Anonymity Serves No Useful Purpose Anymore

We have passed the point in the struggle against corruption
and incompetence, where more examples of corruption and
incompetence need to be exposed "anonymously" by those
who fear retaliation.

Enough corruption and incompetence has been exposed.

We are powerless to do anything about the corruption and
incompetence already know about.

We have passed the point where anyone has anything
to contribute to this fight
without actually showing up somewhere to stand up
for what they believe in. (for two minutes.*)

*The maximum amount of time that you can exercise
your right to petition your government
should you decide to speak up during the public forum.

It will be off the record, many board members will not
be paying attention, some will not even be in their seats,
and the TV cameras will not be recording in the public
interest.

The corrupt and incompetent in the leadership of the APS,

and the corrupt and the incompetent in public service
everywhere,

have nothing to fear from stakeholders who cannot
show their faces in public. There is nothing that can be
throw from at them from anonymity, that will stick.


Those stakeholders who can stand to be seen in public,
and standing up for what they believe in,

should seriously consider participating in an

APS Torches and Pitchforks* Parade
at an APS School Board Meeting,
APS Uptown Administrative (Retirement) Complex
some first or third Wednesday, at 5 pm
soon.



*The concept of a vast gathering of the great unwashed
armed with nothing but their courage and their torches
and their pitchforks, and overthrowing tyrants
will resonate with some, perhaps not with others.

It is imho,

the only manner by which any tyrant
has ever been overthrown.

And it is the only manner in which tyrants will ever be
overthrown.

Tyrants do not hold elections where the fate of their tyranny
is at risk. Do the math.

If you think that Paula Maes, the President of Everything

is going to be overthrown by anything less than hundreds
of stakeholders showing up at a board meeting
to demand her immediate resignation,

I cannot imagine what that manner might be.
I would also beg that you share it with me,
because this whole torches and pitchforks thing

is a bitch to get rolling.


That Maes' cronies in the media won't cover the parade;
is proof that they will do everything they can
to cover Paula Maes' enormous ass,
(metaphorically speaking, of course.)

Tommy Lang, Kent Walz, Michelle Donaldson,
Thomas Pearl, and Sue Stephens

Grade Controversy Lives On

The Journal ran its speculation on the apparent immortality
of the Grade Gate Scandal, this morning. link sub req.

Why won't the controversy die?

According to the Journal;

State Sen. James Taylor said he doubts the
controversy will end anytime soon.
"There has been no closure," the South Valley
Democrat said late last week.
"That's been the biggest problem with the whole issue.
I think the school district kind of washed their hands
of what was going on."

Fierro now wants her name cleared, prompting
Rio Grande teachers to say they need answers about
what really happened.
"It's like nobody wants to take responsibility for this,"
English teacher David Bleicher has said.

"I think an apology is due the teacher," Taylor said.
"Even APS didn't know how to handle the situation."

Still, he has noticed that rules have tightened,
with administrators demanding syllabuses from teachers
at the beginning of the year.

Anita Lucero, ... Atrisco Heritage Foundation said
people need to be forgiving of Commissioner Córdova.
"I think everybody makes mistakes," Lucero said.
"I know what she did was wrong.
It's a dead dog already. Let's move forward."

There has been no closure, the leadership of the APS
has washed it hands of the whole affair.
Board Members like Robert Lucero will say
"Let's move forward and forget the past."

It is a common position for he and the board to take;
whenever a senior administrator screws up,
the first thing that happens is the drive begins to
move forward and "forget about the past".

When no one in the leadership is willing to take responsibility;
shit rolls down hill. It is the way good ol' boys, and shit rolls.

The leadership of the APS will never apologize. To do so,
would indicate that they have accepted responsibility;
that they have accepted blame;

something the leadership of the APS has never done,
and something the current leadership will never do.

Miguel Acosta, former board member and politico
never admitted that he did anything wrong.

Teresa Cordova, county commissioner, and politica
never admitted that she did anything wrong.

Nor did Nelinda Venegas, Susie Peck, or Beth Everitt.

It just not the way they roll.


Yet "rules have been tightened" at RGHS enabling
the false assumption that lax rules for teachers
were the problem.

Lax rules that led teachers, but not senior administrators,
to screw up the grade change.


Life is good, if you're one of the good ol' boys.

Decidedly less good, if you work down hill from them.

I'm Not Saying That Paula Maes and the Good Ol' Boys in the APS Are Evil

but when Edmund Burke wrote;

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

This is what he was writing about.

Can It Really Be? There is Not One Single APS Administrator From the Educational Interface to the Superintendent's Office

who has the character and the courage,

to role model character and courage,

before 89,000 students in the Albuquerque Public Schools?


If we really want our children to grow to embrace character
and courage and honor,

someone has to show them what it looks like.


Is there really not a single administrator or board member
in the entire APS, who will hold themselves honestly
accountable to the student standard of conduct,

for the few hours a day that they are public servants,
educators

and role models?

O.M.G.

A reader passes along this little gem regarding
APS Superintendent Beth Everitt (still on the payroll)

Ethics forum continues at ATC
2/4/2008

In addition to the keynote address, the forum will cover
two main topics -- ethics in the classroom and
ethics in the boardroom.

Those presenting include Dr. Beth Everitt,

superintendent of Aiken County Public Schools;
Dr. Mike Ritchie, USCA's School of Business;
Dr. Mick Fekula, USCA's School of Business; and
Thomas O'Neil, chief division counsel for the FBI.


lol

Michael McNamara is the Principal at Jefferson Middle School

The home school of Letter to the Editor Gate. link
and for your convenience a link to the Journal report
on Letter to the Editor Gate. (subscription required)

I know Michael McNamara well.

He was the Asst Principal at Hoover Middle School when
I taught shop, landscaping and Character Counts, there.

I took a picture of him negligently allowing, and
knowingly permitting students to break school rules.

I took a picture of him, standing with his arms crossed,
in a hallway full of kids who were "sagging".

This is not about sagging.

It is about children blatantly defying adult authority
in plain sight and without consequence.

Perhaps we can get blogger and JMS teacher, Scot Key
to tell us if Michael McNamara continues to allow students
to defy the authority of adults, in plain view
and without consequence.

I suspect that he does.

Because when I tried to hold him, and Principal Wayne Knight
accountable for professional incompetence and corruption,
by amassing incontrovertible proof,
in the form of photographic evidence of their corruption and
incompetence,

I was fired in retaliation.


Although I was completely exonerated and reinstated
through binding arbitration;

the good ol boys in the APS/Modrall are still there;

still using the power and resources that have been
entrusted to them;

to screw with people who try to hold them accountable
to any meaningful standard of conduct or competence
at all,

even the law.


Witness my arrest by Paula Maes' Praetorian Guard
for trying to draw attention to APS' myriad
of elephants in the room. link

an otherwise,

legal, moral, ethical and constitutionally protected
exercise of my right to free speech
and my right to petition my government.

"It is what it is", or, They are what they are.

Linda Sink's picture was run up the Journal flagpole again
this morning. link sub req

This time in the matter of middle schoolers with
pathetic communication skills.

The letters speak for themselves.

Life is about the work you turn in,
not about the work you could have turned in
if someone else proofreads it and "fixes" all your mistakes.

When these kids go to work,
Linda Sink will not be there to proofread their work.

These students find themselves in middle school
with atrocious writing and spelling skills,
because there has been no point in their education where
they actually had to perform at some level of competence
before continuing on their education.

If you read letters that these same students will write
in their senior year; they will not be any better.

Students who are behind in any aspect of their education,
will fall further and further behind; they will never catch up.
There is nothing in a system that let them fall behind,
that will catch them up. To suppose so, defies logic.

The problem lies in a lack of accountability.

At such time as there are meaningful standards of writing
(and spelling, and math, and reading, and ...)

and honest accountability to those standards,

there will be "no more" middle schoolers
who write and spell like second graders.

Instead, the leadership of the APS offers excuses as to why
the letters were made public in their "honest" condition;

"Teachers are expected to oversee and, where necessary, correct students' work before publication," Sink said...
Jefferson Middle School Principal Mike McNamara agreed that Wahler should have worked on the letters with his students before sending them.
"It was quite clear that the letters were not edited," said McNamara.
McNamara called the letters an "aberration."
"The letters that were published just do not reflect the vast majority of our kids," he said.

Students are not held accountable to meaningful standards
of conduct and competence in their education;

because an inordinate number would fall short.

This would reflect badly on those charged with "adequate"
student growth (in writing, in spelling, in math, ...);

and who do not want to be held honestly accountable for
their failure.

Linda Sink and Paula Maes steadfastly refuse to be held
honestly accountable to any standards of competence
and conduct in their public service.

Is it any wonder then, that students are not held honestly
accountable for theirs?

Role modeling.
Role modeling.
Role modeling.


Paula Maes, Linda Sink

Step up, ... or step down.

Say What?

A piece in the Trib about Public Information Officers.
It is worth a read. link

In the piece, a quote from APS spokesman Rigo Chavez.

"You have to balance the institution ...
with the public's right to know, (and)
you'll have people within the institution who
don't understand the public's right to know,"

Two problems; last first;

• "... people within the institution
  who don't understand the public's right to know ..." and
• balancing the institution against the public right to know.
  

APS' record is one of failing to train employees.
Rigo Chavez refused a public records request for a list
of the names of people trained by the NMAGO on
open government laws.

They pretend not to understand the law,
as a tool to obfuscate the surrender of public records.

The "balance" between institutions and the public right
to know, implies a relationship between the power and
importance of an institution and their obligation
to surrender public records.

APS/Modrall for instance, considers itself too powerful and
too important to be accountable to open government laws.

The truth is that there is no "balancing" of anything.
The law is clear on its face. The least and the most powerful
institutions have an exactly equal obligation to obey the law.

In truth, APS' exception to the law exists in the minds
of the leadership of the APS and the lawyers of Modrall;

and nowhere else.

If There is NOT Now an APS "Character Counts Gate"

How do you explain away the fact that
the names of the group members of a sham
Character Counts Leadership Council

formed apparently, only in order to get grant money
through the efforts of U S Senator Pete Domenici;

have been secret since February 13, 2003 link

and still are.

APS School Board President Paula Maes Must Step Up, or Step Down

The 90,000 of our sons and daughter in the APS deserve
role models. They need role models.

If the senior most public servant in the APS is not willing
to step up to the obligations of the senior most role model

then she should step down as a public servant.

The same argument applies to the next
APS Superintendent, Linda Sink.


Maes' Presidency of the Character Counts Leadership Council,
a secret group of community "leaders" formed apparently for
the purpose of getting grant money through
Senator Pete Domenici;

coupled with

her personal refusal to be held accountable
to the student standard of conduct;
even for the measly few hours a day
she serves the public;


doesn't cut it as the sum and substance of her sacrifice
as a the senior most role model in the APS
of the student standard of conduct.


Ms. Maes, Ms. Sink,

step up,
... or step down.

Did APS/Modrall Negotiate A Settlement With Gil Lovato and Sam Bregman?

If APS/Modrall and the leadership of the APS has laid
a few hundred thousand tax dollars on Lovato and Bregman,
to keep Lovato from showing his body maps in open court,

"... leaving no senior APS administrator or board member left standing ..."

you wouldn't know about it.


Even if you filed a request for public records under the NMIPRA.


And that should worry you
more than just a little.

APS/Modrall Has Used Unwitting Taxpayer Support of "Education"

to buy immunity for senior administrators and board members,
from felony criminal prosecution.


APS Superintendent Micheal Vigil and APS/Modrall
negotiated the exchange of public funds for an agreement to
withhold hard evidence of felony perjury by then
APS Director of Risk Management, Richard Cangiolosi.

Cangiolosi then moved to a cushy job with an APS vendor.

And aggravated drunk driver, Michael Vigil,
left APS with almost a quarter of a million of our dollars.

And never had to answer, for personally negotiating
Cangiolosi's immunity.

The NMAGO Gives APS/Modrall Until March 6th

to explain why they will not surrender APS/Modrall
records to public knowledge.

APS/Modrall has taken tax dollars and paid plaintiffs
not to file criminal charges
against senior APS Administrators and Board Members;

not to settle a civil claim,
but to buy immunity from felony criminal prosecution.

That is why APS/Modrall is hiding their record,
and why it takes the Attorney General's Office to get
APS/Modrall to simply obey the law.


Assuming of course that the NMAGO can make APS/Modrall
obey the law.

APS Police Chief Makes Critical Error

Bill Reed has "mistakenly" responded to my email* to him.
*link

I am both astonished and pleasantly surprised;
it tends to indicate that his gut reaction is to be ethical.

However, he has placed himself in an untenable position;

he now must either start responding to legitimate questions,

or begin stonewalling.

The same thing happened to Tom Savage.
He placed himself on the record as in discussion,
but when I asked him legitimate questions about
the lack of administrative accountability in the APS
he started stonewalling.

And with Brad Winter.
He placed himself on the record with a commitment to
provide a candid, forthright and honest accounting of
the squandering of the public trust and treasure
at 6400 Uptown Blvd,
and then starting stonewalling.

Tom Savage and Brad Winter proved that their character
bends under the influence of APS/Modrall.

What will Bill Reed show us about his character?

Will his response reflect his responsibilities
as a senior administrative role model of
the student standard of conduct;

or will his response reflect his personal corruption and
incompetence.

Time and his responses, will tell.


Bill Reed's response to my email; and mine to his.

Mr. MacQuigg:
At this point in time you are not “banned” from the meetings. I am asking that you do not cover your face at meetings in the future. Had you agreed to go outside last night and discuss this issue without yelling and causing a disturbance, we quite possible could have resolved the matter. I would be happy to meet with you in person and discuss these issues if you are so inclined, and agree to keep our discussion civil and professional. If you would like to do this please let me know and we can schedule a time.
Sincerely,
Bill Reed

Sir,
If I have learned anything at all from my decade long drubbing by APS/Modrall, it is to do nothing that is not on the record,
and with as many witnesses as possible.

I will not meet with you to "discuss" the issue.

But, I can think of no more civilized and professional way
to discuss the issue, than by email.

My first question;

You know the truth about why you wrestled me out of
the board meeting; you know who ordered you to do it.
You know about all of the pertinent public records that were
generated before and after the incident.

The question is; are you prepared to tell the truth?

Are you prepared to be the first administrator in the APS
to hold them self honestly accountable to the student standard of
conduct, as a senior district administrator and role model?

Will you provide candid, forthright, and honest responses to
legitimate questions?

Or have I already received my last email from you?

Who ordered you to order me to remove my mask, or be arrested?

candidly, forthrightly, and honestly.

ched macquigg

Tribune Poll on the APS Superintendent Search

Not that voting in the poll will do any good,

but you should really vote for an outsider,

who is not a member of the APS good ol' boys club, and/or
does not have guilty knowledge of the APS good ol boys club.

link

Open Letter to APS Police Chief Bill Reed

Sir,

It is my intention to continue to exercise my
free speech rights at board meetings.

Since you apparently intend to deny those rights;
and have in fact "revoked" my right to attend and
participate in meetings of the APS Board of Education;

I require from you, at your earliest convenience,
the "rules" that you intend to enforce up me;
with citations please.

Further, explain please, your revocation of my right
to attend board meetings.

Please cite pertinent authority and justification.

On the record, of course.

ched macquigg

APS Police Chief Bill Reed Has Revoked My Right to Attend APS School Board Meetings

Can he do that?

What is this, some third world autocracy?

An Open Letter to Every Reporter Who's Beat Includes the APS

This letter will be forwarded to the Trib, the Journal, KRQE, KOAT, and KOB, with the request that it be forwarded to every reporter on their staff with a stakeholder interest in the APS.

Dear Reporter,

No one has ever argued against the administrative accountability audit proposed by board member Marty Esquivel.

The audit is the single best thing that could happen to restore public confidence in the leadership of the APS.

Yet the leadership of the APS, except for Marty Esquivel,
has prevented the audit from being discussed.

Even though board member Robert Lucero himself, admitted that the audit results would constitute an excellent tool for the next superintendent to use (in cleaning out the good ol boys who are running the APS, so badly). He is on record saying the audit should be done before the next superintendent is hired; for blatantly obvious reasons.

I am offering each of you the opportunity to post a response
to a question. I am hoping that you will agree to accept as
the standard against which your response will be measured,
the APS student standard of conduct; the Pillars of Character Counts, which in circumstances such as these, requires an response that is candid, forthright, and honest.

Why do you think your particular media outlet
will not cover the controversy surrounding the possibility of
an accountability audit of the leadership of the APS;

an audit which in all likelihood,will not leave a single
senior administrator or board member left standing?

(With the exception of Marty Esquivel of course;
the first public servant in the history of the APS
to propose such an audit.)

APS' Praetorian Guard

Praetorian Guard wiki link

The APS Police Department is a publicly funded,
private police force.

It is certified by no one.
It is regulated by no one.
It is investigated by no one

except Paula Maes and Modrall.


It has been used five times now to prevent me from
exercising my rights as a citizen of the United States.

Five times I have been removed from board meetings
for exercising my legal, procedural and ethical rights.

I have never been charged with any misconduct, ever.

No one in APS/Modrall can cite any rule or regulation
that I have broken in my effort to exercise my right
to petition my government, on the record.

I am simply, forcibly removed against my will.

In full view of the media. (They even have video tape.)

The APSPD is being used to stifle protest over the corruption
and incompetence in the leadership of the APS.

It is being used to stifle political opposition.

It is being used to cover up the lack of accountability in
the leadership of the APS, to any meaningful standards
of conduct and competence; even the law.

It is being used to hide public records of public corruption
and criminal conspiracy.

It is being used in what the Council of the Great City Schools
described as a "... culture of retaliation and retribution ... "

It is being used unethically, immorally, and criminally.

Both of its former chiefs left in disgrace after
taking advantage of a system that held them
beyond accountability even to the law.

It is being used as a Praetorian Guard

in full view of the media,


and no one seems to give a crap.


-no offense to the rank and file,
some of whom I know, and
many of whom I respect.-

Marty Esquivel's Name Came Up During My Ejection

I asked him when he was going to do something.

Marty Esquivel is the former last best hope
of APS stakeholders to clean up the corruption and
incompetence in the leadership of the APS.


He is the only board member in the history of the APS,
to demand an administrative accountability audit;

an audit that would put the good ol' boys club in the APS
out of business forever.


Apparently,
the good ol' boys were prepared to stop him and his audit.


Paula Maes

• APS School Board President
• President of the NM Broadcasters Association
• President of the Character Counts Leadership Council
• Wife of the President of the Modrall
• De facto Head of the APS Good Ol' Boys Club
  

said,

she will never allow an audit that will allow
individual administrators to be held honestly accountable
for their conduct or competence as public servants.


... and she won't. Even if it means betraying;

• the principles of Character Counts
• her every responsibility as the senior role model in the APS
• the trust of her constituents, and
  
• the public interests in general.
  

Heck, there's a lot of money, a LOT of money,
to be made litigating exception to the law
for APS senior administrators and board members.


Perhaps she is sharing that money with
Thomas Lang, Kent Walz, Phill Casaus,
Michelle Donaldson, Sue Stephens, and
Thomas Pearl.

It would go a long way toward explaining
their individual refusals to investigate and report upon
the ethics and accountability scandal in the local chapter
of the Good Ol' Boys Clubs Everywhere

It is naive to suppose that Marty Esquivel could take on
the APS good ol' boys APS and the media at the same time
by himself, alone.

Perhaps I asked too much of Marty Esquivel.



... but then I was under some duress at the time.