Suppression of evidence

In the United States;
evidence is suppressed if there are any irregularities at all
in its discovery.

Other countries take a more pragmatic approach. LINK

a tip of the hat to The Westerner LINK for the link.

The Governor's agenda for the special session

The following letter was sent to legislators from the
Governor's office;

Dear Legislators:

Today the Governor announced additional items to be addressed during the anticipated special session, most importantly a significant package of measures designed to alleviate immediate economic challenges facing New Mexico’s working families due to high fuel and energy costs, and the rising cost of food staples. He also announced a one-time cash infusion to the GRIP highway package, and touched on the session’s main focus: Health care for all New Mexicans.

The CARE Package: Economic Relief for New Mexicans

The Cash Assistance Relief Effort, or “CARE Package”, amounts to approximately $211 million with the majority of relief going to working families and particularly those headed by single parents. The bulk of the package is one-time spending funded through the state’s $392 million additional one-time dollars in the most current consensus revenue figures.

The CARE package is comprised of the following components:

1. Cost of Living Tax Relief. This will be a rebate check sent directly to all residents of New Mexico who filed a 2007 personal income tax return. Amounts are adjusted according to income and household size, and range from a low of $75 for single high-income households to $500 for a family of five making less than $60,000. COST: $162.7 million, non-recurring.

2. A “Tax Holiday for the Holidays”. Following the popular “Back to School” sales (gross receipts) tax holiday, the Governor proposes an additional 10-day tax holiday beginning just after Thanksgiving to give relief for the expensive holiday gifting season. This would be a ONE-TIME (i.e. CY2008 only) holiday. COST: $1.9 million, non-recurring.

3. Lengthening the “Back to School” Tax Holiday. Lengthen the period of the current early-August holiday from three to ten days. COST: $1.15 million recurring, beginning CY09 (special session won’t begin until after the ’08 holiday has already occurred).

4. Additional funding for LIHEAP and Weatherization Programs. =2 0$4 million each in one-time infusions into the LIHEAP and Weatherization programs to help with high home energy costs and energy efficiency measures. COST: $8 million, non-recurring.

5. Increasing the Working Families Tax Credit. Increase credit by 25%, from 8% to 10% of the federal earned income tax credit (EITC). COST: $7.8 million recurring.

6. Increasing Eligibility for Child Care Assistance to 200% of Federal Poverty Level. Income eligibility for CCA would increase from current 165%, to 200%FPL. This would cover approximately an additional 2,200 families by FY10. COST: $7.2mm FY09, $11.2mm FY10 recurring.

7. Supplemental Funding for School Bus Fuel. Additional funding to assist with higher fuel costs, to get us through to the regular 2009 session. COST: $3.2 million non-recurring.

GRIP

The Governor proposes a one-time cash infusion of $200 million into the GRIP program. ($100 million in non-recurring General Fund and $100 million in severance tax bonds.) This would do two things:

1. Complete approximately 90% of the GRIP projects;

2. Create thousands of jobs in communities around the state.

Health Care

Health coverage for every New Mexican remains the main focus of the special session. The Governor’s main issues surrounding the package are

1. Establishing a Health Care Authority with Administrative Consolidation of Certain Insurance Pools

2. Small Group and Individual Commercial Insurance Reform

3. Assuring Privacy and Developing Health Information Exchange and Electronic Medical Records.

4. Providing health care coverage for those currently without it

While the Governor re mains fully committed to each of these components, he also acknowledged that he is willing to work with leadership and the general bodies to reach a consensus package that is both meaningful to citizens and passable by the legislative body.

Along those lines we will continue to meet with leadership and legislative work groups to come together prior to the special session date.

Special Session Dates

We would like to convene the special session sometime between early and late August, with the earlier start being preferable so we can begin deployment of the CARE economic relief package as soon as possible; folks are hurting now.

Portable Classrooms in the APS

When school districts are flush with cash,
and they need to build a school,
they build a brick and mortar monument to themselves and their endeavor.

In lean times, when districts need to build a school,
they build a gymnasium, cafeteria, and a library of brick and mortar, and everyone else goes to a portable.

APS portable classrooms are poorly kept, dilapidated and generally regarded as an insult to those students and adults who work in them. They are not considered worthy even, of fire safety inspections.


They needn't be. It is an administrative failure that has caused the dilapidation of portable classrooms in the APS.

Correctly done;

• Portables are attractive and comfortable and safe
• They create community among those who work in them.
• They are efficient to heat and cool.
• They are "easy" to move around, as schools need to accommodate more or fewer students.
• The are repairable; they can be refurbished for ever.

The truth is that if you sit in a portable classroom, you wouldn't know you were in one,

except that the roof is lower, the windows are small,
and dirty, and they are covered with heavy metal grates.
(not unlike the windows in most prisons)

I submit that the APS is a school district in lean times,
and times which are certain to become leaner.

And if we weren't spending a hundred and fifty million dollars on a single high school,

and a million dollars on an unnecessary new boardroom, and who knows how many millions in the unending renovation of the twin towers at 6400 Uptown Blvd;

the portable classrooms in the APS would not be poorly kept,
dilapidated and generally regarded as an insult to those
students and adults who work in them.

Choice of regents best left to governor.

The editors of the Journal respond to an effort by the
League of United Latin American Citizens to place
university regents on the ballot for selection by voters.

The LULAC argues that hispanics are underrepresented on
the various boards of regents at six state colleges and
universities.

The editors argue that voters are too ignorant to do the
job well or correctly. link sub req.

They argue that the governor knows the candidates and
the issues more thoroughly, and is accountable for his or
her choices through their own reelection process.

The problem is of course, that governors fill appointments
as part of a system of political plums that are given out
for a number of reasons that have nothing to do with the
individual qualifications of the appointees.

And, the idea that Governor Richardson, or any other
governor would actually be held accountable for their
many appointments at election time is simply naive.

I challenge anyone to point to even one public discussion
of "political appointees" in the context of an election.

Further, as a political lame duck, Bill Richardson is not
subject even to that imaginary accountability.

Voters are ignorant; woefully, painfully, frighteningly ignorant.

Still I would put the job of political appointments in their
hands before I would put them in the hands of any typical
NM politico.

Ironically, the voter ignorance that the Journal editors
point to, is largely the result of the failure of the Journal
and other media to educate them.

The education of voter stakeholders in a democracy may
well be the most important job of newspapers; and
the one they do least well.

It isn't about insurance premiums

It bothers me to read that the teacher's raise was lost to
increased health insurance premiums.

It reminds me of the argument given to voters
when they are being asked to renew a tax;

"It won't raise your taxes."

Well ya, it does actually. It raises your taxes above
what they would be, had they not been renewed.

It is deliberately deceptive.

Increased insurance premiums are no more more responsible
for the net gain in teacher salaries, than are
increased interest rates, increased fuel prices, and increased
insurance premiums for every other insurance they own.

The only questions are; was 2% too little, or too much?

Taxpayers are getting very little bang for their buck
when it comes to education.

Why are taxpayers getting so little bang for their buck?

Where is the waste, and can it be eliminated?

Where is the corruption and the incompetence that
precipitate the waste?

Where is the impartial audit of the entire leadership of the APS?;

• the audit that will show taxpayers where money is being wasted, in order that it can be paid to teachers
• the forensic audit that will name the names of those who lost or stolen, likely, millions of dollars.

Where is the opportunity to stand face to face with public servants and ask legitimate questions, and expect honest answers?

How can the leadership of the APS simply refuse to answer legitimate questions about the public interests in the public schools?

We need to keep our eyes on the ball.

They would like stakeholders to squabble about
whether insurance premiums are the culprit;

and off of their squandering of the public trust and treasure
at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

What legitimate agenda does not move forward upon
the occasion of the next (first) APS town hall meeting?

Where is the opportunity for stakeholders to ask

why APS senior administrators took raises
well in excess of teachers, and educational assistants?

and expect a candid, forthright and honest response.

If you google;

"code of conduct for Albuquerque public school administrators"

you will find nothing.

A reader reached Diogenes' six through that search;
s/he did not find anything from the leadership of the APS.

Which is kinda what I have been saying all along.

With membership in a community comes "dues".

All members of a community acquire by their membership alone, the obligation to share fairly, all of the burdens which must be borne in order that the community will survive and flourish.

Fortunate is the community, that counts among its members
those who consistently contribute more than their fair share;
who shoulder a greater portion of the burden than
their "fair” share.

There is a need for members of the APS community to pay some dues.

There is a need for people to show up at school board meetings.

They have made attendance as inconvenient as it can be made; school board meetings are held at a time and in a place inaccessible to most stakeholders.

The school board used to meet in high school lecture halls.

They met in the evening so that stakeholders might be able
even to walk to a school board meeting.

The lecture halls are still there.

The need to involve the community is still there.

But they would rather meet in the comfort and "safety"
of a completely unjustifiable new board room.

A board room bought and paid for by the students of
Susie Rayos Marmon Elementary School, who worked
each day in dilapidated portable classrooms with leaking roofs.

A board room bought and paid for with money saved by
eliminating fire safety inspections in schools.

A board room built by vendors who paid for hotel rooms
in the Inn of the Mountain Gods, for the administrators
who were encumbering more than $50,000 at a time
"... without involving purchasing."

If you accept your membership in the community
of stakeholders in the APS;

you have some "dues" to pay.

You are required to defend the leadership of the APS by
proving false, any of the many allegations of public
corruption and incompetence.

It is your duty because, the confidence that this community
has in the leadership of the APS is being shaken by those
allegations.

There is a very real possibility that the next mill levy or
bond issue will be roundly defeated;

no matter how important the funding is to students and
teachers; no matter how legitimate.


If you believe any of the allegations, and you consider yourself a stakeholder in the APS community, you have dues.

In short, you have an obligation to provide honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence for public servants, within their public service.

Real rules, really enforced, for eight measly hours a day.

You can pay your dues by attending a school board meeting.

If nothing else, show them that you are paying attention.

You can pay more than your fair share by standing up
for what you believe in, for two minutes.

The standard of conduct to which 89,000 of our sons and
daughters are honestly accountable, requires them to

Stand up for what you believe in
... even if you are standing alone.

Tell them that you want board policy to be changed back
to the way it used to be; before they decided to remove
from their own code of conduct, the words;

in no case shall the standard of conduct for an adult
(even administrators, and even board members)
be lower than the standard for students.

This is a opportunity to fulfill an obligation.

It is an opportunity to pay your dues.

It is an opportunity to change forever,
the course of the APS in a very positive way.

Sacrifice is the currency of commitment.

There is no equivalent gesture.

APS spends a million four, annually, on standards based assessment.

According to a Journal editorial; link sub req

"The whole point of No Child Left Behind is to ensure all
children are getting an adequate education to perform at
grade level. Integral to that is looking for patterns —
what works, what doesn't. And figuring out what to replicate
and what to eliminate should involve tracking how individual
classes perform.
So far, that doesn't happen in New Mexico. The state and the
test company don't sort the data that way. But Albuquerque
Public Schools is working on compiling test scores that track
classrooms for at least half of its schools by the end of this
coming school year."

It is interesting to note, and significant; that any promise
APS ever makes, seems to be to do something in the
distant future, as opposed to rather more immediately.
- but I digress.

The specificity that is missing, is the specificity that would
allow individuals to be held accountable for their individual
performance. Which is, as you know, an anathema in the
leadership of the APS.

Again, according to the editors;

New APS Superintendent Winston Brooks says tracking
whether students do better in morning or afternoon classes or
if smaller classes consistently outperform larger ones

"is information we ought to be looking at."

duh!

And those responsible for the fact that we are not now
looking at that data, will not be held accountable for their
failure.
They will in fact, never be identified.

Because that is just not the way the good ol' boys roll.

According to the editorial;

"... Rose-Ann McKernan, APS' director of research,
development and accountability says, looked at in the context
of multiple years it should help the district figure out how
great a role a teacher has played in any improvements or declines."

The problem, or from APS' perspective; the loophole,
is that every few years the tests are switched out
(re normed and rewritten) and the whole process begins again.

And again, statistically meaningful comparisons and conclusions,
results on which administrators and board members can be held accountable,

will be another few years off.

How convenient for those who would rather not be held
accountable for their competence as public servants.

Brad Winter's double standard.

According to an article in the Journal, link sub req

Brad Winter is among City Councilors who will stall the vote
on the appointment of a new chief administrative officer.

According to Journal reporter Dan McKay;

"Council President Brad Winter said the administration has repeatedly ignored bills passed by the council and has made it hard to get information about government spending and operations."

Ironically, if a stakeholder asked Brad Winter about spending
in the APS, or about their operations;
Brad Winter would refuse to answer.

He still will not furnish a candid, forthright, and honest
accounting of spending at the Uptown Administrative Complex.

He still will not answer questions about why two APS
administrators, who had intimate knowledge of the
irregularities in the APS Finance Division,
and did not report them,
have been promoted to even more senior oversight
over correcting the irregularities, and covering up
the specifics of the scandal.

Winter has one set of standards for Mayor Marty Chavez
and another for himself and other APS administrators and
board members.

Surprise, surprise.

Legislative Special Session to ignore ethics; again.

Four hundred million tax dollars will be spent by legislators
when they convene in August.

They will do much of the spending in secret.

The cameras that are supposed to cover the proceedings;
long since paid for by taxpayers, will not be up and running.

Conference committees where bills passed by the house
and by the senate are melded into one, often will added
or missing elements, will be conducted in secret.

All of this despite the expressed wish of stakeholder voters
that the process be transparent.

It is an unusual interpretation of the concept of public
in-servitude. The servants make the rules and call the
shots.

Why do we tolerate it?

Are we simply too lazy to do anything but bitch about
the results?

The Journal could not have gotten away with any less coverage.

From the Journal link sub req.

By what stretch of the imagination does this constitute
adequate coverage of a major development in an ethics and
accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS;

"APS Didn't Violate Rights
A judge has ruled that the former head of the
Albuquerque Public Schools police department was
an at-will employee, and that his due process rights
were not violated when APS let his contract expire
last summer.

The parties to the lawsuit brought against APS by
Gil Lovato met Wednesday, after
U.S. District Court Judge William "Chip" Johnson
threw out the due process charge earlier this month,
said Lovato's attorney Sam Bregman.

Other charges in the suit still stand.

Lovato was on paid leave and being investigated for
the first six months of 2007 due to allegations of
favoritism, misuse of police property and mishandling
of money collected as evidence.

Lovato contends he lost his job because he
complained to APS administrators about
their decision to hire a private investigator* to look
into allegations against certain employees.

Bregman said more motions will be filed and that
he hopes to get the case before a jury."

The Journal did not tell you that Gil Lovato and Sam Bregman said that;

if they ever get to "tell the truth" in open court,
there will not be a single senior administrator left standing."

Nor did they report that an impartial independent investigation of the public corruption and criminal conspiracy in the leadership of the APS (Police Department)

is being hidden from stakeholders.

The leadership of the APS steadfastly refuses to surrender an ethically redacted version of a public record, for inspection and or copying.

They are violating the law;
the Inspection of Public Records Act.

They can get away with it because taxpayers are paying
for the legal weaselry that excepts the good ol' boys
from honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence.

Millions of dollars worth of Juris Mustelidae;
all of the legal weaselry that a million tax dollars a year
can buy.

Trust me, it buys a lot!

The legal weaselry as practiced by the lawyers of Modrall;
Paula Maes' husband's law firm.

She makes money off the litigation that excepts her
from honest accountability;

in an egregious violation of board policy, and common sense
which dictate that public servants cannot create even the
perception of impropriety.

... much less incontrovertible evidence there of.



* independent private investigations of improprieties
are common place. Independent investigators are able to
keep the results of the investigation secret from stakeholders.

Consider the independent private investigation of the
APS Financial Department. The Meyners Audit revealed
that millions of tax dollars have likely been wasted or
stolen.

Either that, or a miracle has taken place.

The Meyners Audit results are a public record.
It is a public record that is being hidden from stakeholders
in violation of the law.

Meyners auditors know the names of the
senior administrators who encumbered more than $50,000
at a time with the same vendors that paid for
the administrative soirée at the Inn of the Mountain Gods,

without "involving purchasing".

Stakeholders do not.

Stakeholders have no way of knowing if these same
administrators are now covering their tracks.

Gina Hickman, APS Chief Financial Officer,
knew about the problems and did not blow the whistle.

Michael Kimbrell, APS Director of Internal Audits,
knew about the problems and did not blow the whistle.

Both were promoted despite the appearance that
they enabled these problems by keeping them secret.


Has the Journal lived up to its obligations?

Whose side are they on?




They say; where there's smoke there's fire.

So is this smoke,
or is this fire?

APS will turn down the heat.

Tax payers will be paying a lot more to heat schools this year. The cost of natural gas is climbing as fast or faster than the price of gasoline.

According to Zsombor Peter's article; LINK sub req
taxpayers can expect to spend $7.42M tax dollars heating
the APS this year.

John Dufay, APS' Maintenance and Operations Director,
has a plan to save energy in the district. His plan includes;

• turning down the heat,
• isolating and heating only the necessary parts of schools,
• preventing teachers from entering buildings at night,
• using heat pumps instead of boilers, and
• "possibly" using solar water heaters,

If you google "saving energy in school buildings"
these are the suggestions that you find. It is not rocket
science. In fact, you will find 348,000 hits,
most of which have been on the internet for years.

So why are they just now occurring to the senior leadership of the APS?

If they are going to help save a million dollars this year,
why weren't they used help save a million dollars
last year?

In particular, the Journal's Peter reports that John Dufay said;

"... the district will dial down the temperature in its
schools from an average of approximately 75 degrees
to 70 or 71 degrees.

... most people won't notice the difference."

But they would have noticed last year? ??

Why were schools being heated to 75 degrees last year
when a widely recognized and accepted temperature
of 72 degrees has been the standard for years?

Another of the questions that you will never be allowed to
ask in a town hall meeting;

or in any other venue where a candid, forthright, and
honest answer might be expected in response to a
legitimate question.

Another peek at the character of Darren White

Only in New Mexico: Wing Nuts Hone Knives

Hector Balderas as Lieutenant Governor?

According to blogger Joe Monahan; link
State Auditor Hector Balderas is being considered for
election as the next Lieutenant Governor.

I say; if he has not revealed substantial progress in a
forensic accountability audit of the leadership of the APS,

by the time we have to cast our votes,

we should all vote for someone else;

anyone else.

APS Board Meeting Minutes

If you cannot attend a board meeting, there are two methods by which you can inform yourself about the meeting.

The best would be by the broadcast of the meeting,
to the community, on a local TV station.
The record of those broadcasts is abysmal.
It is fair to say that anyone who depends on the TalNet
broadcast of board meetings will remain uninformed.

The second method is to read board minutes.

Board minutes could easily be in the form of the video and audio tapes of the meeting. They are after all, an incontrovertible record of the truth.

Instead, the leadership of the APS has decided that the minutes will be created in the form of anecdotal notes; someone writes down their considerably condensed version of what they think happened.

As an example;

I stood before the school board and challenged them on their failure to stand up as role models before students. They have excepted themselves from accountability as role models of the student standard of conduct, and I demanded that they explain, deny, defend, or even acknowledge their deliberate decision to abdicate as role models of the student standard of conduct.

The issue was reported in the minutes thusly;

Public Forum –

• Several people came up to speak on the following:
• educational assistance wage increase;
• special education/inclusion classes at Atrisco E. S.;
• being able to speak to particular board agenda items;
• Character Counts pillars of character;
• Corrales Charter School’s new location.
• Several legislators were also present and spoke in support of a raise for the educational assistants.

A stakeholder with a right no know that the leadership of the APS has no meaningful standards of conduct and competence, and are completely unaccountable to such standards as there are, will read;

Character Counts pillars of character;

One of the repeatedly expressed goals of the leadership of
the APS is to "improve communication";
bullshit.


Zsombor Peter, who witnessed the public forum,
did not report upon it at all.

So much for his obligation to inform the electorate.

If you want to know the truth,
you will have to go to the board meetings in person.

They've sent a boy to do a man's job.

no offense intended.

The Albuquerque Journal has charged Zsombor Peter with the obligation and responsibility to investigate and report upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

It is generally conceded, as self evident,

that as a wo(man) days increase in number,
so does their honor, and their courage and their character.

And their education, and experience and their expertise.

And their capacity to overcome the obstacles that block
their legitimate endeavors.


Young Peter faces the leadership of the APS,
a group of individuals who have formed for themselves;

a good ol' boys club.

They have not been writing down any rules for themselves.

The very last rule that they wrote for themselves was;
the standards of conduct and competence that apply to students;

do not apply to administrators or board members.

Even for the 6.5 hours each day that they enforce those
standards upon students.

They are now, only supposedly accountable to
the lowest standard of conduct of them all; the law.

And only then, as determined by the lawyers of the Modrall
and their legal weaselry,
and their virtually unlimited financial support from unwitting
taxpayers who think they are taxing themselves in order to
provide for the best education of their sons and daughters.

The egregious lack of accountability in the leadership of
the APS is well documented in the public record.

Albuquerque Mayor Marty Chavez finds the situation
so appalling as to warrant his personal takeover of
the school board.

The Governor of the State of New Mexico, Bill Richardson,
said;

"The leadership of the APS has a state wide
"earned reputation" for their lack of financial accountability."

The "well earned" part was documented by the recent
Meyners Audit of the Financial Division of the APS.

They wrote that;

Despite the fact that they were entrusted with
a billion tax dollars a year,
the good ol' boys in the leadership of the APS,
never bothered to write down financially sound policies
and procedures.

Nor did they follow the ones that they did have.

Nor did they keep records detailed enough to send anybody to prison.

At worst Brad Winters will be held accountable for bad record keeping and not for negligently allowing millions of tax dollars to be lost to waste and fraud.

They say;

If you're going to steal money, keep lousy books.
No one ever went to prison for keeping bad books.

Brad Winter will not provide a candid, forthright and honest
answer to the legitimate question;

Why were two APS administrators who had intimate
knowledge of the corruption and the incompetence in
the APS Financial Division,

and who did not blow the whistle,

promoted to even more senior leadership
in the mitigation of the mess that they own,

and given every possible opportunity to then guide
the cover up of their previous incompetence and corruption?

You still do not know the names of the senior
administrators who

"encumbered sums of money in excess of $50,000
"without involving purchasing.""

Nor will you ever.

Because the leadership of the APS will not reveal
their names,

nor any other inconvenient truth,

and Zsombor Peter cannot see that he must
investigate and report back to his readers.

He cannot see the single most important role of a
newspaper in this democracy.

Zsombor Peter cannot see that there is something
wrong when a senior public servant; Brad Winter,
will not answer legitimate questions about
his public service.

Or about the fate of public resources.

Brad Winter will not tell you how much money he spent on his fancy new board room.

Money that he saved by allowing elementary school students and their teachers to spend another year in portable classrooms that were showing the effects of being used to three times their service life at Susie Rayos Marmon ES.

Nor will he tell you how much money he save by ending fire safety inspections in schools.

And then spent on Tom Ryan's electronic toy chest;

hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of electronic
recording and editing equipment, and technicians,

who cannot manage to get a clean copy of
a board meeting, to a single stakeholder; ever.

The leadership of the APS will not commission
a full scale forensic audit of the entire leadership
of the APS.

Nor will they allow an audit to be discussed on the record.

They will allow nothing to be discussed on the record.

APS school board head honcho, Paula Maes
has said that she will never allow any audit of the
leadership of the APS which will individually identify the
corruption and incompetence of any APS senior administrator or board member.

A boast which she has so far, successfully backed up.

They will not discuss;

the Meyners Audit;
nor the impartial investigation of the APS Police Department and the public corruption and criminal conspiracy that took place there;
nor the Council of Great City Schools Audit
which revealed APS' "culture of fear of retribution and retaliation",
nor the Council of Great City Schools Audit which revealed that their system of administrative evaluation is "subjective and unrelated to promotion or step placement.

In the face of incontrovertible evidence of an ethics and accountability scandal of epic proportion,

Zsomber Peter is not man enough to do the job.

Or,

there is corruption afoot.




cc Zsombor Peter upon posting
except that he has indicated that he is not
interested in reading even another one of my "silly" posts.

I need a break

I will be turning my computer off at bedtime tonight, and
I will not be firing it up again until one week from Thursday.

I have left a few new posts for your consideration.

If you leave a comment; and please do,
it will not be published until Thursday July 24.


Please rejoin me Thursday after next.

Does it make any difference who was in charge when;

Winston Brooks Power Goals were created to address existing problems.

Does it make any difference who was in charge

• when the existing problems were created,
• continued to be problems, and
• were not resolved?

It does, if they are to be held accountable for their failure
to address the problems.

The goals from KRQE link; the problem, and the wonderment.

1. Three-year academic plan

• There is no existing plan to focus on improving student achievement, narrowing achievement gaps, increasing graduation rates and improving attendance.
• Who should have but did not create a workable plan to focus on improving student achievement, narrowing achievement gaps, increasing graduation rates and improving attendance?

2. Build confidence in APS

• The community has little to no confidence in the leadership of the APS; neither at the school board nor at the administrative level.
• Who should have but did not improve relations between the school district and the community, media, other organizations, business and government?

3. Create a communication plan

• There is no communication and evaluation plan between the district and the community, media, school board and others.
• Who should have but did not establish a communication and evaluation plan between the district and the community, media, school board and others?

3. Schedule board training workshops

• The school board lacks the training in their role and responsibilities as a school board in creating a more student-focused organization.
• Who should have but did not train the board on their role and responsibilities as a school board in creating a more student-focused organization?

5. Review and enhance facility upgrades

• There are no adequate plans for facility upgrades to be completed and publicized.
• Who should have but did not create plans for facility upgrades and then publish them?

6. Improve the district's money management

• The APS Financial Division lacks a "transparent, sound and effective financial stewardship plan" with well-documented processes in place, with reports due every quarter. A failure that has put billions of tax dollars at risk, and barring an honest to God Miracle, has cost taxpayers millions of dollars in waste and fraud.
• Who should have but did not create a transparent, sound and effective financial stewardship plan" with well-documented processes in place, with reports due every quarter?

7. Transition APS from site-based management to district-based management

• The problem is that Winston Brooks fully intends to completely disregard the rights of stakeholders to participate meaningfully in decisions that affect their interests.
• He, and he alone, is responsible for this egregious disregard for stakeholder rights.

8. Enhance school crisis plans

• There is no template for crisis management provided to all school and non-school sites, and no requirement for those sites' administrators to create and file a crisis plan based on that template. This template and these safety plans should have been in place long, long, long ago.
  
• Who should have but did not create a template for crisis management provided to all school and non-school sites, and a requirement for those sites' administrators to create and file a crisis plan based on that template?
• Who has placed students and staff in risk of their very lives, through incompetence and/or corruption?

Does it make any difference who was in charge when the
existing problems were created, continued to be problems
and were not resolved?

Only if you believe believe senior public servants should be
held accountable for their conduct and competence as public
servants, within their public service.

Only if you don't want the same thing to happen again, and
again, and again, and again.

Only if you are finished with good ol' boys covering each
others asses, and excepting themselves from
honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct
and competence as senior public servants;

at the expense of the quality education and the safety of
89,000 of our sons and daughters.

Do you know who your APS school board representative is?

At the County Clerk's website, link in the right hand margin,
you will find a "where do I vote" button. After clicking on it,
you can enter your street address, and then find out;
where you vote,
what precinct you are in, and
what districts your precinct is represented in;

• Representative District:
• Senatorial District:
• Public Education Commission District:
• City Council District:
• County Commission District:
• APS District: (your district number here)
• Congressional District:
• Public Regulation Commission District:
• Central New Mexico Community College
• AMAFCA
  

On the APS site link, you can see their smiling faces.

Winston Brooks "power goals"; a closer look

Independent of the worthiness of a goal is,
how well written is the goal?

If a goal is written poorly or wrongly, there is an effect on
measuring the goal and even upon reaching it.

Still unclear at this point, what does "Power Goal" even mean?

Worth noting; the "Power Goals" are not published anywhere
for APS stakeholders examination; not even on the APS website.

Here, according to KRQE link, are Winston Brooks
"Power Goals."

1. Three-year academic plan - Brooks wants to develop the plan with measurable targets by the end of the 2010-11 school year. He wants to focus on improving student achievement, narrowing achievement gaps, increasing graduation rates and improving attendance. Administrators will work out the plan and present it by the end of September.

2. Build confidence in APS - Brooks wants the administration to improve relations between the school district and the community, media, other organizations, business and government. The plan for that is due by mid-October.

3 (tie). Create a communication plan - Brooks wants the administration to develop a communication and evaluation plan between the district and the community, media, school board and others. The plan for that is due by mid-October.

3 (tie). Schedule board training workshops - Brooks wants to train the school board on the role and responsibilities of a school board, creating a more student-focused organization. The first workshop is due for mid-November.

5. Review and enhance facility upgrades - Brooks wants plans for facility upgrades to be completed and publicized by mid-October.

6. Improve the district's money management - Brooks wants a "transparent, sound and effective financial stewardship plan" with well-documented processes in place, with reports due every quarter starting with the 2008-09 school year.

7. Transition APS from site-based management to district-based management - Brooks wants the plan to include fair distribution of resources. The plan is due in the spring.

8. Enhance school crisis plans - Brooks wants a template for crisis management provided to all school and non-school sites, and wants those sites' administrators to create and file a crisis plan based on that to the district offices.

Goal 1. Measurable targets is a great start. The weak link will be in determining how to measure and what. APS, after years of focus, has yet to come up with an agreed upon method of measuring truancy; which is as black and white an issue as one can imagine. Either students are in class, or they are absent without any excuse. The technology is there to measure accurately; attendance of every student in every class - yet they don't.

Measurable targets however is only one aspect of the problem. The other is, how will the targets be reached? There are only two courses of action; one stops doing something, or one starts doing something. Stakeholders will need to carefully examine Brooks goals when they are finally presented to the public, months from now.

Unless Winston Brooks is willing to concede, on the record, that administrative failures fall under things to stop doing, he will have to list things that administrators need to start doing.

Otherwise, it is teachers, and others at the educational interface, who have to stop doing the wrong things, and start doing the right things.

As a teacher with some experience to call upon;
I would suggest that there is little that teachers can do to change the dynamic very much. I believe that we have squeezed about as much out of that resource as we can.

Something has to be done to make what teachers are doing now, work better.

The most obvious thing, is to eliminate classroom disruptions; whether they be endless announcements on the all call, or removing chronically disruptive students from classrooms long term.

Unless, and until, Winston Brooks does something about the issues that interfere with educationally efficient environments; there cannot be significant improvement in what goes on, on a daily basis, in classrooms.

Look for measurement that is unequivocal and accurate, specific examples of what will end, and what will begin, and for specific plans to deal with chronically disruptive students.

Goal 2. The leadership of the APS has yet to admit even, that it does not enjoy public confidence, nor will it admit the reasons for the lack of confidence.

Beware of any plan, the terms of which themselves, do not inspire confidence.

If the terms are murky and muddled; it is the same old, same old.

If the terms do not include town hall meetings, or the equivalent opportunity for stakeholders to ask legitimate questions and expect candid, forthright and honest answers;
your chain is being pulled. period.

I find it suspicious that no changes at all, are in the offing.
Wait four months to learn anything.

Goal 3. Goal 3 and Goal 2 are inseparable. If the leadership of the APS had a record of candid, forthright and honest communications; there would be no lack of confidence in their leadership and no need to improve communications.

The lack of change, the lack of progress, and the current lack of honest communication does not bode well for future change.

You have to ask yourself, if the leadership of the APS really intends to do anything any differently, why are they not doing things differently right now, today?

If you asked Brad Winter today, how many tax dollars were spent on his new board room, he will not answer you. Why would you believe that he will answer you four months from now?

Brad Winter promised that transparency on the Jim Villanucci show almost two years ago; and still nothing.

The most important question of all;
given the problems revealed by the Meyners Audit;
either a great deal of money has been wasted or stolen,
or a miracle has taken place.

Why will the leadership of the APS not address the question.
Why will they not tell stakeholders how much money was
wasted or stolen, and by whom,

or in the alternative, explain the miracle in terms
we can all understand?

Goal 4, or 3b, depending. Winston Brooks wants to train the school board on the role and responsibilities of a school board, creating a more student-focused organization. The first workshop is due for mid-November.

You have to wonder why the training is six months distant.

You have to wonder whether or not the training will include training in how to answer legitimate questions candidly, forthrightly and honestly. If it does not, who cares what other training they undertake; how could it possibly make any less difference?

Goal 5. Winston Brooks wants plans for facility upgrades to be completed and publicized by mid-October. Why wait five months? Why not put them up on a user friendly website as fast as they can be put up? except to hide what they would have to put up, for a few months longer?

Goal 6. Winston Brooks wants a "transparent, sound and effective financial stewardship plan" with well-documented processes in place.

This is a real no-brainer. The Meyners Audit revealed that the APS Financial Division had inadequate policies and procedures, was not accountable to the procedures that they did have, and were keeping inadequate records on the spending of a billion tax dollars a year.

The response is cook book. There is no need to invent polices and procedures for large corporations; they could be copied off the internet.

It is apparent though, that the policies and procedures will be put in place without acknowledging the fact that they never existed. To this day, no one who was responsible for the lack of policies and procedures has been identified. Two people, who should have blown the whistle on the lack of policies and procedures years ago, and who did not, have been promoted to the highest positions in the "new" financial division.

The supposed transparency is a joke, for as long as they refuse to tell stakeholders how much money was spent at 6400 Uptown Blvd, in the interests of the board members and administrators that work there, and at the expense of students, teachers and other stakeholders at the educational interface.

It is worse than a joke; it is outright deliberate deception. Look for a candid, forthright and honest accounting of spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd. In its absence, you really cannot believe a word that they say.

Goal 7. The transition from site based to district based management. This is really the scariest goal of all. Forget for a moment any argument about site based versus district based management. Look only at the manner in which it has taken place.

Despite years of past practice, Winston Brooks simply erased all of the progress that has been made so far, without even the courtesy of involving stakeholders in the change. He broke tacit and overt promises in complete disregard for stakeholders.

Stakeholder interests are of no interest to Winston Brooks.

That has to concern you at some level.

Goal 8. Enhance school based crisis plans. Another no-brainer. Crisis plans are also cook book. With only a small amount of fine tuning; one could down load them from the internet two clicks into a Google search.

The only reason that they are not in place already,
is that the leadership of the APS never had anyone whose
responsibilities included putting them in place,
or they had that person, and s/he was simply grossly incompetent.


I hope that Winston Brooks will make a positive difference in the future of the APS.

I am worried that even the most casual scrutiny of his plans
reveals that changes will be predicated on protecting good ol' boys from accountability,
and in keeping the good ol' boy organizational structure in place.

In which case, there will be no change at all.

The APS will still be run by Paula Maes, the good ol' boys, and the Modrall.