character and the courage to model character and courage. They have all abdicated as role models, and they all steadfastly refuse to explain, defend, deny, or even acknowledge their abdication.

Jon Barela may be good for the good ol' boys,
but he is no good at all,
for 87,000 of our sons and daughters in the APS.

Those kids deserve role models,
those kids need role models;
role models of character, and courage, and honor

not of rule bending, cowardice, and other dishonorable
behavior,

there are more that enough role models of those already.


When George Washington was asked if he had chopped down
the cherry tree, should he have questioned his father's standing
as a complainant?

Is that why we tell the story to our kids?

Apparently, Jon Barela believes that it is.

I want to know who s/he is.

Winston Brooks is pretty sure that the APS has too many employees. link

He is not sure whether the district has "too many administrators, too many teachers, or too many custodians".

Over the last year, we paid some senior APS administrator
more than a hundred thousand dollars to make sure that
we had exactly the right number of administrators,
and teachers, and custodians.

Not only did s/he not get the proportions right, but
s/he doesn't even know in which direction they are skewed.

Either that, or s/he got the proportions wrong,
knows which way it is skewed (too many administrators),
but won't tell Winston Brooks.

So Winston Brooks has to show his ass to stakeholders
and reveal that nobody in his entire administration
has the slightest idea whether they have

"too many administrators, too many teachers,
or too many custodians".

If I were Winston, and somebody did that to me,
I would be pissed.

In fact, I would be so pissed that I would name the name
of the APS senior administrator who was paid $100K
to keep track of administrators, and teachers, and custodians,

but did not.

Then I would fire him, or her
for their incompetence.



This whole picture is a perfect illustration of the need for
a full scale accountability audit of the leadership of the APS.

It is also a perfect illustration of their need to prevent that audit.
And of their need to keep the need for an audit, secret from stakeholders.

Why is there not a single senior administrator in the entire APS

who knows the answer already, to the question;

"Does APS have too many administrators,
too many teachers, or too many custodians?"

Why will no one be held accountable for not being able to answer that question? In the last year, we paid that person at least $100K to know the answer to that question exactly.

How is it that, this late in the day,
Winston Brooks does not know, cannot figure out, and
no one can tell him,

whether he has "too many administrators, too many teachers,
or too many custodians?"

Winston Brooks eschews outside audit-again!

Andrea Schoellkopf reports in the Journal, link, today
that Winston Brooks has yet again refused an impartial
audit of administrative accountability in the APS.

"Brooks said APS would need to evaluate departments
and job functions, but said he did not yet want to seek
an external audit of effectiveness."

Every external audit that has ever been done of the leadership
of the APS has revealed significant administrative failures.

In a recent audit of the APS,
the Council of the Great City Schools auditors wrote;

Administrative evaluations, in the APS, are subjective
and unrelated to promotion or step placement.

When the APS was without a single CPA, on staff,
the state auditor offered the services of their auditors, and
APS declined, twice.

APS does not want state auditors looking at their (lack of)
financial record keeping.

APS needs an accountability audit.

Someone needs to come in looking for meaningful standards
of conduct and competence, and for honest accountability
to those standards.

They will find neither.

The most recent audit of the APS Finance Division, by
Meyners & Co, revealed neither standards nor accountability
in a division that spends 1.3 billion dollars annually.

The Meyners Audit revealed that the APS Finance Division has
forever been;

• without adequate written financially sound policies
• without accountability to the policies that they did have, and
• without keeping complete and accurate books.

Another audit by the CGCS revealed that anyone in the APS
who blows the whistle on any of these shenanigans will fall
victim to a "... culture of retribution and retaliation ..."

It is clear as crystal why Winston Brooks and the good ol' boys
don't want independent auditors scrutinizing their operation.

Less clear is how they are able to get away with it; and
get away with it, and
get away with it.

How can public servants in an organization wracked with
corruption and incompetence, simply refuse to be audited
in the public interest? They have shown over and over again
that trust in them is misplaced. Yet, Winston Brooks, et al
steadfastly refuse to be audited, insisting instead that
we trust them to audit themselves.

I don't, and neither should anyone else.

It is wrong for them, even to ask.

Celebrate the 8, conversation series

Winston Brooks and a herd of administrators are touring the
district, supposedly engaged in conversation with stakeholders.

I say "supposedly", because conversation in this context, means
no opportunity to ask legitimate questions about the public interest.

Although they claim to have gone to identify problems,
they return with no new problems to add to the list.

We know what the problems are.
There is no need to go looking for them.

Winston Brooks in trying to change the perception of the community, of the APS.

In so far as the perception is that they all lack the character and the courage to tell the truth, and, in so far as the perception is that they have abdicated as role models of the Student Standard of Conduct,

the perception is not changing.

Yet another illustrative example of a legitimate question that no one will answer.

If an impartial full scale forensic audit were done of the entire leadership of the APS,

if auditors came in looking for honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence,

if they looked for waste and the practices that enable it;
corruption and incompetence,

if they came in to ferret out the corrupt and the incompetent,


what would they find?

Winston Brooks: APS might be over staffed.

Gee, ya think?!

The Journal reports this morning, link, that Winston Brooks
is looking for places to trim the budget, and is looking at the
possibility that the APS may be "overstaffed".

APS' budget is staggering under the weight of the loss of $20M
from this years budget, and by the prospect of that same $20M
less in future budgets. APS had been over stating
teacher experience and the size of its special education staff,
so the state demanded a $20M refund from the APS, and
APS' budget will be $20M less than projected each year
in the future.

Journal reporter Andrea Schoellkopf writes; Brooks says
he thinks APS spends a higher percentage of its budget on
salaries than other large districts, yet its average salaries
are less than in those other districts. The conclusion; APS
may have too many people.

Schoellkopf continued; (Brooks) doesn't know "... whether
its too many administrators, too many teachers, or too many
custodians."

Yes, that's it; APS has too many custodians.

The kicker;

"While an audit might help determine what areas can be cut, Brooks said he'd prefer to first ask directors to review their departments for essential and less-important jobs."

Which begs the question, why are Directors just now getting around to reviewing their departments for less-important jobs?

Isn't this an admission that those Directors have allowed, enabled, or encouraged, bloating in their departments, heretofore?

Brooks' other plan; study "equivalent" school districts.

"The budget transition team , (Brooks) said, is looking at other school districts to determine pupil-teacher ratios and the administrator staffing levels needed at the schools."

Basically, Brooks new plan is the same old plan;

• a completely meaningless comparison between APS other administratively bloated school districts, and
• count on the same people who overstaffed their departments in the first place, to identify the mistakes they made, accept accountability for them, and then correct them.

Brooks, according to Schoellkopf, rejects the idea of an impartial outside audit.

Competent auditors could come into the district looking for honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence for the senior public servants who administer the public trust and treasure. Independent auditors will ferret out waste and the practices that enable them; corruption and incompetence.

They will individually identify the corrupt and the incompetent in the leadership of the APS.

For example, they would probably point out that having two senior administrators who's job it is to promote Character Counts! in a district that is abandoning Character Counts! as quickly as it is able, is probably a waste of two administrators.

They would probably conclude that spending millions of dollars annually on a Praetorian Guard; (a publicly funded, private police force that reports directly, and only, to the good ol' boys), is probably a waste of millions of dollars annually.

They would probably conclude that paying a disgruntled former employee tens of thousands of tax dollars not to take evidence of administrative felony criminal misconduct, to police, is probably a squandering of the public trust and treasure.

They would find that spending who knows what, to keep secret, the public corruption and criminal conspiracy in the leadership of the APS, is probably a squandering of the public trust and treasure.

They would find that spending a billion tax dollars a year,
according to the results of the Meyner Audit;

• without financially sound policies and procedures, and
• without honest accountability to any meaningful standard of conduct at all, and
• without keeping records accurate enough to send anyone to jail

is probably a waste of tax dollars. Unless a miracle of biblical proportion has taken place, there are likely millions of tax dollars gone missing to waste and corruption.

Winston Brooks will not answer a single question about the scandal. Winston Brooks will not stand on the record and tell stakeholders whether or not the Meyners auditors uncovered criminal misconduct.

Nor will Winston Brooks answer questions about felony criminal misconduct and APS senior leadership involved in the APS Police Department scandal. The scandal includes felony criminal abuse of the NCIC data base, on Darren White's watch. The scandal continues for as long as District Attorney Kari Brandenburg continues to ignore felony public corruption in the leadership of the APS. Statutes of limitation are about to expire. The good ol' boys are about to go free.




The audit would conclude that the problem in the APS
is not that we have too many teachers,
nor, would they conclude that, we have too many custodians.




Winston Brooks and the leadership of the APS stand four square against any audit that will reveal waste due to the corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS.

They do so, not to protect the public interests, but to protect the interests of the good ol' boys who were steering the bus when it left the road, and who are now trying desperately to get the bus back on the road, without getting ticketed for their negligent driving.

An impartial administrative accountability audit of the leadership of the APS, will identify all of the problems on the administrative side of the equation. Which is precisely why the good ol' boys will avoid an honest audit at any cost.

School Board head honcho, Paula Maes, who's husband's law firm makes millions of dollars off taxpayers and the APS, has stated on the record, that she will not allow any audit that individually identifies corrupt and incompetent administrators.

A lean administration would not only save money, but it would
inspire "teachers and custodians" to accept frugality in their lives as well. They call it leading by example.

It is time to tell the truth, Superintendent Brooks.
It is time to lay the cards on the table for everyone to see.

Ethically redacted truth

It begins with the whole truth; belonging to no one because
it belongs to everyone.

Then comes redaction of the truth.
Some parts of the truth are kept secret.

If the rules of redaction are consistent with a meaningful
standard of conduct, the public interest is protected.

The only principle that applies to APS Modrall redaction is

1. inconvenient truth will be redacted.

If the rules of redaction are;
there are no rules that apply to APS Modrall,
the public interest is not protected.

The public interest is in fact being betrayed by
public servants hiding the truth from stakeholders.

The truth is being hidden to protect the good ol' boys from
the consequences of their corruption and their incompetence.

The public interest is not being protected by the secrecy
hiding the ethics and accountability scandal
in the leadership of the APS.

Our trust in them is being betrayed.

Is it fair to say; The leadership of the APS cannot summon the character and the courage, to talk about character and courage?

On the table;

It has been strongly suggested that the leadership of the APS is abandoning Character Counts! because they personally lack the character and the courage to hold themselves honestly accountable to that nationally recognized, accepted, and respected code of ethical conduct.

They have been given every opportunity to offer any other explanation at all for their lack of accountability as role models of the student standards of conduct; the Pillars of Character Counts!

All they do is stonewall.

Stonewalling is not an acceptable response to a legitimate question about the public interest.

• Stonewalling is a blatant violation of the standard of conduct to which these "leaders" hold students accountable.
• Stonewalling is dishonest. Honest accountability to any meaningful standard of conduct at all, demands the telling of the truth; candidly, forthrightly, honestly.
• There is no good and ethical reason to stonewall.
• Stonewalling is the only defense of an indefensible position.
• It is cowardice and dishonesty in one.
  

Why hasn't the Journal's education reporter written
the truth about the ethics and accountability scandal
in the leadership of the APS?

Dear, NM Republican Party Rules Committee

What's up?

Now that the election is over, there really is no reason at all not to have a hearing of the complaint against Jon Barela. Will you allow him to ignore the party rules, or what?

Inquiring minds want to know,
and due process demands to know.

It has now been 34 days since the complaint was first filed,
and a month since Rules Committee Chair Lou Melvin
stopped responding to my questions about due process
and the complaint.

School Board passes campaign finance reform; sort of.

Marty Esquivel's motion to ask board candidates to pretty please disclose campaign finances, has passed the board.

Candidates will now be "asked" to disclose campaign finances.

Like their "code of ethics", the new measure is completely unenforceable.


Side note; Marty Esquivel, who earned roughly tens times as many votes as I did in the 2007 election, admits spending $16,000 dollars for his campaign, or roughly $11.00 for each vote cast in his favor.

I probably spent closer to $11.00 in total.

Which begs at least a few questions;

Do we want to limit school board participation to those who can afford to pay $10 per vote to get in, or do we want to open it up to the less well hooked up?

Who can afford to spend $16,000 for a school board seat that pays far less than that, per year?

Why does the rest of the state get to screw up our school board?

A constitutional amendment was passed yesterday, statewide.

It increases the size of the APS school board from 7 members to 9. It does not apply to any other school district in the state.

KRQE reports that that amendment was rejected by city voters; the only real stakeholders in the decision.

Never the less, we will add two more members to a group that already takes forever to talk about everything. Ironically, Robert Lucero, who wastes more time at board meetings than all of the rest together, is a proponent for more people on the board; more people to listen to him when he talks, and talks, and talks.

My Public Forum presentation.

The national celebration of Character Counts! Week has come and gone without notice by the leadership of the APS.

Because Character Counts! itself, has come and gone without notice by the leadership of the APS.

There was an opportunity to proactively address nearly every problem we face at school, efficiently and effectively.

That opportunity has come and gone.

The opportunity was missed because there has never been, and there is not now;

a single member of the leadership of the APS with the character and the courage to step up to honest accountability as a role model of the Pillars of Character Counts!


Character Counts! in the APS is an abysmal failure because there has never been, and there is not now a single school board member with the character and the courage to step up as a role model of the student standard of conduct.

Character Counts! in the APS is an abysmal failure because there has never been, and there is not now a superintendent with the character and the courage to step up as a role model of the student standard of conduct.

Character Counts! in the APS is an abysmal failure because there has never been, and there is not now a single administrator anywhere the leadership of the Albuquerque public schools with the character and the courage to step up as role model of the student standard of conduct,

for even the few hours a day that they hold students accountable to those standards.

If there is any other explanation at all, I cannot imagine it.

If there is any other explanation at all, I cannot imagine why you will not explain it to us.

Explain it to us in words that a child can understand.

Explain to us, why they are accountable to the Pillars of Character Counts! and you are not.

It was met with the usual stonewalling;
half of them hiding their faces in their laptops, and
half of them facing the music.

I will give Superintendent Winston Brooks this;
he is looking me in the eye.
So is Marty Esquivel, Jon Barela, and Delores Griego.

But during "Matters of Information", after the Public Forum,
not one of them could summon the character and the courage,
to talk about character and courage.

Not one of them could summon the character and the courage
to be a role model of character and courage.


There is an elephant in the room.
Its tailed is draped over your head front to back.

If you can't see it, can't you at least smell it?

It takes character and courage to accept honest accountability as a role model

and there is only one reason that anyone in the leadership
of the APS would not accept that accountability;

they lack the character, and/or
they lack the courage.


If there is any other reason at all,
I cannot imagine it.



And neither can anyone in the leadership of the APS.



Character Counts! in the Albuquerque Public Schools
is an abysmal failure because there never has been,
and there is not now,
a single administrator or board member in the entire APS
with both the character and the courage to hold them self
honestly accountable as a role model of the student standard of conduct.





You pick a side, when you don't pick a side.

APS' Rigo Chavez, continues to hide the truth.

On October 28, 2008, the following letter was sent to APS'
Custodian of Public Records, and Director of Communications, Rigo Chavez;

Mr. Chavez,

I insist that you stop playing games and identify the private investigation firm that investigated the APS Police Department in late 2006 and or early 2007.

Additionally, I would like to know how many pages there are in their report.

It is now 9 days later, and he is yet to respond.

I suspect he will claim again that my email was somehow lost in the ether and he never saw it.

I suspect that he will keep the name of the private investigator secret until statutes of limitations have expired, and the good ol' boys escape accountability to the law, again.

Journal editors rightly upset

There are two editorial opinions in the Journal this morning.

Both have to do with public records that are being hidden
from public knowledge by public servants.

In one case, link, a consultant's report on the risk an old landfill poses to groundwater, is being hidden from those who will drink the water.

"... despite an opinion from the New Mexico Attorney General's Office that says “the public has a right to know” what the report contains. And that's despite a state district judge's ruling that the report is a public document."

In the other, link, an investigation into what happened to hundreds of developmentally disabled clients discharged from state institutions, is being hidden from public knowledge. Your tax dollars paid a lawyer to argue;

“any documentation in our possession is subject to attorney-client privilege, the attorney work-product doctrine, executive privilege and the deliberative process privilege.”

The editors point out;

"(Governor) Richardson has decided any state documents are not only not public record, but handing them over would be excessively burdensome."

If you read about the NMIPRA, you will find the availability of public records is essential to public oversight over their government.

You will find out as well, that the law is feckless. Even with lawyers of your own, you cannot get public servants to obey the law.

The editors entitled this opinion;

"Governor's Investigation Accountable to No One"

So the Journal editors do get it,
why won't they do anything about it?

There is only one reason to hide the truth;

to except public servants from accountability for their
non, mis, and malfeasance.

They are hiding the truth to their advantage, not ours.

Until the NMIPRA includes criminal penalties for public servants who hide public records, they will continue to hide public records and the truth from stakeholders, and we will pay for the lawyers that are screwing us out of the truth.

They will get away with it, for as long as we allow them.

Otherwise, they will keep these cases in the courts,
at huge expense to you, until the developmentally disabled clients have all died, and the ground water has all been drunk.

Closer to home, the leadership of the APS is still hiding public records of public corruption and incompetence in leadership of their Police Department, their Finance Division, their overall lack of standards and accountability, and their litigation to except themselves from accountability to law.

Governor Richardson and state government are beyond our influence. The leadership of the APS is not.

It begins by insisting that the leadership of the APS,
tell the (ethically redacted) truth for once, and at once.

It begins by insisting that the leadership of the APS provide a time, a day, and a place where they will answer legitimate questions, candidly, forthrightly, and honestly.

And not taking no for an answer.

Laying down the gauntlet

The obscure phrase, dates apparently to medieval times;
the days of chivalry and combat, the days of character and courage.

Throwing down the gauntlet, a heavy glove,
was the method of choice for challenging another knight
to a duel.

Picking the gauntlet up was the signal that the challenge had been accepted.

Hollywood apparently added the part where they took turns
slapping each other in the face.

I am laying down the gauntlet for "the leadership" of the Albuquerque Public Schools.

I challenge every "leader" in the APS to a duel.

Consider yourself slapped in the face by the declaration;

There is not a single leader in the APS,
with character and courage enough,
to hold themselves honestly accountable
as a role model of the student standard of conduct.

There is an opportunity for the "leaders" in the APS to defend their honor by standing up on the record, as willing role models of the student standard of conduct.


There is a public forum at 5pm Wednesday, November 5,
Uptown Complex, 6400 Uptown Blvd.

APS Bill Reed responds on the record.

APS top cop, Bill Reed has responded to my allegations in my post entitled; Winston Brooks' Castle Keep. link

Good Morning Mr. MacQuigg:

I take the following issues with your blog, on the record.

1.  All of our sworn personnel including myself, are State Certified Police Officers, Certified by the New Law Enforcement Academy, subject to all laws governing police officers.  This includes adherence to a code of ethics, subject to revocation of their certification for misconduct and violations of the law.

2.  My Department works directly under, and I answer to the Chief Operating Officer, Dr. Brad Winter, not Winston Brooks.

3.  No sworn police officers were taken out of the schools to provide security here at City Centre, our priority remains the students.

4.  People attending Board Meetings will not be required to sign in or out during those meetings, they will be free to come and go.  If you were required to sign in for a Board meeting that was a mistake.  As with any new procedure, there are kinks that need to be worked out.

Finally, I hope that you will set the record straight on your blog  regarding the status of our police officers.

Sincerely,

Bill

Bill Reed
Albuquerque Public Schools
Director of School Police

And my response;

1. I did not state that individuals on the APS Police Department were uncertified, unaccredited, or in any other way unqualified to protect students and staff in the APS.

I argued, and still do, that the department itself can claim no accreditation or certification. My argument is based on a letter to me in response to my question;

Is the APS Police Department accredited, certificated, or certified by anyone?

to which then APS Chief of Police, Lovato replied;

"no".

Bill Reed would be hard pressed I think, to point to anything that I have ever written that impugned the honor any individual member of the Department. I think that I have also been extremely careful not to associate the motives of the leadership of the APS with Bill Reed's personal motives.

2. I stand corrected. The APS Police Department reports to Brad Winter.

Brad Winter is the guy who refuses to tell us how much money he spent building a fancy new board room, with money he saved by eliminating fire safety inspections in schools.

I would suppose that Brad Winter also had something to do with promoting two people who did not blow the whistle in the irregularities pointed out by the Meyners Audit, to positions, Chief Financial Officer, and Director of Internal Audits, where they might be instrumental in covering up administrative incompetence and corruption, and their failure to report it years ago.

Never the less, I still hold Winston Brooks absolutely accountable for his use of the APS Police Department.

3. To me, this seems like a distinction without a difference,
but anything I write from now on will reflect that the guards are not sworn officers.

4. I accept that a mistake was made and that, I will not have to surrender my id again.

The Journal also reported link that the new procedures applied to those going to board meetings. So my confusion is legitimate. The Journal wrote;

"That means anyone wanting access to the public offices, including the Student Service Center, the fingerprint area for volunteers or even school board meetings will have to first present a photo ID when entering the lobby of 6400 Uptown NE."

Sounds like a job for communications guru, Monica Armenta.

And finally,

"Finally, I hope that you will set the record straight on your blog regarding the status of our police officers."

Frankly, I take umbrage. I have never, ever, not set the record straight.

I think it is fair to point out that this is my 2,593rd post.
I have never been substantially contradicted on anything that I have ever written.

The truth is that no one in the entire leadership of the APS will do anything about my allegations except to stonewall them. Bill Reed remains the only senior administrator in the entire APS with the character and the courage to defend his character on the record. He is the only senior administrator in the entire APS unwilling to sit back and be painted with the brush that reads; "the leadership of the APS" and their corruption and incompetence.

The rest of the "leadership of the APS" is stonewalling me
because I am telling the truth,
not because I am telling lies.

My several credible allegations of an ethics and accountability
scandal in the leadership of the APS are not being ignored
because false;

they are being ignored because they are absolutely true.

Winston Brooks' Castle Keep

Castle keep; wikilink

I have been disturbed ever since I had to surrender my drivers license in order to go to a board meeting.

I get it. I understand that someone walked into a bathroom and found someone "bathing". And some purses and a car were stolen. link But is this overkill?

APS' top cop, Bill Reed is in between a rock and a hard place.
He will be damned for allocating too many resources, or too few.
Enough said. The resource allocation is not what is bugging me.

What is creeping me out is that, all of the loyal troops, their power,
and their resources are being called back into the Uptown digs.

There are no windows, and now all of the doors are locked
but one.

And that one is "guarded" 24/7, by their Praetorian Guard.
wikilink

• They are a private police force.
• They report directly to Winston Brooks, and
• they report only to Winston Brooks.
• They are certified by no one, and
  
• they are accredited by no one.
• They, and private investigators, gather and hold all of the evidence of even criminal misconduct by APS administrators.

Two years later, evidence of felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators, including the past commander of their Praetorian Guard still has not been surrendered to the District Attorney's Office.

Evidence of public corruption and criminal conspiracy in the leadership of the APS Police Department, and their chain of command, is still secret from public knowledge.

Statutes of limitation expire within months.

Recollect for me the circumstances of the criminal prosecution
of a senior APS administrator, ever.

Stakeholders have been locked out of the process, and
they are now locked out of the building.

Winston Brooks will not answer questions.
He steadfastly refuses to name a time, a day, and a place,
where he will finally sit and tell the truth;
where he will answer every legitimate question, candidly,
forthrightly, and honestly.


The only thing missing;

APS Police Department snipers on the roof.




photo by Mark Bralley link

The leadership of the APS, and their body maps

Recollect for me please, the name of a single senior APS administrator that was "fired" by the leadership of the APS, except by means of an extended paid administrative leave and a bootfull of cash.
(usually on the order of several hundred thousand dollars)

Which begs the question;

Why can't the leadership of the APS fire a
senior administrator without paying them off?

The only answer is that fired senior administators, and their lawyers, have some leverage.

Unless you can point to another possibility; that leverage is a body map.

Former, APS Police Chief Gil Lovato said that when his body map became public, there would not be a single senior APS administrator left standing.

Rather than having Lovato expose his map to the record in an open courtroom, he was "retired" by means of$40K worth of paid leave, and
apparently will not have to reimburse the APS evidence room for
missing money.

If an organization tolerates corruption and incompetence,
then one does not rise to seniority in that organization
without a body map.

If there were any other explanation at all,
must less a good and ethical explanation,
other than that

the leadership of the APS is wracked with
corruption and incompetence,
and tax dollars are being spent to cover it up.

they wouldn't have to stonewall the question.



As a corollary;
When APS Deputy Superintendent Michael Vigil was arrested for aggravated drunk driving, APS board member Robert Lucero insisted on his immediate termination. Lucero's argument was that Michael Vigil had failed so badly as a role model for students, that he deserved termination. (In the end, Vigil continued to "work" at full salary for some time, apparently doing nothing, and then he left with a quarter mil in unwitting tax payer support for education.)

Now consider Robert Lucero's failure as a role model;

• he voted to remove from his own standard of conduct, the phrase;

  in no case shall the standard of conduct for an adult (him) be lower than the standard of conduct for students, and

• he voted to deny whistle blower protection to those who expose ethical misconduct by administrators or board members, and
• he tabled a motion before the board, which would have created a policy that would require APS administrators to respond to legitimate questions, candidly, forthrightly, and honestly.
• he voted for himself a code of ethical conduct that even he admits is completely unenforceable.
  

But mostly, Robert Lucero will not now stand up
and hold himself accountable as role model for students and staff.

Robert Lucero will not answer the question;

Will you hold yourself accountable as a role model for students?

Robert Lucero cannot manifest the character and courage even
to talk about character and courage.

His lack of character and courage sets a far worse example for students, than Michael Vigil's drunk driving.

Yet, Robert Lucero will not be held accountable for his failure as a role model.

Because, in truth, there is no one in the entire leadership of the APS with any interest at all in talking about accountability. There is not one willing to be held honestly accountable as a role model of a standard of conduct which requires them to tell the truth.

Because, in truth, there is no one in the entire leadership of the APS with any interest at all in being held honestly accountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence.

If there were, they would be standing up and demanding an immediate impartial accountability audit of the entire leadership of the APS.

Security ramped up at APS' Uptown Complex

I have oft encouraged stakeholders to tour the Uptown digs
of the leadership of the APS. I think they should see the
opulent offices where men sit and decide that there is not
money enough left over, to give the poor EAs a raise.

The tour will now be harder to accomplish.

Responding to "a high number of transients" using facilities
inappropriately and leaving messes, the leadership has decided
to ramp up security on the building. Visitors now have to
enter through the front of the building and surrender their
drivers license in exchange for a visitor pass.

I was not required to declare my destination, since I had
been cut off on the way into a scheduled board meeting,
but I would not be surprised to find that destination declaration
will be part of the piece, and that anyone who declares that
they want to inspect for opulence through out the building will
find their plan rejected.

Following Monday, story in the Journal; link

APS Chief Financial Officer Gina Hickman

Seeing her in the audience of the board meeting, reminded me that no one has yet offered any explanation why she was promoted to CFO, even though she did not blow the whistle on the profound departmental shortcomings finally identified by Meyners auditors;

• inadequate policies and procedures,
• inadequate accountability, and
• inadequate record keeping.

Nor have we any explanation why Michael Kimbrell, another subordinate who didn't blow the whistle on the shenanigans in the APS Finance Division, has been promoted to Director of Internal Audits.

The appointments of those who did nothing to draw attention to the problems when they were integral to them, to positions from which a cover up can be mounted, creates the appearance of impropriety.

The leadership of the APS steadfastly refuses to answer legitimate questions surrounding what could be the loss to taxpayers of millions of tax dollars wasted or stolen;

compounding the appearance of impropriety.

AVID on the horizon in APS Schools

The program is expensive and supposedly very effective.
link

Winston Brooks has experience with it in Wichita and is a big proponent.

Jon Barela (APS Foundation) said the he is hooked up with those who could donate the millions of dollars that it would cost to implement it.

Stay tuned.

15 walk throughs a week for APS principals

If I understood correctly, Winston Brooks has ordered principals
to do 15 walk throughs of their schools each week.

On the face of it, it seems like a great idea; no more principals
too busy in their offices to know what is going on in their schools.

Unclear at this point, where do principals find the extra hours in a day, to do the walk throughs?

A high school principal could easily spend an hour walking through a school. Even an elementary school principal might well spend an hour on such a venture.

Where do the extra hours come from; who will do the work that the principals are doing in their offices that keeps them from walking through their schools in the first place?

Board eschews micro management

Subsequent to the Houston training, the board is apparently
of a mind to draw more distinct lines between their responsibilities as board members, and the responsibilities of the superintendent.

Our board, some members more than others, has a tendency to involve itself inappropriately in the business of administration. Their job is to hire a superintendent, not do the work of a superintendent.

Take for example, the struggle between the teaching assistants and the district. It is a management issue; it is Winston Brooks responsibility to settle the dispute. Yet Robert Lucero has managed to insert himself into the mix, again finding a way to get on TV to voice his opinion. He has even been accused of starting the rumor of a planned "sick out" to be staged by the assistants.

Line drawing on respective responsibilities seems prudent, and overdue.

Constitutional Amendment 1; nine member school board and mail in ballots.

I think the amendment is going nowhere because there are two
questions on a single ballot; a nine member school board, and
mail in balloting. I am under the impression that two questions
cannot be settled by one vote.

In any case, should APS have a nine member board?

The consensus of the board was that nine members would
make the process unbearably ponderous, it is hard enough
to get seven people to agree on something, much less nine.

Which leads to a fundamental flaw in school board meetings,
and meetings in general in the APS.

The leadership of the APS does not believe in meeting facilitation. one link of 502,000 hits for "meeting facilitators".

No matter how talented one is as a board member or administrator, it does not follow that one is a talented meeting facilitator, or even a productive committee member.

Take for example, yesterday morning's board meeting.
The purpose of the meeting was to debrief on the learning
that the board experienced on their trip to Houston.

Robert Lucero spent fully a tenth of the meeting, talking about his idea to subvert the school naming process, and name the next APS school after Tony Hillerman.

At the end of the meeting, it was obvious that there was ground uncovered, yet the meeting ended relatively on time as required.

Had there been a facilitator, Robert Lucero could have been cut at least a little shorter, and more of the meat of the meeting could have been chewed.

I cannot tell you how many meetings I attended as a teacher,
meetings, some of profound importance, that dissolved into
interpersonal squabbles and time wasted while certain others
droned on about one thing or another.

The lack of facilitation at meetings, and the lack of training on how to be a productive participant in a meeting, has an immeasurable, but significant cost.

Stakeholders cannot simply be involved without preparation and training.

The board could use a facilitator, and a parliamentarian.

A meeting facilitator needs to be skilled in keeping meetings on track. They don't have to be conversant in the subjects of meetings; the expertise is brought to the table by the participants.

The board had a person at the meeting who's job it was to take notes on a large easel. For what purpose, to what end? For the same investment of resources, a facilitator could have been furnished.

Perhaps we would have listened more to board members reactions to their training, and less to Robert Lucero's need to spearhead a school naming campaign.