Aiken County School District considers Everitt

The Journal reports this morning that Beth Everitt is among three finalists for the position of superintendent of the Aiken County (S. Carolina) School District. (link sub req)

What makes the story interesting, is that she was able to compete for the position without having to explain, defend, or even acknowledge any of the problems in her current position;

• the APS Police Department scandal,
• gradegate,
• the principal shuffle,
• the squandering of public trust and treasure at the UAC,
• the shambles that is the APS Financial Department
• her refusal to surrender her administration to an impartial accountability audit.
• or her abdication as the senior administrative role model of the student standard of conduct, for 99,000 of our sons and daughters.
  

Interesting becomes worrisome when one considers the possibility that our next superintendent will likely come to us under similar circumstances;

• A county district attorney like Kari Brandenburg; who is willing to sit on evidence rather than allow Beth Everitt's administration to be held accountable for the criminal misuse of sheriff's office equipment and resources.
• A county sheriff like Darren White; who is willing to disregard open government laws in order to cover up for Beth Everitt's administration; and his own.
• A law firm like Modrall, whose president is married to the school board president.
• A law firm like Modrall, feeding off taxpayer support of education, litigating exception even from the law, for senior administrators and board members.
• A law firm like Modrall, to litigate exception to the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act.
  
• And local media who are willing to ignore an ethics and accountability scandal in the public schools, rather than hold Beth Everitt honestly accountable for her conduct and competence as public servant.

What if a lemon is marching our way?

How would we know?

The newest elephant to join the herd of elephants already in the room; APS absenteeism and morale

The Journal reports upon teacher absenteeism today. (link sub req)

There are two kinds of absences. The first kind,
you minimize by scheduling legitimate absences
around the needs of students.
(Not exactly rocket science.)

The other kind, is a manifestation of teacher morale.

Illegitimate absenteeism varies inversely with morale;
as morale goes down, these absences go up.

As a matter of fact, so do legitimate absences.
The same stressors that lower morale,
add to stress related illness.

Those who are individually responsible for employee morale in the APS, do not want to talk about morale.

The union doesn't want to admit that there are teachers who take mental health days.

So they will focus together on,
finding answers to pointless questions.

According to the Journal;

"Albuquerque Teachers Federation President Ellen Bernstein said the joint district/union committee is looking for more information to put the numbers into context:

• How do they compare to previous years?
• How does APS compare to other New Mexico districts?
• How do public schools compare to the rest of the public sector?"

Comparison to "similar situations" is the work of administrators who have a need to appear busy.

The educational interface, where the student and the system interact, is as individual as the teachers, and the students, and the community members that work there.

At the classroom level, the two most "similar" school districts in the country, are as dissimilar as an apple and an orange.



There is an elephant in the room;
teacher "mental health days".


Ellen Berntein doesn't want to talk about them, apparently.

Beth Everitt flatly refuses to talk about them,

or about teacher morale.

Because she owns it;

and because it sucks.

Spinning the background check problem

Jessica Garate and KRQE have reported that state law requiring background checks of school employees, has been skirted. (link)

State Senator Joe Carraro says that the legislative intent of the law was that all employees be screened. Many school districts, including the APS, have interpreted the law to mean that they had only to screen new applicants.

School Board President Paula Maes said that many school districts would like to do the checks, " ... but just don't have the money or the means ..." to check all employees.

APS has the money and the means; they just chose to spend them elsewhere; filling their UAC with new ranks of administrators, for example.

Ms. Garate reported that APS Superintendent Beth Everitt refused to be interviewed on the subject.

...which is wrong, right?

I mean, a public servant can't just refuse to answer questions about the public interest and their public service, right?

unfunded mandate

The Journal reported;

"New Mexico S.B. 561, signed into law earlier this year, requires all public school districts to test workplace readiness of its 11th-graders in math, reading and locating information beginning next fall.

The bill provided no money for districts to cover the costs."

Do legislators not understand what it means, to mandate something and then not appropriate the necessary resources?


(The more optimistic and politically active among readers might want to contact their legislator and ask them to fund this worthwhile and useful testing.)

17% of APS students are, and will continue to be, 'Unemployable'

In the Journal today (link sub req)

It was reported that when ninth grade students took a test, the test revealed that one in five would be unemployable. *

APS was quick to point out that these were ninth graders; and further

""Mary Ann Landry, the district's vocational education director, said APS scores rose slightly when some of the schools retested students as upperclassmen. However, the district did not provide complete data on those results."

One has to wonder what, exactly, the leadership of the APS meant when they said, ...when upperclassmen retook the test, scores rose slightly.

I suspect that is APS speak for;

when seniors were given the same test;
the scores were essentially the same.


Coincidently; the public records of the test results
were not provided.





* from the Journal report, the test;

"The numbers come from the WorkKeys assessments, tests designed to find out how high schoolers stack up next to employer expectations.
Local businesses seem to be developing a taste for the test and advocates say it goes where the resume can't.
"Employers really like it because it gives them a really objective assessment of workplace skill," said Lois Johnson, director of transitional services for the New Mexico Department of Workplace Solutions."

APS' Latest Audit

APS has just finished a financial audit by an independent auditor.

The purpose of the audit was to determine the APS' net worth and to establish a "rating" for the purposes of selling bonds. When APS sells some of the $316M dollars of bonds that were recently approved by voters; the interest paid on the bonds varies with APS bond rating. If APS can maintain a high rating, taxpayers pay less interest on the money they borrow to underwrite education.

It is in the public interest for the administration of the APS to keep APS' bond rating high, in order to save tax dollars. If the bond rating is allowed to fall, through administrative incompetence or corruption, the public interest has been betrayed.

The auditor, the firm Moss Adams, found the following;

• The audit was almost a year late.
  
• APS over reported it's worth by $53M (nearly 10%).
• APS is in need of "qualified financial personnel".
• "material weaknesses in the district's internal financial controls".
• errors in previous years that required "adjustment." (correction)
• APS' problems are due to "poor record keeping".
• APS' records are "riddled with errors".
  

Even Robert Lucero admitted that it is the worst audit that APS has ever had, saying, "They have to clean house in the financial department."

Lou Anne Boothe, the APS administrator, and the district's only certified accountant, who blew the whistle on the corruption and incompetence in the district's financial department, is still on paid administrative leave while a "personnel investigation" is conducted. No explanation why some months after she was put on leave; the investigation isn't complete. (more corruption and/or incompetence?)

According to the paper, "APS officials do not expect the audit to dent its strong bond rating."


Really? And why not, exactly?

This latest incompetence and corruption in the APS could very well affect our bond rating. If you were buying bonds, would you ignore this information?


Board Member Marty Esquivel said, "The most important thing that we have learned out of it is,
we need to have better accountability from the professionals in charge." (emphasis added)

Esquivel has proposed a full scale accountability audit of the APS leadership and administration.


So far, not one public figure has stood in support of an audit.


The audit is opposed by the media, and by those in the leadership of the APS who do not want their corruption and incompetence exposed by an honest and impartial audit.

New Superintendent to Make $260K

If one could actually hire a person
who could single handedly fix the APS,
$260K would be a steal.

But there is no such person. If there were;
there would be school districts routinely succeeding.
There are not, name one.

APS is a good old boys club;
like most old bureaucracies.

When the Council of the Great City Schools audited the APS; they found that administrative evaluations were
"... subjective and unrelated to promotion or step placement."

Good old boys get promoted without demonstrating by any objective means, that they are in any way competent to do the jobs into which they are promoted.

The Council of the Great City Schools also reported that the leadership of the APS had "... a culture of retribution and retaliation."against those who challenge their conduct or competence.

They cover each other's asses. You can't fight one
of them without fighting all of them, and all of their lawyers.

The Council of the Great City Schools reported that the leadership of the APS has " ... a culture of deliberately misleading the community.


They don't tell the truth.

Gold old boys put up with a lot incompetence and corruption in their fellow club members. That is why APS is performing so poorly. The gold old boys can't run a school district without scandals in every department. It is the natural consequence of failing to hold people accountable for their conduct and their competence.

It is the Peter Principle on steroids; fueled by corruption and incompetence.

The good old boys will not audit themselves. Any competent and impartial audit will reveal widespread incompetence and corruption.

The good old boys can survive anything but an audit.

If the leadership of the APS is not willing to conduct the audit, and remove incompetent and corrupt administrators; how do you expect the superintendent to do so?

Place a $260K dollar apple in a barrel with rotten apples, and it will rot.

There is no person who can do their job so well that everyone else doesn’t have to do their jobs as well.

If the community is not willing to disband the good old boys; nothing will change. You could pay the new superintendent a million dollars a year; and nothing will change.

They will not be disbanded except by a large enough group of people showing up at a public forum and demanding an immediate and full scale forensic audit of the APS.

And despite the deliberate and methodical efforts of the leadership of the APS and the media to prevent such an occurrence.

The most important task they will ever undertake;

and never once have they done it right.

The school board has never hired a superintendent
who had the will and the courage to disband the
good old boys club, that is the leadership of the APS.

If they had, the leadership of the APS would not
now be "a good old boys club";
where what you know means less than who you know,
and where incompetence and corruption are tolerated and enabled.

Never once have they hired a superintendent
with the character and the courage to audit
honestly, the administration of the public interests
in the public schools.

Rules are for fools

Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education Policy C.02

The Board will annually evaluate the Superintendent in compliance with New Mexico Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education Policy, State Statutes and the State Board of Education's Educational Standards.

1. And they will not.

Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education Policy G.10

"The Superintendent or the Superintendent's designee will maintain a system of evaluation for all personnel in compliance with the laws of New Mexico and the standards and procedures adopted by the State Board of Education."

2. And Beth Everitt has not.


The validity of those statements will be proven irrefutably by an honest accountability audit of the leadership of the APS.

That is why neither the administration,
nor the board intends to conduct an audit.


If they get away with it, it because when
Marty Esquivel stood up for an audit,
nobody stood up with him.



Everyone who waits for the perfect circumstance
to finally make a stand; will find only a perfect excuse
for never making a stand at all.



Never, ever loose sight of the fact that the media refuses to investigate and report upon these allegations. Their refusal is not accidental.

The refusal of the media to report the truth about the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS is deliberate; with malice and forethought.

The March of the Lemon

Photo by Craig Fritz, Tribune

The "march of the lemons" is a phrase often heard in the APS. It usually refers to bad teachers who are allowed to simply move to another school rather than be held accountable for some incompetence or misconduct.

According to the Trib, (link) Beth Everitt's APS is;

• a mediocre school district,
• that cannot rid itself of bad teachers,
  
• where students and staff do not feel safe, (*)
  
• with an administration that does not listen to stakeholders, and
  
• with a superintendent and administration that lacks "ethics".
  

The administration of the APS

• lacks any system of honest accountability for conduct or competence,
• is without the will to hold anyone personally accountable, and
• is without the will to conduct an immediate full scale forensic audit.

The school system that hires Beth Everitt will not be aware of the incompetence and misconduct that has come to light this year. They will not be aware of;

• the scandal in the APS police department,
• the scandal in the financial department,
• gradegate,
• the principal shuffle, or
• the squandering of the public trust and treasure at the Uptown Administrative Complex.

They won't know because Paula Maes and the school board have not done an annual evaluation on Everitt; in blatant violation of;

• school board policy,
• State Board of Education regulations, and
• State Law.

Because Paula Maes' et al, cannot be held accountable even to the law, Beth Everitt can misrepresent herself to some other school district, as someone she is not.

At what legal meeting of the board, was it decided that Beth Everitt will be allowed to march,

• without the required evaluation, and
  
• without an honest full scale forensic audit of her administration of the public interests and resources in the APS?

None of this has been, or will be reported upon;
a disservice to the process, and to stakeholders,
of epic proportion.

The public interest has been betrayed by whomever at the Journal, Trib, KKOB, KOB, KOAT, and KRQE has decided that each of those "news" outlets will not investigate or report upon the march of this particular lemon.



*APS has routinely reported to the community that students feel safe at school. That claim would seem to be directly refuted by an honest and impartial scientific poll. The Council of the Great City Schools, in a recent audit, reported that the leadership of the APS has a culture of under reporting crime statistics to the community; in an effort to deliberately deceive stakeholders about safety at school.

The new superintendent will not change the system.

The system will change the new superintendent.

If the leadership of the APS has neither the inclination nor the will to perform an honest audit of the administration before handing it over to the new superintendent;

s/he will be expected to fix a broken school district;
using the same corrupt and incompetent people who broke it.

The new superintendent cannot fix the district except by ending the culture that tolerates and enables corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS.

The district will not be fixed without first removing incompetent and corrupt administrators and board members.


Who do you think will prevail in that contest of wills?

The new superintendent, (backed only by a board that lacks even the courage to audit a scandal ridden and totally unaccountable administration);

or the entrenched bureaucrats (incompetent and corrupt; with nearly unlimited power and resources, and nothing to lose but their jobs)?

Every rule, regulation, policy, and directive,

that determines the course of the APS,
is the prerogative of the leadership of the APS.

Their were at the wheel when the bus left the road.

They have been doing things their way for a hundred years, and all they have to show for it is a school system that is mediocre on a good day.


The system is fundamentally flawed.

One of the most fundamental flaws is that it allows board members and administrators to keep secrets about public interests and resources. Secrecy allows the worst in human nature to flourish. A void in accountability is filled by incompetence and corruption. Soon, there is so much corruption and incompetence that a blanket of secrecy must cover every aspect of administration.

It is secretive for a reason.
There is no good reason to keep secrets.


Beth Everitt's administration, and the current board, refuse to answer legitimate questions about the public interests in the public schools.

Nobody is talking about complete transparency as a fundamental requirement of the next superintendency.


Any change which continues in secrecy,
is no change at all.

APS Board to ignore board policy

According to APS School Board Policy C.02

The Board will annually evaluate the Superintendent in compliance with New Mexico State Statutes and the State Board of Education's Educational Standards.

Apparently, the board intends to ignore it's own policy, NM State Statutes and the State Board of Education's Educational Standards; without explanation, without defense, and without even acknowledging their intentions.

At one point board members Paula Maes and Robert Lucero, stated that they were ready to offer her a contract extension before their annual evaluation was ever begun.

It would appear that a deal has been cut with Superintendent Everitt. She agreed to resign, and the board agreed not to document the many failures of her administration.

Unfortunately for stakeholders, the agreement appears to cover not only their required annual evaluation of the superintendent; but any form of impartial accountability audit of her administration.

APS will pass it's lemon of a superintendent with a clean record;

and all of the corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS will remain unexposed and unmitigated.

Cash strapped APS

has found a third of a million dollars to tear down the Stronghurst Complex. It is vacant building. There is no urgent need to tear it down. It is debatable whether or not that kind of money should be spent on something that has a more direct benefit for students.

APS' John Dufay has reported that the district's emergency reserves are gone, and that the district would have to go to the legislature for more money, if something big happens. (link)

It seems that the leadership of the APS is in a bit of a hurry to sell the land that the Stronghurst Complex sits on. When the truth about the spending at the APS UAC, became public, APS' spin was that it really wasn't going to cost taxpayers anything because the proceeds of the Stronghurst sale would cover the unjustified costs of renovation.

In the first place, selling public property to cover public debt still costs taxpayers, because it is their building and land which is being sold.

More importantly, the method of funding the renovation, does not justify the renovation. The leadership of the APS has never justified the money that they have spent on the Uptown Administrative Complex.

They will not explain, defend, or even acknowledge the amount of the public trust and treasure that has been squandered at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

There is a related story in this morning's Journal.
(link sub req)

"The law is clear on it's face."

This is District Court Judge Nan Nash. This morning she ruled that the meaning of the law regarding Dr. Elsy Fierro's right to a public hearing, is clear on it's face.

It doesn't lend it self to interpretation;
it doesn't need interpretation.



Which makes you wonder why these two guys are here.









They came to interpret the law to mean something diametrically opposite to its actual meaning; meaning that is clear on its face.

The part that really burns, is that they are public servants; they work for the NM Attorney General's Office. You pay their salaries so that they can litigate against your interests.


APS/Modrall was there, in the person of Art Melendrez.

He said the district was on the horns of a dilemma; they really, really want an open hearing, but the darned ole law just won't allow it.






Melendrez also informed the court that Miguel Acosta had threatened to sue anyone he could, if his son's records are not kept secret.
A problem there; there is little, if any, of those records which have not been publicly discussed by the student and his mother on several TV and radio shows. There is really nothing secret about them.

More likely is that, Miguel Acosta, and Teresa Cordova do not want their secrets to become public. They can prevent a hearing by insisting on secrecy for their son, even though it no longer exists.



Fierro's Attorney, Gail Stewart, laid the case out well. The law was clearly on their side.







Dr. Elsy Fierro declined interviews with the press. She said that she would give them a statement after the matter was closed.

She may never get that opportunity.

The leadership of the APS/Modrall does not want to see the matter closed; nor does the NM Educator Ethics Bureau, nor does the NM Public Education Department. Not if "the matter being closed" means a hearing open to the public.

The leadership of the APS needs to cover up for board members and the very senior administrators not yet implicated in the gradegate scandal, and the NM EED and the NM PED need to cover up their sham "investigation" and scapegoating of Ms. Fierro.

They will instead drop the charges against Fierro, claiming that they must, to protect the young Acosta's right to privacy.

Her reputation will not be cleared;
and theirs will not be sullied.

One of the worst things a public servant can do

is anything they do in secret.

She's so special.

This is Beth Everitt. She is special. She is the senior administrator in the administration of a billion tax dollars a year.

She is a public servant. She has a responsibility to the public. She has a responsibility to tell the truth in response to legitimate questions.

Stonewalling is not an acceptable term of her public service.

The terms of her public service are the prerogative of the public; and the public has not given her permission to stonewall.

• Will you furnish an honest accounting of the spending at the Uptown Administrative Complex?
• Will you surrender the truth about the principal shuffle?
• Will you surrender the truth about the scandal in the APS police department?
• Will you surrender the truth about the scandal in APS finances?
• Will you surrender the truth about the gradegate scandal?
• Did you trade your silent resignation for a promise that your would not be evaluated by the board this year; as was required by board policy?
• Will you surrender your administration to an immediate, full scale forensic audit of the conduct of those under your supervision and within your responsibility?
• Will you surrender the truth about the APS/Modrall relationship and the nature of the million dollar a year litigation done on the behalf of the leadership of the APS and Board President Paula Maes?

These are all legitimate questions.

Our expectation that Superintendent Everitt respond to them candidly, forthrightly, and honestly, is legitimate.

She was paid a quarter of a million dollars a year to protect public power and resources from waste. And because waste is the sum incompetence and corruption; her job was to establish a meaningful standard of conduct, and then enforce that standard consistently.

She did neither.

Her job was to eliminate corruption and incompetence through honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct.

She did not.

Beth Everitt cannot be made to explain, defend, or even acknowledge what appears to be an egregious betrayal of the public interest.

Because she's so special,

special at least to Phill and Kent. (link)


(photo by Mark G. Bralley)

Terri Cole wants special consideration

According to the Journal; ((link) sub req)

"Three weeks after Albuquerque Public Schools cut off public comment on its search for a new superintendent, the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce wants a say as well."

Her homework assignment is three weeks past due; and the board turned her down. She and the Chamber of Commerce would like a superintendent who among other things would have
"a willingness to be held accountable..."

Given the opportunity to create honest accountability in the leadership of the APS by supporting annual accountability audits; Cole has steadfastly refused to stand on the record, and behind an audit.

In complete disregard for the interests of the communities sons and daughters; she and the Chamber have abandoned their support of Character Counts, in deference to the leadership of the APS, who did the same.

If her interests included the welfare of children;
she would stand up for audit based on
a meaningful standard of conduct for APS leadership;
like the Pillars of Character Counts.

the face of corruption and incompetence?

This is Gil Lovato. He used
to be, APS Chief of Police.

It was alleged that he did
some inappropriate things.

The public still doesn't know the whole truth about the betrayal of the public interest. All the public knows is that he was placed on administrative leave for six months rather than have the whole truth come out in a discharge hearing. He and his lawyer, Sam Bregman, said, when the truth comes out, there won't be an administrator left standing.

So tax payers paid him a half a year's salary after he was removed from duty, rather than have him spill the beans on the record.

This is APS' second in command Tom Savage. His girlfriend had an illegal criminal background check done on her; apparently by the APS Police Department, in apparent violation of pretty serious laws. He said he didn't ask for it.

One of the first things he did when the shit hit the fan in January was to order all APS employees to keep their mouths shut.

Beth Everitt blamed his lack of competence in overseeing the APS Police Force, for the problems there.



This Sheriff Darren White. The computers and/or information systems on which the illegal criminal background checks were made, were entrusted to him.

He steadfastly refuses to surrender any public documents that would indicate whether or not he knew personally of the criminal misconduct.

He would like to be elected to congress.




This is District Attorney
Kari Brandenburg.

Almost a year ago, she was
asked to determine whether
or not there had been criminal
misconduct in Lovato's police
department.

She says that she is too busy to look through the evidence that has been given to her by the leadership of the APS to determine whether or not the leadership of the APS and the BCSO broke the law and would be prosecuted.

She is not too busy however to invite her radio talk show listeners to call her at the office to clear up any problems with recipes.

She will not answer when asked; did the leadership of the APS surrender the results of the independent investigation of the public corruption and conspiracy in the leadership of the APS police.

This isn't the only truth being hidden from stakeholders.

This is County Commissioner Teresa Cordova not answering reporters' questions about grade gate.

Gradegate stirred up a lot of community outrage because the smell of it was that, a powerful politica had gotten special treatment from the leadership of the APS.




The scandal stirred up such an uproar, that Beth Everitt asked State Secretary of Education, Veronica Garcia to investigate APS' handling of the affair.

Garcia agreed, despite the fact that she had already been on television proclaiming Everitt's innocence.

She conducted the investigation anyway, and laid the blame on Elsy Fierro.

The "investigation" team included the head of the New Mexico Educator Ethics Bureau, Paul Calderon. Between them all, they managed to investigate the whole scandal without taking a statement on the record, from either the County Commissioner, or the Superintendent.

Everitt appears to be teflon coated. The NM PED won't do an honest investigation; the NM Educator Ethics Bureau will not to an honest investigation; and apparently, she can prevent an accountability audit of her administration as well.

It is almost as if she traded a quiet resignation for the promise of no investigation of her conduct and competence as a public servant.

This School Board President Paula "let's get in a teacher's face" Maes.

She is the reason that the leadership of the APS is not honestly accountable to any meaningful standard of conduct.
(photo by Mark G. Bralley)
Despite the fact that she is the President of the Character Counts Leadership Council; the board has removed the Pillars of Character Counts as their own standard of conduct.

Her husband is the President of the Modrall law firm.

APS spends millions of dollars at Modrall, for among other things, litigating exception to the law for senior administrators and board members.

Maes/Modrall makes so much money off taxpayers that they will not surrender public records that reveal the exact amount.

She is on the record saying, there will not be an audit of the administration of the APS that identifies the incompetence or corruption of individual APS administrators; "... like for example Tom Savage."

She will also vigorously oppose any honest audit of the APS/Modrall relationship, because it will reveal that public power and resources have been used against the public interest.

This is Phill Casaus, editor of the Trib. He is on the Board of Directors of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, and the Trib won't investigate and report upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the APS. I cannot find a picture of Kent Walz. If I could, I would show you the face of a man who sits on the Executive Committee of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, and who also will not investigate or report upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

The Edifice of Corruption and Incompetence.

This is the house that corruption/incompetence built.
It is as far from a classroom in the APS
as one can get.

It was a controversial purchase. Many objected to buying such an expensive and exclusive property.

The Leadership of the APS made a lot of promises to the community, about how they were going to make the purchase make money for stakeholders.



The face of corruption and incompetence


When the community placed their trust and their
treasure in her hands; she and the others in
the leadership of the APS used them both instead,
to fix up their Administrative Complex.

Most recently they spent a million dollars to remodel
a board room that they didn't need.

Everitt steadfastly refuses to surrender a full and honest accounting of the trust and treasure which have been squandered at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

Her friends in the media;
steadfastly refuse to ask for one.


(Everitt photo by Mark G. Bralley)