How many sitting APS school board members

will sign a sworn affidavit, under oath, and under penalty of perjury, that the APS school board has not violated the NM Open Meetings Act in any of their executive sessions (meetings in secret)?

Evidence introduced in federal court proved at least one instance of a blatant OMA violation during one of their meetings in secret.

Former APS School Board Member Kathy Korte has stated on social media on several occasions that the Open Meetings Act was violated while she was on the board.

Proof of the violations will be hard to come by because there is no proof. Nor will there ever be any proof of their OMA violations in their meetings in secret. 

There will be no proof, no evidence, because the board, by their own deliberate decision, does not make any actual recordings of their meetings.  Personal recollections of a note taker serve as the “public record”. Violations of the Open Meetings Act are not recollected.

Why would the board not record their deliberations except to hide the record of their own (mis)conduct during these meetings?

The recordings would not be available for public inspection except by the order of a judge and court of law. 

What does the board do behind closed doors that must not only be hidden from stake and interest holders, but also must be hidden from judges and courts of law?

...except break the law?

Are APS school board members and senior administrators honestly accountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence?

Or are they really spending millions dollars on cost-is-no-object legal defenses that render them unaccountable even to the law?

Are they honestly accountable as the senior most role models of the standards of conduct that they establish and enforce upon students?

Or did they abdicate en masse one night when they voted unanimously to remove the role modeling clause from their own standards of conduct? It had read; in no case shall the standards of conduct for an adult be lower than the standards of conduct for students.

The leadership of the APS cannot deny; they have heard the questions.

They spent the better part of a million tax dollars in one recent lawsuit alone, in an effort to not be asked the questions in public ever again. The dollars they spent came from the “operational fund”. They were dollars that could, would and should have been spent in classrooms.

Instead, they were spent on litigation and legal weaselry. The result; school board members and senior administrators were allowed to “admit no guilt” in the face of their abundant guilt.

The decisions the school board makes, about how many operational dollars will be spent on litigation, are made in meetings in secret. By their own deliberate decision, no recordings of the meetings are made. By their own deliberate decision, there is no oversight in the meetings. Subordinate oversight is not oversight. It is oxymoronic.

They squander so much money on litigation and legal weaselry, United Educators (the district’s insurer) charges the district higher insurance premiums (paid from the operational fund) than comparable school districts.

The leadership of the APS does not want to answer questions about ethics, standards and accountability. What compels their reticence?

• Except that they really cannot point to high enough standards of conduct and competence?
  
  
• Except that they cannot point to due processes by which they can be held actually, honest to God accountable to any standards of conduct at all; even the law.

The Albuquerque Journal has made a deliberate decision.

The Journal will not investigate and report upon ethics, standards and accountability in the leadership of the APS. Not even in the face of mill levy, bond issue, and school board member elections.

Not to report that there is a scandal;and
not to report that there is not.

Questions about ethics, standards and accountability in the leadership of the APS, will not be asked by the Journal.

Nor will they be asked by any of the so called “investigative reporters” of the NM Broadcasters Assoc.

Coincidentally, the NM BA’s President and CEO is a former APS school board president. During most times relevant, she was sharing by marriage, in the discharge from the large bore pipeline from the operational fund into select local law firm coffers.

Somebody else is going to have to ask these questions.

Everybody else is going to have to ask these questions.

Show up at upcoming public forums. Ask questions.
Keeping asking until they answer.

Do it for the children.

Graduation rates; Abq Journal spreading APS deception

There are a number of measures of the success of a school district.  One of them is graduation rates; the percentage of students who begin high school and who finish high school.  Others include for example; standardized test scores like the ACT and SAT.

APS’ graduation rates are rising in the face of test scores that remain static or are actually falling.  Why is there a discrepancy?  If the APS is actually doing a better job of educating this community’s sons and daughters as they would have voters believe, wouldn’t all or most of the other indicators being rising together?

Why their focus on graduation rates?

Graduation rates are easily manipulated.  When APS decided to give students five years to graduate instead of four, graduation rates went up.  When APS decided to drop students from the graduation rate calculation if they had already failed the 9^th grade, graduation rates went up.

So why do graduation rates always come up when evaluating the APS?  Why are all of the other indicators ignored when the Journal publishes articles on the APS?

That the leadership of the APS would want to focus on their new improved graduation rates comes as no surprise.  That the Journal invariably follows APS’ lead unfortunately comes as no surprise either. 

There is an election coming up.   In less than a month, voters will cast ballots on nearly a third of a billion dollars and three school board members.

The Journal is yet to report one word on the ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS; not even to report that it does not exist.

Why, if the Journal could report that the leadership of the APS is actually, honest to God accountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence within their public service, won’t they?

Why, if the Journal could report that there is in fact, an accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS; that the board and administration are in fact spending millions of operational dollars on cost-is-no-object legal defenses in pursuit of “admissions no guilt”; that the school board’s own code of ethics is utterly unenforceable; that felony criminal misconduct is being covered up, wouldn’t they report it?

The point is; they won’t even look.

Ayn Rand offered; 

"To fear to face an issue is to believe that the worst is true. and

There are no evil thoughts except one: the refusal to think. (investigate?)

The Alb Journal is part and parcel in the cover up of an ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

I will bow to controverting evidence.  In particular, to any candid, forthright and honest investigation and report on ethics, standards and accountability in the leadership of the APS

Déjà vu all over again?

Journal editors are upset again, link - over misbehaving soccer parents.
 
On Tuesday, August 05, 2008, the Journal published an article called Code of Conduct for APS Parents, link.
 
Nothing has changed in the intervening decade.

Perhaps it is because people, who are unwilling to enforce ethical codes of conduct upon themselves, find it impossibly difficult to enforce ethical codes of conduct upon others.

About two years before the 2008 article, the leadership of the APS had decided to abdicate their responsibilities as the senior most role models of student standards of conduct.  They took a vote one night, and voted unanimously, to remove from their own standards of conduct, a role modeling clause .  It had read;

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

Their abandonment of their responsibilities as role models represented, and still does, the end of any district wide effort to grow character in students; to teach them how to behave at soccer games.

Since their abdication en masse, there have been double standards of conduct in the APS; students are expected to model and promote honest accountability to a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethics while their senior most executive and administrative "role models" are arguably unaccountable even to the law.

There is not a single school board member or senior administrator anywhere in the entire leadership of the APS who will be held honest to God accountable to the same standards of conduct that they establish and enforce upon students.

Not one.

I've asked.

You would be hard pressed to find more than one or two of them who know what are the APS student standards of conduct.  They are, and have been since the passage of a school board resolution in 1994, the Pillars of Character Counts! link  A more precise delineation lies in a booklet named Making Ethical Decisions link. 

If any of them are honestly accountable to meaningful (higher) standards conduct, wouldn't they be proud to publish them?  If they are actually, honestly accountable to those standards, wouldn't they be as proud to point to the due processes they make available to stake and interest holders?

There is only one reason to hide the truth; 
to avoid the consequences of the truth being known.

Something to think about in light of up coming elections, in which the leadership of the APS claims fitness as stewards of nearly a third of a billion dollars.  In that endeavor, they are utterly unaccountable to their own code of ethics in spending those dollars in the best interests of students.

When will the Journal write an editorial calling for an executive and administrative standards and accountability audit?  

When will it be shown at once and for all, that the leadership of the APS are or are not honest to God accountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence at least for those hours in the day when we are compelled to lay our trust and treasure in their hands.

It could be argued, based on the history of the board and the Journal in the more than a decade since the ethics, standards and accountability crisis manifest itself in the removal of the role modeling clause, a number of other things will likely occur first.

• pigs will fly,
• fish will speak,
• rocks won't sink,
• snakes will smoke,
• frogs will grow hair,
• hell will freeze over,
• chickens will grow teeth,
• fish will climb poplar trees,
• grapes will grow on willows,
• the sun will rise in the west,
• white crows will fly upside down,
• crayfish will whistle on the mountain,
• and, monkeys will fly out of my ass.

Adynatons; wikilink

APS leaders are not accountable any “higher standards” of conduct.

Is that acceptable?

What are “higher standards” of conduct?

A higher standard means higher than “the law”. “The law” represents the lowest standards of conduct that are acceptable to civilized human beings; once high notions whittled down by centuries of legal weaselry in the interests of the powerful.

Whatever else “higher standards of conduct than the law” include; they include truth telling; candor, forthrightness and honesty.

Should school board members and senior administrators be accountable to standards of conduct that include truth telling?

They are not now.

APS leaders cannot be compelled to tell the truth under the law because they cannot be held accountable to higher standards of conduct in a court of lower standards; the law.

Consequent to their unbridled spending on cost-is-no-object legal defenses; all the lawyers, litigation, and legal weaselry money can buy; APS school board members and senior administrators are arguably unaccountable even to the law.

The leadership of the APS does claim accountability to higher standards of conduct. The school board for example, has their own code of ethics.

It is, by their own free admission; utterly unenforceable. The NM School Boards Assoc. also has a code of ethics to which they claim accountability; likewise; utterly unenforceable.

Voters are at a fork in the road. They will be encouraged to disregard the lack of accountability in the leadership of the APS and to consider instead; (only) the interests of students.

Or, voters can finally insist upon honest to God accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence in the leadership of the APS.

The leadership of the APS must come to understand that they have no choice but to;

Point to their high enough standards of conduct and competence, and then prove their accountability to those standards by due process,
or be denied the passage of a single bond issue or mill levy until they do.

Vote no on the APS mill levy and bond issue, for the right reason

A number of people are talking out loud about voting no on November 5th; voting no to the APS Mill Levy and Bond Issue.

Some intend to vote no based on well-reasoned thought.  Some intend to vote no because they "always vote no on bond issues and mill levies."

The leadership of the APS will want to spin the defeat by characterizing the naysayers as unreasoning.  That will be less easy if those who vote no, vote no with a message.  A message like; 

Before another bond issue or mill levy will pass, the leadership of the APS will meet two benchmarks.  They will prove to the satisfaction of voters that; 

1.      School board members and senior administrators have standards of conduct and competence that are high enough to protect the public interests in the public schools, and then that; 

2.      They are actually, honest to God accountable to those standards by some due process(es) actually available to stake and interest holders.

Dear APS School Board and senior administrators,

Prove you have high standards, and

prove you are actually accountable to them, or

we will vote down every mill levy and

bond issue until you do

Couldn't the Alb Journal cover even one allegation concerning the leadership of the APS?

Perhaps a story the size of “an ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS” is too big for the Journal to undertake, even in the face of school board member elections, a mill levy and a bond issue worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

So here is a smaller bite; well within the capabilities and responsibilities of a newspaper like the Alb Journal.

Investigate and report upon the money the leadership of the APS has spent on lawyers, litigation and legal weaselry in the past two decades.

It’s all a public record. The Journal has only to get their hands on the records and read them. Else, report to stake and interest holders that the leadership of the APS will not produce the requested public records.

The investigation and report will reveal at the very least;

• excessive and unjustifiable spending on what amounts to cost-is-no-object legal defenses for school board members and senior administrators accused of corruption and or incompetence. The spending is so excessive, the district (taxpayers) are paying higher insurance premiums than comparable districts.
• the funds being squandered are “operational funds”; money which should, could and would be spent in classrooms was it and the public trusted not being squandered in courtrooms instead.
• inappropriate connections between the school board and the law firms that have profited so greatly from the unlimited spending, Ok’d by the school board in meetings in secret, of which no recordings are made, and without oversight. Subordinate oversight is not oversight, it is an oxymoron.

What could be easier?

Having cut their teeth on the tip of the iceberg, perhaps they could be persuaded (compelled?) to investigate and report upon the entire allegation.

There is a full blown ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

Or there is not; newsworthy either way; in particular on the eve of elections.

If the Journal continues to refuse to print the truth, taxpayers can still take control. Simply stop giving them money. Stop giving them money until they resign or finally get around to holding themselves honestly accountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence within their public service.

No accountability
No more money.

Unenforceable standards worse than no standards at all

What is the point in having a Code of Ethics if it cannot be enforced; except to create a false and misleading impression of accountability that does not exist?

The Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education has a Code of Ethics. They wrote it themselves. They freely admit that it is utterly unenforceable. So why do they have one; why did they write it?

The leadership of the APS would like stake and interest holders to believe that they are accountable to higher standards of conduct than the law; ethics. It makes it easier for them to win bond issue and mill levy elections. It makes it easier for them to convince voters that they are qualified stewards of the public trust and treasure.

To deliberately create a false and misleading impression is dishonest. The egregious lack of candor, forthrightness and honesty is characteristic of the leadership of the APS. It disqualifies them as guardians of trust.
Every time APS school bond and or mill levy issues come up, two things happen;

1. A widespread consensus develops; there are accountability issues in the leadership of the APS and,
2. An argument is made that; the needs of students outweigh the need to hold APS school board members and senior administrators honest to God accountable for their incompetence and or corruption.

It never changes. It never will; unless and until the leadership of the APS is finally held individually and collectively accountable for their conduct and competence.

It will not end until the leadership of the APS can be held honest to God accountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence within their public service.

High standards and due process will end corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS. High enough standards and ruthless accountability are fatal to corruption and incompetence.

... fatal at once and
for all.

Gov. Bill Richardson Backs APS Bond Issue

This post amounts to a re-post from December 2015.  Links that no longer work have been removed and parts rewritten.


 It was fall, 2006.

William Blaine Richardson was governor.

APS was heading into an important bond issue election and according to a Journal poll 40% of voters were less than thrilled with the leadership of the leadership of  the APS.

The leadership was under fire for the usual;

• wasting tax dollars and

• students choking on standardized tests.

Same as today, except that in those days the Journal was still making an honest effort to inform the democracy about the incompetence and corruption in the leadership of the APS.  The Journal even reported on the felony criminal misconduct in the leadership of the APS police force, link; a publicly funded private police force; a Praetorian Guard if ever there was.  Today, they steadfastly refuse to report on APS' cover up of those felonies.

Today, the Journal is up to their eyeballs in the cover up, of the cover up of the ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

• inadequate ethics (higher standards than the law)

• inadequate standards of conduct and competence and

• inadequate accountability to such ethics and standards as there are.

Richardson wrote an op-ed for the Journal.  Unclear, who wrote the headline; APS Bond Buys Buildings, Not Bureaucracy 

It read in significant part;

In a few short weeks, Albuquerque voters will be asked to support a bond package ... and I urge voters to support this bond package.
The money will be used ... to build and modernize schools, not on administration. Voters can be confident that money from these bonds will not be wasted on bureaucratic red tape.

(There are those) who argue persuasively that Albuquerque Public Schools has a long history of dodging accountability when it comes to managing its finances and modernizing schools.

(APS is) a district that has generated ill will across the state ... 

I am endorsing this bond package ... (despite) ... critics who are skeptical of the way APS manages taxpayer money ...

Voters were told that despite a long record of APS' lack of accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence, they should be given stewardship over another third of a billion dollars.

Trust them, Richardson told us, to spend the money in the best interests of students.

So how did that work out for voters?   According the Journal, link;

“(an APS senior administrator) (recently) spent over $850,000.00 on a remodel and furniture for his own suite of offices.”*

*Confusion exists over where the money was actually spent in just Moya's suite.  The confusion stems from APS lack of record keeping, and from the Journal's apparent disinterest in clearing it all up.

Richardson also wrote that day;

Following the school election, I welcome a debate on potential solutions aimed at requiring more accountability in our schools.

That debate never took place.

To this day, the leadership of the APS refuses to engage in any public discussion at all, of their ethics, their standards, and their honest to God accountability to any of them, even the law.

And it isn't because they are so damned proud of it all.




photo Mark Bralley


What was true in 2006, and was true in 2015, is still true today.  Voters are being told to forget the ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS, and give them a bunch of money anyway.

No standards and accountability audit
no more money

Journal Editors endorse APS bond issue and mill levy

In their editorial this morning, Journal editors asked voters to support

"...right-sized ... crucial maintenance and construction bond funding requests " on November 5th.

The request comes framed in the usual way; forget about the relentless lack of accountability in the APS and trust them with more hundreds of millions of tax dollars.  Their actual words were;

It would be truly unfortunate if voters could not look past her silence and big pay hike when it’s time to vote for essential school maintenance and construction projects.

... begging at least one question;
how many times will voters follow the Journal's advice and keep underwriting corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS by continuing to pass bond issues and mill levies in the name of "students" while disregarding the abject lack of honest to God accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence within public service in the leadership of the APS?

How can Journal editors, year after year, election after election, continue to ask voters to "look past" the ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS, instead of doing what they should be doing; exposing the scandal and enabling voters to hold them accountable at the polls?

Why won’t the Journal do its job?

On November 5th of this year, there will be an election over whether the leadership of the APS should be trusted with another few hundred million tax dollars.

Questions around their capacity for stewardship are to be expected.

That the Journal would ask these questions is to be expected.  That the Journal would report upon the questions and responses in order to inform the democracy is to be expected.  It is vital to the process.

How else will voters know whether to place their trust and treasure in the hands of the leadership of the APS?

Two questions are of supreme importance;

1. Are there executive and administrative standards in place which are high enough to protect the public interests in the public schools?
   
   
2. Are school board members and senior administrators actually accountable to those standards by some due process?

The leadership of the APS refuses to discuss their standards and accountability.

Ayn Rand argued; "To fear to face an issue is to believe that the worst is true.”

The leadership of the APS has good reason to fear an impartial examination and review of their standards and accountability.

The Albuquerque Journal’s reason to eschew an investigation and report to stake and interest holders is less clear;

1. Do they want not to expose an ethics, standards and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, or
   
   
2. Do they want not to expose the leadership of the APS for being honest to God accountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence within their public service?

It is clear that voters need to know either way.

It is equally clear that, either way, the Journal wants no part of informing voters about standards and accountability in the leadership of the APS.

One wonders;
why not?

"Blame voters" for APS maintenance issues

The APS is experiencing some maintenance issues; they can't get swamp coolers running in time to cool classrooms before school starts.

They are building brand new buildings while they cannot even maintain the buildings they already have.

Some who wrote letters to the Journal editors this morning, argue that the maintenance issues are the result, not of poor management, but rather of voter's lack of financial support.  Nonsense.

The funds that are being managed so badly in this case, are called operational funds.  Capital funds are used to build buildings; operational funds are used to maintain them.  Operational funds are used for other things as well.

One of the things the leadership of the APS chooses to spend money on, beside maintaining swamp coolers, is cost-is-no-object legal defenses for school board members and senior administrators.

Is it a bad voter then, who argues; I don't want to give another dime to people who cannot be trusted to spend that dime in the interests of students?

There is no way to get the attention of the leadership of the APS except to cut off their money.  It's the only thing that has ever worked and the only thing that ever will.

There is an ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

Were there not, someone in the leadership could and would complete this declaration;
There is not and ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.  It is not possible because; ...

The answer; ... there are standards and accountability in place that make corruption and incompetence impossible to hide.  The leadership of the APS cannot offer that answer.

There is an ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS because the leadership of the APS does not have ethics and standards that are high enough to protect the public interests in the public schools, and or, the leadership of the APS is not actually, honest to God accountable to those ethics and standards.

1. The APS Board of Education has a Code of Ethics.  By their own free admission, it is utterly unenforceable.  
2. The New Mexico School Boards Association has a Code of Ethics to which the APS board claims accountability.  The NM SBA admits to no process under which a complaint can be filed.
3. APS unlimited spending on litigation and legal weaselry affords school board members and senior administrators an opportunity to admit "no guilt" in settlements over their guilt.  They are arguably unaccountable even to the law; the lowest standards of conduct acceptable to civilized human beings.
   
   And so on ...

And it's a "bad voter" who is unwilling to financially underwrite more of the same?

Before the leadership of the APS is given stewardship over another dime, they must first prove that they are actually, honestly accountable to high enough standards of conduct and competence within their public service.  There must be an independent audit of executive and administrative standards and accountability in the leadership of the APS.  The results must be made public.

No audit;
No new taxes.

Good voter.

APS says it "does not comment on pending lawsuits".

In what is perhaps the greatest understatement of all time, KRQE covering a lawsuit filed against APS, reported; "APS said it does not comment on pending lawsuits."


Unless a comment lends credence to the positive image that APS spends nearly a million dollars a year trying to create; the leadership of the APS does not comment on lawsuits pending or even long settled.

They will "not comment" on the millions and millions of operational dollars they spend on litigation and legal weaselry in order to arrive at settlements in which school board members and senior administrators get to admit “no guilt” regardless of actual guilt.

Not only will they “not comment”, they will spend even more tax dollars on even more litigation in efforts to forestall the production of public records; in order to avoid candor, forthrightness and honesty with stake and interest holders.

The decisions regarding the operational funds they spend on cost-is-no-object legal defenses continue to be made in meetings in secret, of which no recordings are made, and without oversight.

They will “not comment” on the fact that APS (taxpayers are) paying higher insurance premiums because the leadership of the APS spends so much money on litigation.

They will "not comment" on the ongoing ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

No ethics, standards and accountability audit,
no new taxes.

There will be no APS graduates on any Red Flag List for gun purchases

Hopefully, one of the consequences of renewed attention to the accessibility of high power semi-automatic rifles with large capacity magazines, will be that closer attention is paid to the criminal records of those who choose to possess them; including public school records.

The hope is that someone with a record of compiling lists of people to kill or rape, will be asked a few questions about those interests before they are allowed to carry, much less purchase such a weapon.

There will be a problem when anyone goes looking for the records of APS students who have behaved in ways that would prevent them from carrying guns. APS keeps no such records.

The simple proof; if the leadership of the APS is asked (by a Journal reporter, for example) to produce a longitudinal record of students who “misbehave” even criminally, they will not for at least two reasons,
1. they cannot because those records were not kept, and
2. they will not produce what records they did keep, because they will tarnish the image that APS spends a million dollars a year trying to create.

School board members and senior administrators would rather that stake and interest holders believe that APS students are under control at school. This though, an impartial audit of the leadership of APS revealed that principals routinely falsified records of criminal activity at their schools in order to protect their image.

The leadership of the APS maintains a publicly funded private police force that are under orders to surrender (some) students who have committed criminal acts over to administrators for an “administrative” rather than criminal solution. The APS police force is certified by no one, certificated by no one, and accountable to no one except the leadership of the APS. And, no records are kept.

Additionally, perhaps more importantly, there are those in the leadership of the APS who believe that creating any kind of a record of students’ (even chronic) misbehavior puts them on a path to prison, and who are making deliberate decisions to thwart data gathering. They are threatening the efficacy Red Flag efforts no matter how otherwise justifiable they might be.

Either the leadership of the APS is maintaining control over students in schools and classrooms or they are not. It is newsworthy either way.

Either the leadership of the APS is keeping records that will be useful in creating Red Flag Lists or they are not. It is newsworthy either way.

John Rosemond; classroom discipline (in the Alb. Public Schools) is falling apart.

John Rosemond is a columnist, public speaker, and author of 15 books on parenting. His syndicated weekly column is featured the Journal.  In his column this morning, link, Rosemond did not mention APS by name; his comments this morning were meant to apply generally.  But, absent any evidence whatsoever to the contrary, his appraisal applies to the Albuquerque Public Schools specifically.

Things are going to get worse.  Rosemond predicts an “Increasing population of “special needs” children … (which will) allow public schools to pretty much abandon … behavioral standards.

Rosemond argues, “ … many (APS) administrators refuse to acknowledge the problem.”

Is the leadership of the APS refusing to acknowledge the problem? 

Search their award-winning website for any empirical data whatsoever on student discipline in APS classrooms; any data at all.  You will find none.

Ayn Rand argued; to fear to face an issue is to believe that the worst is true.

The failure of the leadership of the APS to face the issue of student discipline in public school classrooms is reason to believe that the worst is true.

Rosemond writes; “teachers are not the problem – not for the most part, at least.”  “The problem consists of … , and administrators who strip teachers of permission to discipline and then discipline teachers who have the temerity to do so.”

If the truth is that discipline in APS classrooms is falling apart, then the leadership of the APS has every reason to keep that fact secret from stake and interest holders, in particular is the fault is theirs.

If discipline in APS classrooms is not falling apart; if classrooms really are under the control of teachers, why would the leadership of the APS keep that information secret?  Why is their million dollar communications department not broadcasting the good news? 

Why is the Journal not reporting on the one thing APS is doing right; keeping classrooms under control so teachers can teach, and more importantly, so students can learn?

APS proves it has "ethics"; any real "accountability" to them - not so much

The leadership of the APS has for some time, fought being pinned down on their ethics, standards and accountability.  I have reported over and over, that by their own frank admission, their own Code of Ethics is utterly unenforceable.

Finally, in response to numerous public records requests; APS and their lawyers have finally decided to argue that school board members are in fact, accountable to two codes of ethical conduct;

1. the one they wrote for themselves; APS School Board Code of Ethics, link, and
2. the one the NM School Boards Association wrote for themselves, link.

The leadership of the APS claims actual, honest to God accountability to higher standards of conduct; not one, but two Codes of Ethics.

According to board, anyone who wants to hold them accountable to their own code of ethics, has at least one remedy; recall.

In order to recall a school board member, one would have to collect valid signatures from one-third as many people as who voted in the last school board election.

If you have never tried to collect petition signatures; you have no idea how difficult it would be to gather enough signatures to provoke a recall election.  Recall is not a viable process for holding school board members accountable to their own code of ethical conduct.  For any practical intent or purpose, it is worthless.  It doesn't count.

As for the NM School Boards Association Code of Ethics;

I have on four occasions now, sent an email to the NM School Boards Association requesting information on whatever process(es) there are available to complainants regarding violations of their Code of Ethics.

The NM School Boards Association has yet to respond.

So, no, the NM SBA Code of Ethics is not enforceable.

Ergo, the Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education is not,
by any reasonable measure, accountable to any higher standards
of conduct than the law; the lowest standards of conduct
acceptable to civilized human beings.

When they finally produce the rest of the public records of their accountability, it will become obvious that they are not actually, honest to God accountable even to the law.  By means of limitless funding for cost-is-no-object litigation and legal weaselry, school board members and senior administrators routinely escape accountability even for criminal misconduct.

Witness their cover up of state and felony criminal misconduct, link, involving the senior most leadership of the APS and of their publicly funded private police force.  There is no record that demonstrates that any one of them was ever held accountable to the law.

APS squandering public trust and treasure

The Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education is using the operational fund to pay lawyers to find ways to avoid producing public records that enjoy no real exception from the NM Inspection of Public Records Act.

The operational fund is filled with tax dollars that could, should and would be spent actually educating children were they not being spent instead finding ways to circumvent actual, honest to God accountability to the law.

The records they are hiding are of felony public corruption and incompetence. To wit, a cover up of state and federal felony criminal misconduct involving the leadership of the APS and of APS’ publicly funded private police force (APS Top Cop Finds Himself on Hot Seat, link).

The board and their assigns are now prepared to engage in cost-is-no-object litigation and no-holds-barred legal weaselry to keep the records from public knowledge. Why?  What could possibly justify taking operational funds away from teachers to pay lawyers to hide the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the ethically redacted truth?

All they have to do, to prove these allegations nonsense, is to produce the public record that they ever did anything but cover up criminal misconduct.

• Where is the record of referral to any other agency of law enforcement; APD, BCSO, NMSP, FBI?
• Where is the record of referral to the Bernalillo County District Attorney?

The records they won’t produce are their records of publicly funding a cover up of their own criminal misconduct.

The records they can’t produce are their records of any effort at all to hold APS senior administrators criminally accountable to the law; the lowest standards of conduct acceptable to civilized human beings.

Using public funds to pay lawyers to hide
public records from public knowledge is wrong; right?

Cover up at Jimmy Carter Middle School

The leadership of the APS has decided to cover up whatever it is that happened at Jimmy Carter Middle School, link.

... the tip of the iceberg.
If ever that idiom plays, it plays now.

APS routinely hides public records from stake and interest holders. Anyone who doesn’t like it can sue them.

The APS school board will respond to the lawsuit with a cost-is-no-object legal defense. They will keep the records secret as long as the law will allow.

School board members are the ultimate stewards of public trust and treasure invested in the Albuquerque Public Schools.

When the board meets to authorize spending the "operational fund" on lawyers bent on keeping the inconvenient truth secret, the board meets in secret. "Executive sessions" are held behind closed doors. They do not make any recording of the meeting and won't defend that decision. There is no oversight in the room; subordinate oversight is not oversight; it is an oxymoron.

They spend without limit.

They have spent millions of otherwise classroom bound dollars on litigation and legal weaselry in order to buy admissions of "no guilt" in inordinately expensive settlements of lawsuits just like the one the Journal should be instigating against the board over a truth telling of what happened at Jimmy Carter Middle School; the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the ethically redacted truth.

They get away with it because Kent Walz and the Journal refuse to investigate and report upon an ongoing ethics, standards and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS; if only to report that there isn't one.

If the leadership of the APS is really, honest to God accountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence within their public service, if there really are higher standards and, if there really are due processes by which they can be held accountable to them;

Why is the leadership of the APS keeping their ethics, standards and accountability secret?

Why is Journal helping them?

APS School Board looking forward to a lawsuit

The leadership of the APS has been asked to produce certain public records.  They will not.

The board and their superintendent don't want to produce the records because they represent incontrovertible evidence of an ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.  Public records of their ethics and standards and their actual, honest to God accountability to them will reveal the truth;

1. there are in fact, no "higher standards" of conduct for superintendents and school board members, and
2. there aren't any due processes to hold them accountable to them even if there were.

Instead of producing the records according to the law; the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act, the board and their lawyers will exploit loopholes and technicalities in the law in order to keep the records secret.  That requires money.  They have the money; unlimited access to the Operational Fund which they allocate in meetings in secret and of which they make no recording. They will funnel to their lawyers, however much money they can spend in what are now routinely cost-is-no-object efforts to except themselves from accountability even to the law.

The first ethic in the APS School Board's own utterly unenforceable Code of Ethics reads;

1.   Make the education and well-being of students the basis for all decision making

Their decision to spend the operational fund (dollars that should, could and would be spent in classrooms) on efforts to hide an inconvenient truth is not made in the interests of the education and well-being of students.

The school board and their lawyers are squandering the public trust and treasure in their own personal interests.

They are spending tax dollars on a cover up of the ethics, standards and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

Else;

• they would point directly to whatever ethics and standards that bind them, and

• they would point directly to the process(es) by which they can be held accountable to them.

If they have higher standards of conduct (than the law, the lowest standards of conduct acceptable among civilized human beings) and if they are actually, honestly accountable to them, they would say so.  They would point to them proudly.

And, it would be newsworthy.
The Journal would report upon it.

To fear to face an issue is to believe that the worst is true Ayn Rand

The fact that;

the Journal steadfastly refuses to investigate and report upon administrative and executive ethics, standards and accountability, even to report that the leadership of the APS is honestly accountable to ethics and standards that are high enough to protect the public interests in the public schools,

is submitted as proof that the worst is true.

APS School Board; if not cowardice, if not corruption, then what is it, exactly?

A couple of decades ago, the Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education passed a unanimous resolution adopting "higher standards" of conduct for students and for their adult role models.

Since, they have changed their collective mind;

• students are still expected to "model and promote" honest accountability to a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct.  
while
• school board members and senior administrators are now expected only to "... maintain the highest standards of conduct and act in a mature and responsible manner at all times."

Peercy has kept the
resolution off the table
for more than a decade;
cowardice, corruption, or
what, exactly?

Though School Board President David Peercy claims accountability to the "highest standards" of conduct, he is not; not by a long shot.

Never mind that he cannot point to any honest to God due processes by which he can be held accountable to any higher standards of conduct; he cannot even point with any specificity to these supposed "highest standards" themselves.  Where are they codified, where are they even written down?

Peercy is demonstrably unaccountable even to the law; the lowest standards of conduct acceptable to civilized human beings.  Honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence are no match for APS' eloquence of lawyers, law firms, litigation and legal weaselry underwritten by their unlimited access to the operational fund; millions of dollars a year.

The Operational Fund is money that should, could and would be spent in classrooms were they not being squandered in courtrooms securing admissions of no guilt in exorbitantly expense legal settlements.

There are those who believe that trying to enforce a decades old school board resolution, is fool's errand.  Perhaps, perhaps not. But that's not the point.

The point is that board members will not reconsider their motion.  They will not put it on the table for open and honest public discussion.  Though their clear "ethical" obligation is to reconsider their resolution; either reaffirm, amend or rescind it; in public and on the record, that is clearly not their intention.

Instead, the school board will pretend it doesn't exist.
David Peercy has ordered them to pretend it doesn't exist.


No debt is too old for an honest man to pay. unk

A question is begged; for how long then, is  the school board's promise "good"? for a month? a year? ten years? Or do this school board's promises expire the moment they are made?

If the reason to not revisit the resolution does not flow from their cowardice; they are afraid to accept the consequences that a re-visitation would provoke; if the reason does not flow from their corruption; they don't want to be held honestly accountable as the senior most role models of the same standards of conduct they establish and enforce upon students; then from where does their resistance flow?

The question isn't rhetorical.

Cowardice, corruption or what, exactly?




photo Mark Bralley

Pat Davis still stonewalling

Would be United States Congressman Pat Davis is on record, link, describing the Albuquerque Public Schools Role Model Policy as  "vague, coded language".

The policy read; (before the board voted unanimously to strike it from their own code of conduct)

In no case shall the standards of conduct for an adult

be lower than the standards of conduct for students.

At the time, I took the time to go to a city council meeting to challenge Davis to point to the vague and coded language and to vindicate his slander.

Instead, Davis sat stone-faced and mum; hiding behind a contrived inability of councilors to respond during a public forum, to legitimate questions about the public interests in city government.

Davis has not responded still.
More than a year later, he still
cannot justify his slander.

Still, he will not point to vagary.

Still he will not point the "coded"
language.

He won't because he can't.

He won't because he cannot summon the courage and the character he will would need to admit that the requirements of adult role models in the APS are neither vague nor coded.  That, but a fraction of the courage and character he would need to actually be a role model of the standards of conduct expected from the nearly 90,000 of this community's sons and daughters in APS schools, by holding himself honestly accountable to those same higher standards.

And still, he thinks he's qualified for congress.
Considering some of those who sit there now,
perhaps he's not too far off.




photo Mark Bralley


cc Pat Davis upon posting; 
he can respond anytime he wants to.

"To fear to face an issue is to believe the worst is true"

If Ayn Rand is right, the worst is true about the leadership of the APS; they are not actually accountable to any "higher standards"* of conduct at all.

*It turns out, if you search for consensus on the meaning of "higher standards" of conduct, you will find none.  The meaning of higher standards depends on who is claiming to have them.

It is my belief that "higher standards" means higher standards than the law; the lowest standards of conduct acceptable among civilized human beings.  In this context, higher standards of conduct means standards of conduct that require candid, forthright and honest answers to legitimate questions about the public interests in the public schools.

The accountability of the leadership of the APS, even to the law, is debatable.

In meetings they hold in secret and of which no recording is made; they spend the operational fund without limit, on litigation and legal weaselry whose purpose is not to serve students or the public interests, but to ensure that corrupt and incompetent senior administrators and school board members can "admit no guilt" in inordinately expensive settlement agreements.

The Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education is afraid to face the issue of administrative and executive ethics, standards and accountability because they are inadequate and unenforceable.

Their defense against that allegation is simple.  All they have to do is to identify the clear and unequivocal ethics and standards to which they claim accountability and then prove they are accountable by identifying the due process to which they are subject.

For example; the board could point to their own code of ethics, link, which would lead one to believe that they can be held accountable to ethical standards of conduct.  Except that the truth is, by their own free admission, their code of ethical conduct is utterly unenforceable.

Were their code enforceable, the very first ethic in their code;

Make the education and well-being of students the basis for all decision making, 

would prevent them from spending the operational fund, money that could, should and would be spent in classrooms, on cost-is-no-object legal defenses instead.

If the board and senior administrators actually had higher standards of conduct, and if they were actually accountable to those standards by due process; beyond their undue influence and powerful enough to hold them accountable even against their will, they would point to them.

Why wouldn't they?

Instead, they stonewall; the only defense of an indefensible position.

They fear to face the issue because the worst is true;
the leadership of the Albuquerque Public Schools
is unaccountable to any higher standards of conduct at all,
and they are arguably unaccountable
even to the law.

cc upon posting, with an invitation to respond, 
refute or rebut by means of leaving a comment;
individual board members and the superintendent.

If a Custodian of Public Records will not produce records, and if ...

... a Communications Specialist will not answer legitimate questions about the public interests in the public schools, candidly, forthrightly, honestly and in a timely manner, is it fair to hold her responsible and therefore accountable for her failure to produce public records according to the NM Inspection of Public Records Act and, for her failure to communicate the truth to stake and interest holders?

If the public trust and treasure is about to be squandered on litigation and legal weaselry in an effort to cover up an ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS, is it fair to blame the records custodian/communications specialist?

If an old cover up of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators who were never held to account, is being covered up still, is it fair to blame the records custodian and communications specialist?

Probably not.

aps image

It would it be more just to
hold accountable, her boss;
Todd Torgerson
Interim Chief of Human Resources
and Legal Services

aps image

It would it be more just still,
to hold accountable, his boss;
Raquel Reedy, Superintendent
of the Albuquerque Public Schools.









Most just, would be to hold accountable the APS Board of Education, who meet in secret, in meetings of which no recording is made, to decide how many hundreds and hundreds of thousand dollars they will spend on the litigation and legal weaselry that they'll need to continue their cover up their lack of ethics, standards and accountability and their state and federal felony criminal misconduct.

If only the Journal weren't in cahoots.

APS School Board must reconsider 24 year old resolution

no debt is to old for an honest man to pay. unk

Is a sitting school board bound by a previous board's resolution? 
If not, then for how long is their word good? 
Is it even good on the night they make their resolution;
is it any good at all? 

If we really want students to grow into adults who embrace character and courage and honor, someone is going to have to show them what those look like.

• 24 years and 19 days ago, the Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education promised to show students what character and courage and honor look like.  They adopted high standards of conduct for students and then promised them adult role models worthy of emulation.
• And then, they reneged on their promise.
• And now, they refuse to acknowledge that they reneging on their promise.

There are double standards of conduct in the APS.

According to the board’s Student Handbook;

Students are expected, to model and promote honest accountability to a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct.

Board members and senior administrators, by means of their cost-is-no-object litigation and legal weaselry, are arguably unaccountable even to the law; the lowest standards of conduct acceptable to civilized human beings.

The double standards and egregious hypocrisy can be resolved one of two ways;

1. The board can lower student standards of conduct to the point where board members are finally are willing to be held actually accountable as role models of accountability to the same standards of conduct that they establish and enforce upon students. Or,

2. The board can raise their own standards of conduct to the level of the standards they establish and enforce upon students. The board can restore the role modeling clause to their own standards of conduct; the one that used to read;

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

What the board can not do, is to continue to ignore the petition.

Continuing to stonewall the petition is dishonest.

Stonewalling is among the most cowardly forms of dishonesty. It is unworthy of the senior-most role models for nearly 80,000 of this community’s sons and daughters in public schools.

The board's own Dr. No;
no public discussion of ethics
standards, accountability and role
modeling.  Not now, not ever.

The board must over come the more than decade long obstruction of School Board President David Peercy.  He has kept open and honest public discussion of ethics, standards and accountability off the table of his Policy Committee for more than a decade.  He has refused to discuss, in public and on the record, whether the role modeling clause should be restored to the board's own standards of conduct.

Four other board members must then, summon the character and courage to place the 1994 Character Counts! Resolution on the table in an open public meeting; there to reaffirm, amend or rescind it, in public and on the record.

It is time; it is well past time for the board to declare candidly, forthrightly and honestly, what it is that the board intends to do about the double standards of conduct in the Albuquerque Public Schools and their abject failure as role models of student standards of conduct.



photo Mark Bralley

APS School Board Code of Ethics is utterly unenforceable

By their own frank admission:
the APS School Board’s own code of ethics,
is utterly unenforceable.

The truth is; they're telling the truth.

The stink of it is; they won't tell you why.

Why is their Code of Ethics utterly unenforceable?
Why don't they have to explain why it isn't enforceable?

The simple proof; ask for any public record revealing due process of any kind, by which they can be held honestly accountable to their Code of Ethics.

This is no revelation to School Board members. 
They know or remaine willfully ignorant.

There will be no open and
honest public discussion of
ethics, standards and account-
ability while Peercy remains
in charge.

School Board President David Peercy has kept open and honest public discussion off the table at the Policy Committee he chairs for more than a decade.

He tabled the motion to reestablish the role modeling clause to the board's standards of conduct.  Before it was removed unanimously, it read;

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

Peercy won't talk about ethics, standards and accountability because he can't really prove there are any; any standards or ethics that are enforceable by any due processes over which they and their lawyers cannot exert undue influence and, that are powerful enough to hold he and them accountable, even against their will.

Peercy and the board refuse to explain, in words at least most students can understand,

• why are students are expected to model and promote honest accountability to a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct, and 
• their senior most executive and administrative role models are not?

They are demonstrably unaccountable even to the law;
the lowest standards of conduct acceptable to civilized human beings.

The reason they are not, is because public uproar over the abdication of the senior most role models in the entire APS, has yet to reach their ears.

There is a public forum.
You have to get there before 5pm; before most people get off work, or they won't let you sign up.

photo Mark Bralley

Journal exposes Graduation Rate Gate in an editorial.

In an editorial this morning, the editors exposed the scam that APS and other school districts have been using to appear to be doing a better job than they are, of educating children in public schools.

Their opinion isn't available, strangely, in any format that allows a link to be published.

At any rate, APS has been touting rising graduation rates as proof that they are doing a better job.  The problem is, there are ways to raise graduation rates without having to do a better job of teaching.  APS raised their graduation rates on at least two occasions by simply giving students 5 years instead of 4 to graduate on time and, they dropped from the cohort, any 9th grader who had already failed the 9th grade.

The reason APS and others talk about graduation rates is because they have to talk about something, and every other measure of the efficacy of public education points toward failure.  What does it say that a significant number of diplomas are given to seniors who can't read? or do math?

One solution is a graduation test, or battery of tests, whatever is fair and accurate.  Something akin to SAT or ACT exams.

If one school district's seniors pass the test at a rate of 80% and another district's seniors pass at only 60%, the one is doing demonstrably better than the other; numbers that mean something.

It's a pity that the Journal exposed the scam in an editorial and not in an investigation and report on other real measures of the education that is or is not taking place.

The leadership of the APS has a record of hiding the truth.

They have a record of covering up state and federal felony criminal misconduct involving their senior leadership and the leadership of their publicly funded private police force.

The evidence that proves that allegation comes in the form of public records. The records are subject to the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act.

The records are;

1. The records of any investigation into the conduct of any member of the leadership of the APS and that exposed probable cause to believe that there was either state or federal felony misconduct. In particular, any investigation into the corruption and incompetence reported in the Journal, Feb 1, 2007; APS Top Cop Finds Himself on Hot Seat. In particular, any investigation undertaken by the Albuquerque Public Schools police force, any contract private investigator such as but not limited to Robert Caswell Investigations, or any investigator working for their lawyers, under however many layers they are buried.
2. Any record of APS turning over the evidence, information and testimony from those investigations to any recognized agency of law enforcement such as but not limited to, the Bernalillo County District Attorney, the Albuquerque Police Department, the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office, the New Mexico State Police, or the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In response to the request, APS will either;

1. Produce public records in accordance with the law, of cover ups of state and federal felony misconduct; or
2. They will fight tooth and nail for every record. They will litigate forever.

At their disposal; unlimited access to the operational fund; money that could be, should be and would be spent in classrooms were it not being spent instead in courtrooms, and on whatever litigation and legal weaselry is necessary to keep the truth secret from stake and interest holders until the money runs out. 

There is only one reason to hide the truth and that is
to avoid the consequences of the truth being known.

If the record of the leadership of the APS was one of seeing that the criminals in their midst were held accountable for their crimes, they wouldn’t be hiding it; they wouldn’t need to.