APS administrative and executive role modeling of the Pillars of Character Counts!

The leadership of the APS has been asked to tell the truth
about administrative and executive role modeling of the
Pillars of Character Counts!.

They don't have to respond to the question in a public forum,
although they are reasonably obliged to. I can understand
why that would not be their preference.

They can, and always could have, responded to the question
in any way they wanted to.

They pay Monica Armenta well,
to be able to answer this question in the best possible light.

And she has not.

Even when cast in the best possible light,
they are ashamed of their answer.

There is a cover up of the truth, at the highest levels of the
leadership of the APS.

An ethics and accountability scandal is being hidden from
voters, in order to manipulate the outcome of an election.

JOURNAListic malpractice.

The Albuquerque Journal, our newspaper of record, has a
responsibility to fully inform voters in order to prepare them
to participate meaningfully in the upcoming bond issue election.

Instead, they steadfastly refuse to investigate and report upon
the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the
APS. link.

Instead, they steadfastly refuse to investigate and report upon
the need for an impartial standards and accountability audit of
the entire leadership of the APS,
before the election.

The Journal will not report to voters, that Paula Maes once
boasted that she would never allow an audit that would
name the names of the corrupt and the incompetent in the
leadership of the APS.

Nor, will the Journal report that she has made good, her boast.

Talk about pay to play;

The leadership of the APS buys a whole bunch of Journal
advertising space, and coincidentally; the leadership of the APS
gets favorable coverage in preparation for an upcoming election.
link

Can anyone say; Journalistic malpractice?

APS School Board (tacitly) admits to characterlessness and/or cowardice.

The APS Student Standards of Conduct read;

Students are expected to model and promote
the Pillars of Character Counts!

The APS Leadership Standards of Conduct read;

Leaders are expected to model and promote
the Pillars of Character Counts!

There are good role models in the leadership of the APS.
There are positive role models in the leadership of the APS.
There are no role models of the Pillars of Character Counts!

Not one. link

I have repeatedly suggested that;

there are only two reasons that they will not discuss
administrative and executive role modeling
of the Pillars of Character Counts!;
openly and honestly.

One being, a lack of character, the other, being a lack of courage.

And they have (tacitly) agreed;

implied (as by an act or by silence) rather than expressed
understood without being openly expressed; implied
silent; saying nothing, unvoiced or unspoken
unexpressed, unspoken, unsaid, implicit.

Implied by or inferred from actions or statements:

It has been 70 days since David Robbins put
the role modeling clause on the table for an open and
honest discussion. The clause reads;

In no case shall the standards of conduct for adults,
be lower than the standards of conduct for students.

70 days later, and still, the open and honest discussion has
not taken place.

They are stonewalling.

Stonewalling is specifically and expressly prohibited according
to the Pillars of Character Counts!

The Pillars of Character Counts! prohibit;

"... all acts, including half-truths, out-of-context
statements, and even silence, that are intended to
create beliefs or leave impressions that are untrue or
misleading.

The leadership of the APS has invested a great deal of money
in creating the belief, and leaving the impression that, character
counts in the leadership of the APS.

There are at least two senior APS administrators who are being
paid specifically to create the belief and leave the impression
that, character counts in the leadership of the APS.

They are creating beliefs, and leaving impressions, that are
deliberately misleading, that are dishonest, that are unethical.

Their conduct is diametrically opposite to the message that
they are supposed to be teaching our children.

Instead of teaching them to embrace character and courage
and honor,

by their example, they are instead, teaching them to be
hypocrites; short on character and/or short on courage.



We should not be so worried that our children never listen to us,
as we should be worried that they are always watching us.

Sinclair

What would change do you suppose?

I am trying to institutionalize Character Counts! in the APS.

The leadership of the APS is trying to stop me without ever
having told the truth to stakeholders.

There will never be an open and honest discussion of
administrative and executive role modeling of
the Pillars of Character Counts!.

So what difference does it make?

I am really not the only person who believes in
Character Counts!. If you google it, you get 1,770,000 hits.

The people who support Character Counts! will argue that
there will be less truancy and a lower drop out rate.
There will be less bullying and vandalism.
Adults will regain charge in their schools.
There will be less teacher burnout.

Test scores will skyrocket.

The deliberate decision of the leadership of the APS
to sabotage Character Counts! is bad for everybody,
except for the incompetent and the corrupt
in the leadership of the APS.
For them, it works out great.

Students cannot be held honestly accountable to
the Pillars of Character Counts!,
if no one is willing to step up and show them what it looks like.

Its easy to tell kids a story about George Washington and a
cherry tree. It is far more difficult, and far more important,
to show them what it looks like to accept honest accountability
for your conduct.

The best thing that could possibly happen for the 90,000
of our sons and daughters who are students in the APS,
is for them to learn at school, that their character counts.

It is the worst thing that could possibly happen,
if you're one of a handful of good ol' boys with a record to hide.

There is not a legitimate agenda in the entire APS,
that does not move forward on the day that there is an open
and honest discussion of standards and accountability in
the leadership of the APS.

There is no good an ethical reason, that public servants
should not be held honestly accountable to meaningful
standards of conduct and competence; at least for the few
hours a day that they are the stewards of our trust and treasure.

A right to role models?

Do students in the APS have a right to role models of the
Student Standards of Conduct?

Do they have any right to ask that those that write the rules,
obey the rules?

Do they have any right to ask someone to show them what
it looks like to hold oneself honest accountable to meaningful
standards of conduct?

And if they do,
so what?

Do you believe in "role modeling" and in Santa Claus, and the Tooth Fairy?

• Role Models of the Pillars of Character Counts!
• Santa Claus
• The Tooth Fairy

The odds of running into one of them at 6400 Uptown Blvd
are essentially the same; zero to none.

Why was Ed Briggs even at the Public Forum?

By any reasonable measure, Ed Briggs' 33 years of service
to his community, are a record of service and dedication
far beyond the call.

APS administrators who have show us far less,
have enjoyed far greater celebration.

And here is Ed Briggs, trying to talk as fast as he can,
in the 120 seconds allowed him by "forum rules",
in an effort to make sure that the rest of his team got the
recognition they deserved.

And then to have even that
meager celebration sullied
by some cheap remark about
there being some doubt in
my mind, about whether
he had earned our respect,

offered for no reason, except
as a red herring,

goes beyond the pale;

(unacceptable;
outside agreed standards
of decency.)

Board meetings are supposed to be broadcast to the
community via TalNet on the Saturday following the
meeting.

This meeting, like most that are embarrassing to the
leadership of the APS, was not, again.




photo Mark Bralley

Trouble with APS links

The following comment was just posted.

Those links never work. Last time I tried to manually
chase down a boardbook link I got so frustrated I just
gave up.

Could you do a tutorial on how to start from scratch &
get to them?

No, I can't.

It isn't so much that

• the APS website is basically unsearchable, and that
  
• the identity of the person most responsible for that "unsearchability" is still secret, or that,
• Monica Armenta needs three more subordinates, during a hiring freeze, to run a real website,

as it is that;
even when you get to where the information is supposed to be;
it isn't there.

Take for example; board meeting agendas and minutes.

Rarely are they up on the website in a timely fashion.
Minutes are often not there at all. They routinely vote to
approve minutes that have never been posted on the website.
Some, still have not been posted.

Just last night, in an apparent violation of
the Open Meetings Act, they approved minutes from the
meeting before the last. State law requires draft minutes in
ten days, and approval of those minutes at the next regular meeting.

Is isn't so much that you can't find the truth,
as it is that,

there is nothing you can do about the fact that
you can't find the truth.

There are more tactful words, I would suppose, but not more honest.

The leadership of the APS steadfastly refuses to enable an
open and honest discussion of administrative and
executive role modeling of the student standards of conduct.

They refuse for some reason.

I can think of two. I can think of only two.
I have begged readers for years, to suggest a third.
I have offered those I have offended, ample opportunity
to point to the third, anonymously or otherwise.

I have never, not posted a comment.
(With two exceptions, which were simply mean spirited or obscene, and
I have no obligation what so ever, to indulge that kind of behavior.)

We are left with only two reasons on the table, that the
leadership of the APS will not be honest with stakeholders.


I reiterate my request;
somebody, anybody, please tell me what other reason there
could possibly be, that the leadership of the APS will not
open and honestly discuss role modeling, or standards, or
accountability, except that;

1 They lack the courage, and/or
2 They lack the character

Just in; a friend has suggested a third;

"because it is politically expedient."

Is it acceptable according to the Pillars of Character Counts!
to prevent an open an honest, public discussion of standards
and accountability, because it is "politically expedient"?

The APS Student Standards of Conduct;
the Pillars of Character Counts!, are online, link

Here quoted in significant part;

1. TRUSTWORTHINESS

When others trust us, they give us greater leeway because they feel we don’t need monitoring to assure that we’ll meet our obligations. They believe in us and hold us in higher esteem. That’s satisfying. At the same time, we must constantly live up to the expectations of others and refrain from even small lies or self-serving behavior that can quickly destroy our relationships.

Simply refraining from deception is not enough. Trustworthiness is the most complicated of the six core ethical values and concerns a variety of qualities like honesty, integrity, reliability and loyalty.

Honesty

There is no more fundamental ethical value than honesty. We associate honesty with people of honor, and we admire and rely on those who are honest. But honesty is a broader concept than many may realize. It involves both communications and conduct.

Honesty in communications is expressing the truth as best we know it and not conveying it in a way likely to mislead or deceive. There are three dimensions:

Truthfulness. Truthfulness is presenting the facts to the best of our knowledge. Intent is the crucial distinction between truthfulness and truth itself. Being wrong is not the same thing as lying, although honest mistakes can still damage trust insofar as they may show sloppy judgment.

Sincerity. Sincerity is genuineness, being without trickery or duplicity. It precludes all acts, including half-truths, out-of-context statements, and even silence, that are intended to create beliefs or leave impressions that are untrue or misleading.

Candor. In relationships involving legitimate expectations of trust, honesty may also require candor, forthrightness and frankness, imposing the obligation to volunteer information that another person needs to know.

It would appear that the 90,000 of our sons and daughters in
the APS, are being told that political expediency is not
an acceptable choice.

Not if, their character counts.

Political expediency is denied them, as both cowardly and corrupt.


And we are back to two;

1 They lack the courage, and/or
2 They lack the character

to enable an open and honest discussion of
the Pillars of Character Counts!

I wish I had a picture of Ed Briggs.

He is the Principal at Grant Middle School.
I have known and respected him for almost three decades.

When he walked through the board room, I leaned over to
the person next to me, and said, that guy is probably the
best principal in the APS.

Then came the Public Forum, and my biweekly reminder that
stakeholders still don't know the truth;
there is not a single administrator or board member in the
entire leadership of the APS, who is willing to stand up to
honest accountability as a role model of
the Student Standards of Conduct.

Then came Matters of Information, and
Winston Brooks turn to speak.

He began by freely admitting that I was starting to piss him off.

And then he had occasion to recognize Ed Briggs.

He gave Ed some well earned praise and then said something
about what a shame it was that, I didn't think Ed was
a good role model.

He did it to draw attention from his own shame.

I have never said, written, or suggested, ever, that there were
no "good" role models in the APS.

Winston Brooks is a "good" role model. He just isn't a
role model of the Student Standards of Conduct.

The obvious truth is that there are a number of "good" role
models in the leadership of the APS.

What there isn't, in the leadership of the APS, are
any role models of the Student Standards of Conduct.

Students are expected to hold themselves honestly accountable
to a specific set of standards, called,
the Pillars of Character Counts!

There is only one way to role model honest accountability to
the Pillars of Character Counts!; and that is,
hold yourself honestly accountable to
the Pillars of Character Counts!

Being a "good" role model is not the same thing as being
a role model of the Pillars of Character Counts!

Being a "positive" role model is not the same thing as being
a role model of the Pillars of Character Counts!

Being a role model of "the highest standards of conduct",
is not the same thing as being a role model of
the Pillars of Character Counts!


Honest accountability to the Pillars of Character Counts!;
is what it takes to be a role model of
the Pillars of Character Counts!

There is no equivalent gesture.

Someone has to show students and staff, what it looks like to
to be honestly accountable to a higher standard of conduct.


Ed Briggs is retiring this week.

He is one of a kind.

I never asked him personally and specifically if he would
stand up as a role model of
the Pillars of Character Counts!


I should have. He probably would have said, yes.

Who ya gonna believe; Marty Chavez, or your lyin' eyes?

He says that he is not a candidate for mayor.

This deliberate deception enables him to use legal loopholes and
technicalities to gain an unfair advantage over his opponents in
the race for mayor.

His defense;

"It's all perfectly legal."

"Legal" is the lowest acceptable standard of conduct.

There is no lower acceptable standard of conduct than the law.

He has 98,000 constituents in the APS.
They are taught that;

A person of character
often has to do more than the law requires, and
less than the law allows.

Marty Chavez should know; he claims to be
a Founding Father of Character Counts!

What has he done in 15 years,
except paint "Character Counts!" on a bunch of city trucks.


And we would still trust this man, why? exactly.




photo Mark Bralley

The first responsible use of power

is to act decisively to prevent its abuse.

Monahan writes; Marty Chavez' character doesn't play.

If you read blogger Joe Monahan this morning, link
Joe argues * that character doesn't play in (mayoral) elections.

I beg to disagree. Character does play.

The only reason it is not on the table right now, is that
there is not a mayoral candidate willing to put it there.

It would mean standing in front of people and responding to
questions about character; candidly, forthrightly, and honestly,
until all of the questions were answered, and
all of them answered.

Marty Chavez' character doesn't play?

If if does not,
then the electorate are idiots with power far greater than
their ability to wield it.



*

A sure-fire way to lose this race is to make it about Chavez's personality and his perhaps outsized ego that leads him to seek constant media exposure. That's old hat to city voters who long ago accepted the incumbent's character flaws, but have embraced his politics."

emphasis added

"But it's all perfectly legal."

Mayor Marty Chavez is using the city treasury to underwrite
his campaign for mayor. link Marjorie Childress NMI

Candidates Richard Romero and RJ Berry held a news
conference to draw attention to Chavez' unethical conduct.



Chavez' response;
it's all "perfectly legal".














"The law" is the lowest standard of conduct acceptable among civilized people.

Chavez' conduct underscores the need for higher standards of
conduct than the law, for the stewards of the public trust and
treasure, and for means to hold public servants accountable to
those higher standards,

at least for the few hours a day that we must trust them
with control over our power, and our resources.




photo Mark Bralley

APS Board Meeting minutes editorialized

If you read the draft minutes, link, for the last board meeting,
the ones that will be approved tonight under a process that
does not allow anyone to object to anything in the minutes,
you will find editorializing.

There is no place for editorializing in the minutes of public
meetings.

III. Public Forum –

Ms. Griego called up the one person that signed up for
public forum:

This person spoke about the Character Counts pillars of
character. He urged the board to put an accountability
issue on the table or discuss as to why in his opinion
they were stonewalling this issue.

Stonewalling;

To refuse to answer or cooperate with, the act of stalling,
evading, or filibustering, esp. to avoid revealing politically
embarrassing information.

The board is stalling and evading the issue of role modeling of
the Student Standards of Conduct, in order to avoid revealing
the politically embarrassing truth; they have no intention to ever
step up as role models for students, of the standards of conduct
which they expect students to meet.


"In my opinion", my ass.

A bucket of truth about the JCMS Climate Survey

Imagine that the whole truth and nothing but the truth
about the climate survey long, long ago,
is contained in a bucket.

Take out the truth that you will not share,
and
about which you have an understanding with stakeholders.

To whom does the rest of the truth in the bucket belong?

To whom do the public records belong?


Dear Leadership of the APS,

Tell the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth.

And then stand for questions.

Role model for students, what honest accountability looks like.

The reason that creating even the appearance of impropriety
is prohibited by APS School Board Policy, and
their Code of Ethics, is because the appearance, in and of itself,
does damage. Damage has been done.

Not telling the truth creates the appearance of impropriety.

There are staff members at JCMS, who now have less respect
for the leadership of the APS because they won't tell the truth
about the Climate Survey results.


The longer they don't tell the truth,
the more you've got to wonder, why?


Don't waste any time reporting this to APS' SilentWhistle;
the manifestation of their own waste, fraud and abuse.

They no longer accept complaints of ethical misconduct.

Student discipline at AHS

I am writing this merely for illustration. I have no reason to
believe that I could not have seen what I saw, at any APS
high school.

I have in fact argued a number of times that it could be seen
at every APS high school.

Mark Bralley and I were being escorted off campus by two
unarmed members of the Praetorian Guard. Both seemed
like decent people caught in the middle. No complaints.

As we walked through the front patio, I noticed two students
dry humping on some nearby concrete architecture.

I looked to see what the guard would do.

She told them to stop.
They didn't;
until they felt like it.

Next we passed an AHS staff member, apparently on duty
in the parking lot. He was facing down a half dozen youngsters
with a big water balloon. They appeared to be enjoying teasing
the gentleman over his impotency.


Our truck was parked near by so the guards had the opportunity
to engage the would be drenchers while still completing their
more important assignment, escorting us off of public property.


The guards told the youngsters to get rid of their water balloon.



They didn't;
until they felt like it.



Who is in charge here? Whose will is being done?

All of this has a profound effect on nearly every issue;
truancy, dropping out, low test scores, you name it.

Student discipline, and in particular chronically disruptive
students, will never be talked about openly and honestly.

Because it is the single greatest failure of the leadership of the
APS; allowing children to take charge of schools.

And because
they don't want to be held accountable for that failure.


Character counts in the leadership of the
Albuquerque Public Schools.


Right,
and a pint of Haagen-Dazs link serves four. unk



photo Mark Bralley

Mayor Marty is writing checks the city can't cash.

At the news conference on drop outs, at AHS,
Mayor Chavez promised to solve the drop out problem.

Background;

The reason kids don't attend school is because
they don't want to attend school.

There are kids who do not want to go to school
to study for NCLB tests.

Not everything in the NCLB driven curriculum is
appropriate for every kid. Many, many things that are
appropriate, are not in the NCLB curriculum at all.

There are kids who do not, can not, and will not,
ever fit into the NCLB mold. Nor should they be
expected to.

I asked if there was an opportunity to offer student driven
curriculum instead of NCLB driven curriculum as a means
of addressing the truancy and dropout issue.

Chavez pointed to me,
wanted to know if I was
"media" and then allowed
my question.

He said there could
be a student driven
curriculum.


A student driven curriculum would be offered in defiance of
the NCLB Act. It would mean forfeiting federal monies.
The money would have to come from somewhere else instead,
and Mayor Chavez said "no problem";

... writing a check that, the city treasury can't cash.




photo Mark Bralley

AHS students had front row seats for a civil rights violation.

Mark Bralley and I, were precisely the two people that the
founding fathers had in mind when they wrote the
constitutional protection for our right to be a free press.

We were doing exactly what we were supposed to be doing.

Nearby, School Board Member Lorenzo Garcia was sitting
with about a dozen kids. They were chatting in their own
language. He was role modeling exceptional conduct and accomplishment.


He could have, if had known what was really going on,
pointed to what was happening ten feet away.

"Look kids, the free press."

Instead,

the kids watched APS' Praetorian Guard remove any
press that were not a party to the agreement between the APS
and the approved local "media", the ones who are party to
the agreement to slant coverage of the APS, link, in order to
manipulate the outcome of an upcoming bond issue election.


Somewhere on that patio, I would be willing to bet,
there is a big poster or banner that reads;

Character Counts!

Could this possibly be any more outrageous?!

APS press conference goes bad.

An otherwise uneventful press conference at AHS, turned into
a PR nightmare for the Albuquerque Public Schools.

Mark Bralley, link, and I were thrown out of the AHS press
conference in retaliation for our effort to investigate and report
upon the truth.

It is important work;

"The Press was protected so that it could bare the secrets
of the government and inform the people.
Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose
deception in government. And paramount among the
responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent
any part of the government from deceiving the
people."
(emphasis added)
Justice Hugo L Black

After the most of the conference was over, a group of four of
APS' Praetorian Guard* confronted us, telling us that we
had to leave because the press conference was "... not a public
event".

(Which begs at least one question; why not? Why do press conferences
with a mayor and a school superintendent need to be secret from the public?)

In any event, we established that we were not among the great
unwashed, that we were in fact "the press". In the most comic
part of the interaction, Mark showed them a press pass for the
White House. To which, the armed Praetorian responded;

"... never heard of them."

We decided to have a little fun with them, so we took them up
on their offer to escort us to the administration.

As Mark and I were establishing
the facts, Monica Armenta
barged in. She has exactly zero
authority at the school but,
took control of the situation
any way.

She informed us that her
"23 years" as a news reader
made her an authority
on the First Amendment.

She wanted to see "our press credentials". Of course, there is
no such thing as press "credentials". What Armenta was looking
for was something issued by a media outlet that met her
personal approval.

A free press is credentialed by the United States Constitution.The right to be a free press is a constitutionally protected
human right. There is no piece of paper, badge, trinket, or secret
handshake that must be learned in order to exercise
a constitutional right.

She later suggested that such a credential is available through
the NM State Police. It is not, of course. The NNSP has
neither the authority, nor any apparent interest in,
"credentialing" members of a free press.

Armenta's suggestion proves only that she was asking to
see "credentials" that she had never seen before gained
through a process about which she knows nothing.

When I asked her to cite the rule, regulation, or policy
that she was "enforcing", she told me that she "didn't have
the time" to tell me.

Seeing that they were getting nowhere with that tack, they
moved on the the fact that we didn't have "visitor passes".

We didn't, because the principal had earlier made it quite
clear to us that we didn't need one. A fact that he admitted
to, on the record.

No one else at the press conference was wearing a visitor pass.

Monica Armenta is laboring under two false assumptions;

1. That there is in fact some "credential", without which, one
cannot exercise their constitutionally protected human right
to be a free press, and

2. that she has the authority to demand to see those
credentials. She does not.
Her position as APS' Executive Director of Communications
does not provide for her, a warrant to invade our privacy.
Who we represent as members of a free press is none of her
business. A free press is not accountable to Monica Armenta.

The United States Supreme Court has ruled that
a guy in a basement with a Xerox machine is a free press.

Does Monica Armenta really suppose that
the First Amendment doesn’t apply to bloggers?

Does anyone really suppose that there are credentials,
without which, a citizen cannot exercise their constitutionally
protected human right to be a free press? And further that,
that credential is issued to them at the whim of the government?

It wouldn't be a right, if you have to have Monica Armenta's
blessing in order to exercise it.



* APS' Police Department is not accredited, certified, or
certificated by anyone. They report directly to, and only to,
the leadership of the APS.

Any complaint against them, would have to be filed with the
same people who ordered them to harass us in the first place.




photo Mark Bralley