According to One of My "Allegators"

It is alleged that Tim Whalen is not actually a candidate
for superintendent.

The plan is that the new superintendent Linda Sink
will create another level of administration for Whalen
after she anointed.

Linda Sink will put a fresh new face on the ol boys club;
too pretty to be corrupt, incompetent, or an enabler of
the corrupt and the incompetent.

And the most senior good ol boy of them all; Tim Whalen
will be appointed to formally lead the good ol' boys club
from behind the scenes.


The needs of students, teachers, and the community
as usual, don't play.

I Am Not The Only Person Worried About Kari Brandenburg

check out a letter to the editor of the Eye on Albuquerque
link

Expect the Broadcast Version of This Evening's Board Meeting to Be Dishonestly Redacted.

During the board meeting tonight,

the first mask and demeanor

I was physically ejected from the meeting by the new APS Chief of Police and a subordinate.

I was manhandled out of the room by the commander of APS' Praetorian Guard for exercising my right to petition my government(albeit by wearing an elephant mask).

I was told that I was making people feel uncomfortable.
... duh

And, I was told,
there was a safety issue with my wearing a mask,
even if I was standing perfectly still while wearing it.

He repeatedly refused to tell me what rule I had broken,and who ordered him to order me, to take the mask off or be arrested! !!

This is bullshit.

I have made a public records request for every scrap of evidence of what happened tonight.

You will see it as soon as it can be pried loose from APS/Modrall.

It will be interesting to see what the reporters from the Journal and Tribune write.


Update; Neither the Journal nor the Trib wrote about it, and
APS/Modrall never surrendered even one public record
that documented any part of my illegal arrest and
blatant civil rights violation.
Update; 5/20/13 APS did produce a video tape of the police chief and an officer pushing me down onto a couch.

A Public Record of a Request for Public Records

To: Custodian of Public Records,
Albuquerque Public Schools

From: Charles MacQuigg,
(address)
(phone number)

This constitutes a request for public records.

I require the opportunity to inspect and or copy
every public record stemming from my ejection
from the board meeting at approximately
5:15 pm Wednesday, February 20.


Including but not limited to;

any recordings made on official APS equipment assigned to the board meeting

any recordings made by any APS employee that would be subject to the public records act

any belt recorder tapes or similar devices worn by the the Chief of the APS Police and his deputy.

any record of orders given to the chief of police to order me from the meeting

any record of any rule, regulation or policy that I am alleged to have violated at the board meeting.

any record of correspondence to the chief by other administrators or board members that are subject to the Act.

It seems reasonable to expect that as
the Custodian of Public Records
and as a public servant,
you would extend the simple courtesy
of acknowledging that you have received this request.

ched macquigg

In A School District That Spends Just Under A Million Dollars a Year on Vandalism

Which good ol' boy signed off on the remodeling plan for Madison Middle School?

A plan which includes lots of windows and glass doors,

surrounded by a landscape of softball sized rocks?


Submitted as evidence of the deleterious effects of a system
that promotes people to their level of incompetence
and then leaves them there. link

I Know Something Terrible About This Person

Journal link sub req

If someone knows something terrible about one of the candidates for the APS superintendency;
APS/Modrall Attorney Art Melendrez doesn't want the public finding out about it.

It is nice that the leadership of APS/Modrall is willing to shield us from the truth about the candidates for superintendent.

It is even nicer that the leadership of APS/Modrall
is willing to shield us from the "terrible" truth about
the current superintendent, any of her subordinates,
or any member of the board of education.

Nice if you are Beth Everitt (still on the payroll)/
Linda Sink, or Paula Maes, anyway.



Do stakeholders have a right to the truth?

Do stakeholders have a right to the terrible truth?

And who is going to enforce that right?

Who is going to hold APS/Modrall accountable for
their conduct and competence as administrators
of the public trust and treasure in the APS?

Wouldn't You Think That Monica Armenta's Job Description

would include communicating to stakeholders?

Ms. Armenta,

Please explain to student stakeholders,
in words that a child can understand,

why they are held accountable to a widely recognized,
accepted, and respected code of ethical conduct;

the Pillars of Character Counts


and you are not?

Explain in words that a child can understand,
the responsibilities of board members and administrators
as role models of the student standard of conduct.


Monica Armenta, Executive Director of APS Communications
$105K a year.

Not Every APS Administrator and Board Member Should be Fired.

Just the criminally corrupt and incompetent.

Is it really too much to ask?

Role Modeling Not Required of New APS Superintendent

for exactly the same reasons that it is not required of the current superintendent, or any other administrator or board member in the leadership of the APS.

How do you conduct a search for a public school superintendent without discussing the issue of the importance of role modeling?


Well it helps to have the press under control.

It helps to have four PIOs and a million dollar budget.

It helps to have friends like Thomas Lang, Kent Walz,
Phill Casaus, Michelle Donaldson, Sue Stephens, and
Thomas Pearl, in the media.

And it helps that there is no accountability for them
to any standards of conduct as journalists,

or even as members of a community
whose number one priority should be to provide the best
possible education for 90,000 of our sons and daughters;

and not on prolonging the careers of the criminally corrupt
and incompetent in the leadership of the APS.

Will YOU Get to Ask a Question?

The leadership of the APS is planning to have the finalists
in their "search" for APS' next Superintendent, screened by stakeholders.

According to the Journal - link - sub req

"The finalists will gather in Albuquerque on March 7 to be screened by students, business and government leaders, APS employees and parents in a marathon of meetings."

Do you suppose that the leadership of the APS will really limit access to only "... students, business and government leaders, APS employees and parents ..."?

How else will they keep me from asking candidates the question that Paula Maes, Linda Sink, Modrall, et al,
refuse to answer?

How will they keep someone from asking each of the candidates if they,

in stark contrast to every single administrator and board member in the APS,

would be willing to hold them self personally and honestly accountable as a role model 90,000 for this community's sons and daughters,

and for a million other APS stakeholders in Albuquerque?


How else will they keep candidates from having to
stand on the record with their intentions regarding
a full scale forensic administrative accountability audit
of the leadership of the APS?

I for one would like to ask them, on the record,
if they will commit to accountability audit,

or if they intend to waive the audit
in favor of maintaining the good ol' boy style of leadership
in the APS?

No Answer From Superintendent Hopefuls

No response from "insider" candidates;

Linda Sink
Tom Ryan
Diego Gallegos
Tim Whalen
Mike Bachicha, or
Allan Holmquist

to the question;

will you audit the leadership of the APS;

identify and eliminate the corrupt and the incompetent,
even though they are your friends, colleagues, and fellow
members of APS' good ol' boys club?

Stonewalling means; no.

Any answer except yes,
means; no.

APS Board Meetings are Held at a Time and in a Place

inconvenient to almost every single APS stakeholder
except board members and administrators who simply
take a ride in the elevator from one floor to another
in the Uptown Administrative Complex.

The decision to limit stakeholder participation is deliberate.

• Board meetings used to be conducted in the evenings, closer to middle of town, and they often met at individual school sites all over town.
• Board meetings used to be recorded and broadcast to the community. If there is any rebroadcast at all, it is now of a dishonestly edited version designed to mislead stakeholders.

Paula Maes does not want to see stakeholders at meetings.


If enough people show up at a meeting;

Marty Esquivel will stand up again and demand
the accountability audit that will end once and for all,
corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS.

If more show up, Gordon Rowe will find the courage
to stand up with him.

More still, Mary Lee Martin will find the courage.

More still,
a lot more unfortunately,

Maybe Delores Griego will find the courage to stand up
for the interests of her constituents.

At that point, it would make no difference
what Paula Maes/ Modrall wants;

or Berna Facio,

or Robert Lucero.

Tim Whalen is in the running for APS Supt.

despite the fact that he thinks student violence at his
Manzano High School campus, is best controlled
by a student militia. link

I for one, find this completely unacceptable.

Question for the Candidates

Each of the insiders running for APS superintendent
is confronted with an immediate problem;

the overwhelmingly obvious need for an accountability audit
of the administration and leadership of the APS.

An impartial and competent auditor needs to come
into the leadership of the APS and ferret out
the corrupt, the incompetent, and the practices that
enable corruption and incompetence.

When and if, the audit is ever done;
many of their "friends" in the senior administration and
on the school board;

will see their careers end in disgrace, fines, and maybe imprisonment.


They are between a rock and a hard place.

Will they commission an immediate full scale forensic audit,
or not?

I will ask each; and report back.

Each will be allowed to post their response on D6
without interference; on my honor.

Linda Sink
Tom Ryan
Diego Gallegos
Tim Whalen
Mike Bachicha
Allan Holmquist

Lady and Gentlemen;

As candidates for Superintendent of the APS;
I would like you to respond to the following question;

If you are hired; will you begin an immediate, full scale
accountability audit of the leadership of the APS?

I, and stakeholders, and the Pillars of Character Counts.
require a candid, forthright and honest answer.

Please post your response as a comment on this post.

APS "insiders" compete for superintendent job

Gee, ya think? Tribune -link-

If anyone but an "insider" is hired as the next superintendent;

every corrupt and incompetent administrator in the
leadership of the APS will be held accountable for
their (mis)conduct and (in)competence as a public servants.

Therefore,

the next superintendent of the APS,
will be a member of the APS good ol' boys club;

... an "insider".

The Peter Principle and the Leadership of the APS

the Peter Principle "... is a colloquial principle
of hierarchy(ology), stated as:"

"In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise
to his level of incompetence ." (wiki link) derived

If the goal is to really understand the level of corruption and
incompetence in the leadership of the APS;
one must deal first with the concept of
"innocent" until proven guilty.

It is not an ethical or moral construct.
Innocence is only in the eyes of the law,
a technicality which unscrupulous lawyers like Modrall
can exploit in the interests of clients like the wife of the President of the firm, Paula Maes.

Any senior administrator who spends afternoons
in a hotel room with a subordinate;
paying her apparently with APS bicycles, cars,
alarm systems, and otherwise unearned overtime,

is a public servant who is guilty of betraying the public trust.

Never mind what Modrall might be able to get away with
in District Court Courtrooms like Judge Valarie
"It isn't my job to decide who is telling the truth." Huling's.

1. There is no reasonable assumption that
the leadership of the APS is free of incompetence
and corruption.

2. Please revisit premise 1; grasp its full impact.

It is not reasonable to assume that;

Paula Maes, Beth Everitt, Tom Savage, Michael Vigil,
Gil Lovato, Brad Allison, Bill Moffat, Darrel Harrell,

and every corrupt and incompetent APS administrator
and school board member,

are somehow excepted from the laws of human nature.

Absolute power; corrupts absolutely. Socrates

Nature abhors a vacuum. unk
Organizational hierarchies abhor (organizational) vacuums.

In the absence of any other organizational plan,
the quick and the powerful will form an organizational
structure of their own; a good ol' boys club.

APS' organizational structure was formed generations ago;
when ex football coaches formed the cadre of the original
APS good ol’ boys club;

indistinguishable in most aspects
from the current leadership of the APS.


Good ol’ boy organizational hierarchies enable
the Peter Principle.

The Council of the Great City Schools wrote that
administrative evaluations in the APS are
“…subjective and unrelated to promotion or step placement …”

In other words;

• the individual most responsible for the current computer fiasco,
• the individual willfully permitted, or negligently allowed, Peanut Butter Gate
  
• the individual willfully permitted, or negligently allowed, Grade Gate
  
• the individual most responsible for the chaos in the budget and financial departments;

never had to prove by any objective measure,
that they had the skill set to do their job.

Obviously they did not.


All they ever had to do or be, is a member in good standing
in "the club".


It is because the organizational hierarchy of the APS
is a good ol’ boys club,

• that there are no standards of conduct or competence, and
• nothing that represents honest accountability, even if there were.

They have been promoted to their level of incompetence
(and corruption).

If this allegation were not true,

all anyone in the leadership of the APS has to do

is to point to a single board policy or a single administrative
procedural directive that makes the allegation "in"credible.

They cannot.


They defend their indefensible position by hiding it.

Which they are allowed to do with the aid and abet of;

Thomas Lang, Kent Walz, Phill Casaus,
Michelle Donaldson, Sue Stephens and Thomas Pearl.

In my mind, traitors and betrayers one and all,
of the good people of Albuquerque.

Shame on them.

Shame on the corrupt and the incompetent,
and on those with guilty knowledge of that corruption
in the leadership of the APS;

and shame on the "journalists" that are shielding them from
honest accountability for their corruption and
for their incompetence.

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

If the leadership of the APS bought computers and software
that don't work, and they then don't work;

who is responsible?

Is it the "leader" who bought computers and software
that no one can figure out how to make work,

or the people who can't figure out how to make it work?

- link Journal sub req.

"In 2004, APS projected spending $16 million
to get the system fully running and to purchase
all necessary hardware and software.
To date, the district has spent $24 million,
according to APS records.

Technology Director Tom Ryan said the latest figure
includes maintenance, which wasn't in the original
projection because upkeep is budgeted separately.
(red herring?)

But even without maintenance, SchoolMax has cost
APS $23 million— $7 million more than projected.

Ryan attributes (most of) the extra money to … extra training.

Whenever a new system is rolled out, "the hardest part is the human capital, to teach (people) how to do something in a different way,"

Yet

Ryan apparently admits that the leadership of the APS deliberately low balled the costs of training in order to mislead budget stakeholders.

Zsombor Peter wrote;

"“Ryan suspects cost pressures led the district to (deliberately?) underestimate training demands.

Ryan said the company has promised two more years of support, though he has nothing in writing.""

Andrea Schoellkopf adds; - link Journal sub req

"(Tom Savage) said the finance, human resources and
construction departments need employees
who understand the systems well enough
to program them rather than relying on programmers
in other departments or outside consultants.

"We spend a lot of money paying consultants to come
and build systems, write the software and make the repairs,"
he said. "When the consultants leave,
we haven't done a good enough job of training
our own people to do the job."

Also, staffers and decision-makers who are familiar
with the system are asked to get it up and running
on top of their usual responsibilities.

"It burns people out and they don't stay,
so you lose whatever knowledge they uniquely may have had (about) the project," he said."

As per usual we don't know who
in the leadership of the APS, screwed up;

only who got screwed

... again.

Darren White, Please Respond

to the following allegations which were sent to me;

1. Did you demand money from the legislature in response
to a "prison break" you uncovered; which turned out to be
a big hole your own guards dug to fix utility pipes?

2. Did you spend drug interdiction money on cars
for your staff and new furniture for your office;
and were you then sued by the DOJ to get it back?

3. Did someone named Erin write any/all of your papers
for you at the University of Phoenix?


A simple yes or no, will suffice.



Stakeholder voters are still waiting for your explanation,
defense, or even your acknowledgment of your participation
in the APS Peanut Butter Gate scandal.

I'll ask, if no one else will.

Doesn't it seem just a little weird that a delegation
from the Czech Republic traveling around the world
to learn about transparency and ethics in Democracy,
ended up in New Mexico?



Isn't that a bit like sending marine biologists
to the moon?

link

APS Wastes Millions on Computers Systems That Don't Work

But it isn't the computers that don't work,
and it isn't the software.

From the audit by the Council of the Great City Schools;

"APS Administrative evaluations are subjective and unrelated to promotion or step placement."

In other words,

the administrators who have cost taxpayers
tens of millions of dollars in directly wasted costs,

are good ol' boys who know squat about computers,
software, and vendor relationships.

They are being paid three teacher salaries a year, or more
to be club members first,
and if they are experts at anything at all,
it is only a fortuitous coincidence.

According to the article in the Journal ( link sub req)
these problems have been going on for years.

According to Karen Alarid,
who oversees the district's construction projects.

"There is no way to actually track our budgets."

"Approximately three years into the new master plan,
there's no more ability to create a report or
reconciliation on the projects."

"It's a serious problem."

"To me, it's a huge blunder that was missed ages ago."
according to Zane Myers, a member of capital advisory committee that consults with APS.

Brad Winter, APS Facilities Director, said one of the goals was to make the construction process more transparent.

During the last board election, when complaints of the lack of transparency in the APS, were being heard, Winter had promised new transparency in the District.

Now he admits "key data" are not even available to
APS administrators and board members,
much less to stakeholders.

Brad Winter has been asked to provide a candid, forthright,
and honest accounting of the squandering of the public trust
and treasure at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

and he will not.

I had presumed he was covering up for Beth Everitt et al.
but now it appears that
he couldn't tell the truth even if he wanted to.


Stakeholders are to take comfort from APS' next
Superintendent, Linda Sink who assures tax payers;

"I think there is a light at the end of the tunnel" .

There is no light at the end of the tunnel of course.


If there were, it would be the headlight of a train called
"the City of the first annual
APS Administrative Accountability Audit


A train which APS School Board Members;
Paula Maes,
Berna Facio,
Delores Griego,
Robert Lucero,
Gordon Rowe,
Mary Lee Martin,
and Marty Esquivel

are determined to watch pass by
the leadership of the APS without stopping.


Perhaps if a few hundred people would show up
at the train station at 6400 Uptown Blvd,
next Wednesday, 2/20/08, at 4:45 pm.

and stood together on the platform (of the public forum)

to protest the board's lack of character and courage;

the train just might make a stop.


Despite the efforts of the leadership of the APS, Modrall,
and the media;

Thomas Lang, Kent Walz, Phill Casaus,
Michelle Donaldson, Sue Stephens,
and Thomas Pearl.