Armenta; lying?

APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta told a group of administrators, teachers, and community members; if they had a question, she would respond to it.

She said, nobody has ever
complained that she and they,
don't respond to questions.

The truth is; she is the named respondent in just such a complaint, link.

The discrepancy flows from one of two wells; incompetence or corruption. Either she "forgot" about that complaint, or she lied about it.

I tend toward the latter. When she was asking attendees for suggestions to improve communication between the politicians and public servants in the APS and the community members they serve; I raised my hand and indicated aloud that I wished to be recognized. She voiced her denial and turned to recognize someone else.

I kept the floor and suggested that the district could improve communication by providing due process for the Citizens Advisory Council on Communications. I held up a small banner with the name and concept spelled out.

Armenta demanded that I hold my banner down;
I defied her unlawful demand.

The detail of APS police officers assigned to Mark Bralley and me, were courteous and professional all evening. They witnessed the incident but did not intervene.




photo Mark Bralley

Sheriff has two PIOs; neither will respond.

I have emailed legitimate questions to the two Sheriff's Department Public Information Officers; Deborah Garcia and Jennifer Vega Brown.

Of the one I asked;

Via "contact the sheriff link"
I am trying to track down records on an incident at Rio Grande High School that happened on 8/18/11. Sheriff's deputies were involved in an incident involving APS Police and students. APS' report number is #11-1457. I am in hope that you can give me the BCSO number so I can track down the records.

and of the other;

Ms. Vega Brown,

I am wondering if the MOU response letter from the APS board and the sheriff's response to it, are available for surrender under the IPRA.

If the letters between the APS School Board and the Sheriff enjoy exception under the Inspection of Public Records Act, then she should point to the exception. Otherwise, she should answer the question about whether the BCSO will surrender the records or, fight to keep them secret.

What if APS and Sheriff Dan Houston really are meeting privately to negotiate a "grandfathering in" of the corruption in the APS Police Department; a massive scandal that will become public if the MOU about them holding evidence of their own corruption, takes effect before statutes of limitation expire on their crimes?

Don't the people have a right to know?
Perhaps they might want to hold Houston accountable for the
betrayal, at his next election.

I am concerned that the Sheriff's Office is offering so little help in tracking down their records of the incident at Rio Grande High School. Our efforts to retrieve a copy of the BCSO report, efforts that would normally produce the record, have been unsuccessful.

If KRQE did take the story down as I was told, then they have put it back up, link; a brawl at RGHS to which deputies were called. Vega Brown was interviewed in the report; she must know what their report number is.

It's too soon to say the BCSO report has vanished; but it would be consistent with what I was told; that APS Director of Communications Rigo Chavez asked the Sheriff's Office to change (or vanish?) their report.

In any event, it's always bad when you ask a public servant a question and they ignore it.

If the truth is exculpating, why do they need to hide it?

Esquivel on tap for tonight

School Board Member Marty Esquivel will host District Goals Community Meeting, link, at Jefferson Middle School tonight.

He and the rest of the leadership team will spend two or three hours trying to convince stakeholders that they are being listened to; that two-way communication is taking place.

Any good and ethical definition of "two-way communication" in this context, would include, the opportunity to ask any legitimate question and expect a candid, forthright and honest response.

Yet if you ask;

• why they will not publish an ethically redacted version of the Caswell Report, or
• why they have not given District Attorney Kari Brandenburg, the evidence they have collected of felony criminal misconduct by APS senior administrators, or
• why they will not provide a role modeling clause in their own standards of conduct, or
• why they will not allow an independent audit of APS administrative and executive standards and accountability, or
• why they will not provide due process for more than 300 whistleblower complaints, or
• why they will not give due process to the Citizen's Advisory Council Petition?

neither APS Supt Winston Brooks, nor Marty Esquivel will respond candidly, forthrightly or honestly.

If you ask Esquivel;

• what authority he has to create an unlawful restraining order to stifle dissidence, or
• what authority he has to order the APS Police Department to enforce the unlawful order, or
• why he will not hold himself honestly accountable as a role model of the standards of conduct he establishes and enforces upon students, or
• why he opposes the independent standards and accountability audit he once championed, and
• why he went along with Paula Maes when she declared her opposition to any audit that would individually identify corrupt or incompetent administrators?

he will not respond candidly,
forthrightly and honestly.

He will dodge the question
and attack the questioner.

It's just the way he rolls;
he's a thug.

If you ask Esquivel's crony
Journal Managing Editor
Kent Walz, why none of this
is newsworthy, he will join Esquivel in denying you a candid, forthright and honest response.

It's just the way they all roll.




photo Mark Bralley

We're playing Russian Roulette with our kids' safety

The leadership is all about gun references in their upset over the implications of Sheriff Houston revoking the commissions of the officers in their Praetorian Guard.

• APS Supt Winston Brooks said, "We're playing Russian Roulette with children's safety."
• Board Member David Robbins said he's upset about Houston's "gun to the head" negotiating style.
• Board Member Marty Esquivel warned, "We're headed toward a shoot out at the OK corral."
• Chief Steve Tellez added to the attempt to whip up some hysteria by claiming "the schools will be in chaos" if only sheriff's deputies and APD are there to defend them.

In retrospect, arming them seems a little less prudent.

Brad Winter lied

According to the APS Student Standards of Conduct, link;

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.

Listen to APS COO Brad Winter talk about the 700 felonies investigated by the APS Police Department last year, link, 2 hours 52 minutes.

Note; there are two kinds of felonies on the table; property crimes and others; like public corruption and cover up. Houston's MOU clearly allows APS PD to investigate felony property crimes, but does not let them investigate their own felony criminal misconduct. Winter's deliberate attempt to conflate the two is intended to "create beliefs or leave impressions that are untrue".

You will hear him say (quoted in significant part, view the context yourself);

• (if the MOU takes effect) "...we could not do felony investigations ..."
• "... APD and the County would have to do all felony investigations .."
• there were "... over(sic) 750 felony investigations we did last year ..."
• he told city CAO Robert Perry that "... you (APD) would be doing those (750) investigations in the schools..."

Are there really more than 750 felonies committed in the APS each year (which will have to be investigated by the APD because they aren't property crimes which the MOU clearly allows them to investigate, or is Winter trying to deliberately mislead interest holders?

Another measure of his honesty, his character and his courage, is his (un)willingness to tell the truth. Ask him for an candid, forthright and honest record of the spending on their new, and utterly unjustified, new board room. He will not respond candidly, forthrightly and honestly. He will not respond at all; thought stonewalling (silence) is expressly prohibited in the standards of conduct he, and they, establish and enforce upon students.

When the question is; will you tell the truth, any answer except yes means no.

Brad Winter has lied, and
he won't tell the truth.

He should be fired from APS,
and he should lose his seat on
the City Council.

Don't worry about how he'll
make out. APS pays his wife's
law firm more than enough
every year off education dollars
flowing through the APS to keep
them from starving.




photo Mark Bralley

Tellez threatens whistleblowers

I am told, APS Police Chief Steve Tellez sent an email to his troops, informing them that Sheriff Dan Houston has extended their commissions for another month.

And, that he went on to warn them, any whistleblowers would put their jobs at risk by talking to Houston about the corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS. I am not the only person, apparently, who has gone to the Sheriff and pointed to the criminal misconduct and cover up.

Flash back five years to a time when the Journal was still investigating and reporting upon the corruption in the APS Police Department, link.

One of the first things APS Asst Supt Tom Savage did (when the truth about the felonious criminal background check on his fiancée was getting out) was to tell APS employees to keep their mouths shut or be fired, link.

Deja vu all over again. Yogi Berra




photo Mark Bralley

APS' Fight club cover up

It appears that on August 18, 2011, the fight club at Rio Grande High School was staging a bout. The APS police were called and reportedly maced seven students. I am given to understand that those students called the Sheriff's Department to file a complaint against the APS officers who maced them.

I am trying to get my hands on the two incident reports; one from APS PD and the other from the Sheriff's Department; it isn't easy.

I am also told, APS Director of Communications was on the phone trying to get the BCSO to change their report, and that, that request is what sparked the controversy over the commissions.

None of this can be immediately verified because APS in particular want's to keep the lid on their fight club problem and the macing of the students.

The local media hasn't said a word. I am told KRQE was running the story and then pulled it at Chavez' behest. I couldn't get a confirmation from KRQE, which leads me to believe the allegation is true; the establishment media is part of the cover up.

This IS a negotiation - apparently

Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston made it pretty clear; either the leadership of the APS agreed to his MOU, or he would yank his commissions for their police officers. He said; this is not a negotiation.

After an exchange of letters that are being kept secret from interest holders, Houston has apparently reneged on his commitment to hold them to a perfectly reasonable deadline. He will give them another month to get out from under the statutes of limitation that will prevent APS senior administrators from being held accountable for felony criminal misconduct.

There is an apparently news blackout on the deal. What was a big story in the local media is now nowhere to be found.

The news black out would have come at the behest of APS,
and would be feckless except for the cooperation they get
from the establishment media.




photo Mark Bralley

Race to the wire

In early 2007, the Journal ran a front page story on public corruption in the leadership of the APS and their police department, link. The felony criminal misconduct that they wrote about happened in late 2006. The exact dates and details are still being suppressed.

The significance is; the statutes of limitation will expire in the next few months.

Jennifer Vega Brown is the Legal Adviser and Public Information Officer for Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston. During our meeting; her legal advice was; statutes of limitation on the felonies in question will expire before the crimes can be prosecuted. I have controverting advice that, as long as an arrest is made and charges filed before the deadline, the statutes of limitation are met.

At the same time, an effort is being made to delay the implementation of the MOU, and its obligation to surrender the testimony and evidence of felony criminal misconduct by APS senior administrators.

Houston's MOU requires them to agree that they will not investigate their own felony criminal misconduct, and they will not hold the evidence of their felony criminal misconduct.

The instant the MOU is signed, the leadership of the APS will have yet another obligation to surrender the evidence they're suppressing.

The Board is pushing back on Houston's deadline.

Houston said; it's not negotiable.

At 3:13 into the meeting, link, School Board Member David Robbins actually defended their position; they should be allowed to to investigate their own felony criminal misconduct, and then hold onto the evidence (until statutes of limitation expire).

Robbins also suggested that APS insure itself in order to absorb the liability. He says APS can pay for their self-insurance. Instead of what? He says the costs of self-insurance will be borne by the District not by the County. That means the district has to come up with whatever amount of money is required for the losses when APS police department and the board are sued. Operational money will be put into escrow instead of into classrooms.

Remarkably, none of this is "newsworthy".



photo Mark Bralley

APS vs BCSO; "shoot out at the OK Corral"

At 3 hours and 2 minutes into the board meeting, link, you can hear what open government lawyer and hero of transparency Marty Esquivel said; beginning with his reference to the famous gunfight, wikilink, and the need for everyone to keep their mouths shut.

Kathy Korte had just said she wanted some legal advice from their attorney Modrall lawyer Art Melendres, on APS' options with regard to commissioning its police officers.

Before Melendres could open his mouth, Esquivel cautioned the board about asking Melendres any questions in a public forum, the answers to which they might now or later, want to keep secret from APS stake and interest holders, and the courts. Esquivel believes that as long as the law allows him/them to hide the truth, it is then alright to hide the truth. In particular, if hiding the truth serves their interests in any litigation.

Melendres then told the board, his strong preference would be to furnish the board with the truth in a "confidential opinion".

That the law allows them to do this is self evident. They would rather that you believe the law requires them to.

The standard of conduct they hold up for students reads;

People of character are oft required to do less than the law allows and more than the law requires.

The student standards are higher standards of conduct than the law; the lowest acceptable standard of conduct.

The question is not; how can they hide the truth (the law allows it), but rather, why do they need to? They can't hide the truth from the public except in the public interests. How are public interests served by denying them the benefit of a legal opinion prepared at their expense?

Politicians and public servants are allowed by the law to keep certain truths secret from public knowledge. They are allowed to do this for good and ethical reasons.

There are no good and ethical reasons to hide the truth about the commissioning of APS police officers. If there were, they would point to them. They would point to the need to keep the truth hidden and defend it. There aren't, they can't, they won't.

The law allows them to keep the truth "confidential"; the law doesn't require them to.

For some reason they will not disclose, the leadership of the APS needs to hide the truth about what their options are in gaining commissions for their Praetorian Guard.

They are using the same dodge to hide the Caswell Report on felony criminal misconduct by APS senior administrators and the subsequent cover up. The Caswell Report is a public record, politicians and public servants commissioned the investigation within their public service and used public money (classroom dollars) to underwrite it.

The board's lawyer claims, because their lawyers hired the PI, the investigator's report is "work product" covered by attorney client privilege, and therefore excepted from public inspection and knowledge. It's bullshit of course, but they have provided for themselves an unlimited budget for litigation and a shameless and utterly unabashed record of its use. Their bullshit will float for however long they need it to; to the Supreme Court if they feel like it; cost is no object.

The law does not require them to hide the report that names the names of APS senior administrators who committed felonies, it allows them to.

The question still; why do they need to?

Marty Esquivel suggested that a public servant, a charter school principal, was a coward for not standing in a public meeting and responding to legitimate questions about the public interests and her public service. He said, "it says a lot" about her character.

His own unwillingness to respond to legitimate questions about the public interests and his public service, says precisely the same thing about his character and courage.

Ask Esquivel why (not how) they are hiding the Caswell Report, and you will find his advocacy for the need for politicians and public servants to stand and deliver, doesn't apply to him. Just as the prohibition of personal attacks (like calling someone a coward for not being honest) at board meetings; doesn't apply to him. Just like the board policy prohibiting individual board members from creating unlawful restraining orders doesn't apply to him. Just like of prohibition of giving unlawful orders to the APS Police Department, his Praetorian Guard, doesn't apply to him.

Blame the Journal and the rest of the establishment media for his continued success.




photos Mark Bralley

Seven Rio Grande students maced by APS PD?

Please note the question mark following the statement.

I will try to find out some details about the fight club at Rio Grande High School, the fight that prompted the intervention of the APS police including chemically macing seven students, and the subsequent intervention of BCSO deputies.

It will not be easy, my source said that APS Communications Director Rigo Chavez ordered/asked the local media to not cover the story; the already beleaguered RGHS doesn't need anymore bad press.

This would be exactly the kind of information APS and its media cronies would hide. A recent audit by the Council of the Great City Schools found that APS routinely falsified crime statistics in an effort to bolster schools reputations and to make the schools look safer than they really are.

The scariest part of course, is the willingness of the media to aid and abet the cover up.

Can the APS School Board commission its own police officers?

During the school board's discussion
of their response to Bernalillo County
Sheriff Dan Houston's MOU, APS
COO Brad Winter was called to the
podium.

Winter told the board that he had
received a letter of support from
Alb Police Chief Ray Schultz.

Winter then read from his letter.


Schultz claims, a statute exists,
under which the board could
commission its own police officers.

Nobody else, including APS' own
lawyers, has heard of the statute.

If it actually exists, there would
have been no need for the APS
to have gone to the legislature
twice in failed attempts to create one.


Board member Peercy asked Winter to ask Schultz to identify the statute.

So far, apparently, he has not. Perhaps because he cannot.
It would appear that Schultz' imaginary statute is just that,
and nothing more.

And still, Winter refuses to surrender a candid, forthright, and honest accounting of public spending on their new board room. Are board members really sitting in chairs for which we paid eight hundred dollars each?




photos Mark Bralley

Not much point in having rules if you don't know what they are.

The Albuquerque School Board avers; their meetings are run according to Robert's Rules of Order.

During the meeting Wednesday, during a discussion/debate of an issue, someone "called the question".

According to Roberts Rules, the discussion ends immediately, and an immediate vote is taken on whether to call the question. If the majority votes yes, then another vote is taken on the question which is being decided. If the vote is no, the discussion begins again.

Maes held a vote to "call the question". It passed.
And then she moved on; that was the end of it.
They never voted on the actual motion.
They didn't pass anything. I hope it wasn't their vote to close
that poor Charter School. (Update; it the district has finally posted the video of the meeting; it was the CATA vote that wasn't really taken.)

I don't point to this seemingly careless error out of pettiness.
This wasn't the first time they've done this, link.

I have (politely!) informed them of their error. They won't acknowledge the problem. Neither will they acknowledge their error in making a motion by saying, I motion this, or I motion that.

No, no you don't. You either move to do this, or you make a motion to do that. Perhaps you offer a motion, but you don't move to do the thing.

They remain ignorant. or the very best, oblivious, of Roberts Rules of Order by their own deliberate choice. They don't have a real parliamentarian by their own deliberate choice.

And that's what makes it a big deal. It's not that they are ignorant of the vocabulary and the rules they pretend to follow, it's that they are, by their own deliberate choice.

"Schools will be in chaos!" sez Tellez

Recently, secretly, promoted APS Chief of Police Steve Tellez was asked to come to the podium at the school board meeting Wednesday night.
The agenda had moved to discussion of, and action on, Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston's insistence on their agreement to his Memorandum of Understanding.

Chief Tellez was asked what would happen if Sheriff Houston revokes his commissions for APS police officers.

"The schools will be in chaos" he replied.



Can you believe that?




photo Mark Bralley

"This is not a negotiation."

Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston cannot make himself clearer;
if the leadership of the APS wants
commissions for their "police",
they will sign his MOU
by the end of the month.

The School Board decided instead,
to write a letter to him asking for
another thirty days to plan their
next move.

The leadership of the APS wants to negotiate the terms of their surrender. Specifically, they want to "grandfather in" all of their current corruption. They want to continue to hide their cover up of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators.

Houston is crystal clear on two points; police officers holding his commissions will not investigate their own corruption, and police officers holding his commission will not hold the evidence of their corruption. His MOU reads;

h. Any report of a crime which may be determined to be a felony offense, excluding property crimes, shall be promptly reported to and investigated by the BCSD or APD.

i. All crimes which may be determined to be felony offenses, including property crimes, shall be documented utilizing a New Mexico State Uniform Police Report and a copy shall be provided to the Sheriff within twenty-four (24) hours of the initial report.

j. Any evidence collected by APS police in relation to any crime that may be determined to be a felony, excluding property crimes, shall be submitted to BCSD or APD for tagging and safe keeping...

The instant the leadership of the APS signs the MOU, they will be obligated to surrender the evidence they are hiding.

Depending on the actual dates the crimes were committed, statutes of limitation will expire in the next few months. BCSO Legal Adviser and PIO Jennifer Vega Brown said there is too little time to prosecute the felonies before the statutes expire, but exposing the cover up before they do, would be significant.

Even if the APS senior administrators who committed the felonies will not face justice, they should at least face the people whose interests they betrayed. They should be identified.

APS wants to hide their names and crimes until after the statutes of limitation actually expire.

I would urge the Sheriff to stand fast on his deadline. I would further urge him, upon their signing, to demand their immediate surrender of the evidence of felony criminal misconduct by APS senior administrators and their subordinates.




photo Mark Bralley

"You get one minute"

Speakers at the public forum at school board meetings normally get two minutes to speak; out of respect for their right to petition their government; the Superintendent and the Board.

Tonight, the community members who showed up to protest
the unilateral decision to end year round schooling at eight
APS elementary schools, link, because there were so many of
them, were given only one minute; out of disrespect for their
right to petition their government; the Superintendent and the Board, link.

First peek at the APS/BCSO MOU

On the agenda for the School Board Meeting tonight, link;

V(5).B.
Presentation of Options Relating to the APS Police Department (Discussion/Action)
Presenter: Superintendent Winston Brooks, Brad Winter, Chief Operations Officer, and Steve Tellez, Chief of APS Police Department.

The Board will discuss and take action on the Memorandum of Understanding, link, between the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office and the APS, regarding the issuing of commissions by the Sheriff to APS police officers. The MOU was written by the Sheriff and must be accepted by the leadership of the APS, before Sheriff Dan Houston will agree to continue to provide commissions for APS police officers (without which they have no police powers).

The MOU contains the following stipulations;

h. Any report of a crime which may be determined to be a felony offense, excluding property crimes, shall be promptly reported to and investigated by the BCSD or APD.

i. All crimes which may be determined to be felony offenses, including property crimes, shall be documented utilizing a New Mexico State Uniform Police Report and a copy shall be provided to the Sheriff within twenty-four (24) hours of the initial report.

j. Any evidence collected by APS police in relation to any crime that may be determined to be a felony, excluding property crimes, shall be submitted to BCSD or APD for tagging and safe keeping. The collection of such evidence will be subject to the requirement contained in provisions ‘j’ and ‘k’ below.

The APS police department leadership is in current violation of all three stipulations;

• they did not, and still have not, reported to the BCSD or APD, the felony criminal misconduct by APS senior administrators. link.
  
• they never provided the Sheriff or APD with a copy of a NM State Uniform Police Report on the public corruption in the APS Police Department, and
• the evidence and testimony collected by the APS PD in their self-investigation of their own corruption, still has not been turned over to the BCSO, the APD or anybody else, even District Attorney Kari Brandenburg, who has admitted that APS PD hasn't given her any evidence of the evidence of felony criminal misconduct.

The question then;
why would Houston accept their assurance that "they will never do it again" when they are currently doing what they're promising not to do?

Would Sheriff Dan Houston read the Caswell Report even if he could?

Let's say that Sheriff Dan Houston could get his hands on a copy of the Caswell Report, would he read it?

The Caswell Report is the final report by a private investigator. He was hired with public money, by public servants, within their public service. It is a public record. It contains the findings of an independent investigation into public corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS and its Police Department, link.

The report is a public record that names the names of APS senior administrators who committed felonies. It is being suppressed to protect APS senior administrators and the administration's reputation in the community.

If one were arguing that APS should not be allowed to investigate its own felony criminal misconduct, one would cite the Caswell Report and its subsequent suppression as evidence. But only if one were willing admit that the Caswell Report exists, and is being suppressed in violation of the Governmental Conduct Act.

Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston says, if the leadership of the APS doesn't stop using its publicly funded private police force to investigate felony criminal misconduct by APS administrators and board members, he will pull the plug on their commissions and put them out of business as anything but security guards.

He is manifestly less inclined to do anything about the fact that they currently are doing just that, in an ongoing effort to cover up the felony criminal misconduct of APS senior administrators.

This is classic good ol' boy problem solving; solve the problem
without admitting that you created the problem or allowed it
to persist.

Sheriff Dan Houston has an obvious need to prevent a recurrence. A lesser need apparently, to investigate, and perhaps arrest somebody over, the past and ongoing self-investigation of felony criminal misconduct and cover up.

As a courtesy among good ol' boys, he will end their public corruption without any one of them ever being held honestly accountable for it.

No heads will roll.

Even though then APS Police Chief Gil Lovato and his lawyer Sam Bregman once averred;

If the truth ever gets out, there won't be a single APS senior administrator left standing.

Houston will end up with an MOU that prohibits the practice of self-investigation of criminal misconduct, without ever having to admit that there is criminal self-investigation going on. And most importantly, without ever having to admit on the record, that APS senior administrators and board members are using their self-investigation privilege to hide their own felony criminal misconduct.




photo Mark Bralley

Stifling success in APS

The Principal at Sandia High School went to the APS Policy Committee for support for starting an International Baccalaureate Program at Sandia High School. The International Baccalaureate program, link, commonly called IB, is a challenging college preparatory program accepted by universities worldwide.

According to the Journal, link, the proposal received a chilly response from most members of the board.

Their resistance fell into two categories; fairness and cost. A number of board members said they thought it would be unfair to place the program at Sandia HS, instead of at a high school in their district. Others thought the cost was unjustifiable.

Board Member Marty Esquivel objected to the program being located at Sandia HS because the school was not "chosen" as the seat of the program by any "real" process. Esquivel wondered;

“Why not allow every high school to, in a fair and open process, apply for an opportunity to run the program in its school?”

In fact, Sandia was not "chosen" at all. A synergy has developed at Sandia which has resulted in their effort to begin a program at their school. Nothing stops any other high school from applying for program status. If board members think a high school in their district could sustain an IB program, why not start one of their own there? Why try to hijack Sandia's program to move it to their school?

Some argue about the (relatively modest) cost. With a start up cost of approximately $40K and an annual cost of about $10K, programs can support between 60-70 students making the annual cost after start up, of between $140 and $170 per student. While in most contexts $40K is a lot of money, in APS $620M annual operational budget, it is small potatoes.

If Sandia was given the $40K they need, would it be the worst spent $40K in the budget? I would suppose that if anyone took a hard look, they would find a number of $40Ks being spent for far less effect.

How much money does APS spend on AVID, link, for instance? AVID is Supt Winston Brooks' pet project and has seen nothing but green lights from the board.

AVID and IB have something in common; they both take exceptional students and offer them exceptional resources, at exceptional cost, in order to produce exceptionally well qualified college bound graduates. Both are about proving that if you take students who are willing to work, and you spend a great deal of time and money on them, they can succeed.

A good faith search of APS' award winning website revealed nothing about how much APS spends on AVID, though a comparison of the costs the board endorses and rejects would be revealing.

Board Member Lorenzo Garcia objected to a program that his constituents would have to travel to get to. He too, would hijack the Sandia program and move it into his district, rather than just start his own.

At one point, he suggested situating the program closer to his district, but on neutral, central ground; the Career Enrichment Center.

Asst Supt Linda Sink informed him that CEC wasn't set up for an IB program and it would cost far more to place it there, demonstrating Garcia's suggestion didn't have a better idea based on facts, it was just his effort to hijack a someone else's plan and superimpose his own agenda.

He did the same thing when the Citizens Advisory Council on Communications submitted their petition to the board; he voiced his support and then immediately tried to hijack their agenda by listing the subjects he wanted to see them discuss.

When it dawned on him that he wasn't going to be able to co-opt the Council's agenda, his support for their Petition evaporated and he joined the rest of the board in denying the petition any real due process.

Board member David Robbins, becoming renown for putting his foot in his mouth, link, offered the most sensible comment on offering programs at some schools that cannot be offered at all;

I don’t think we need to say ‘no’ to any new program if we can’t make it available to everyone, because then what we’re doing is we’re really relegating ourselves to mediocrity in the district.”

One has to wonder at District efforts to stifle innovation and success, whether it be relentless opposition to Charter Schools and their success, or putting down any program that will demonstrate that under different circumstances than the district normally makes available to students, they can in fact be very successful.




photo Mark Bralley

APS Police won't be able to investigate their own felony criminal misconduct anymore

Under guidelines proposed in a closed meeting between
Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston and APS leadership;
if there is more public corruption in the leadership of the
APS PD, they will no longer be allowed to investigate themselves.

According to the Journal, link, the draft "memorandum of understanding" between the leadership of the APS and the BCSO contains the following stipulation;

Any report of a felony, excluding property crimes, shall be reported to and investigated by the city police or county sheriff.

It would appear that the stipulation is in response to a self-investigation of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators and APS' Police Department, link. The criminal misconduct should have been investigated by an outside agency, not by the APS Police Department itself.

Houston is apparently willing to let that all slide, if they just agree to not do it again.

Nevertheless, Houston has come under fire from APS School Board Member Kathy Korte. She claims that Houston is only making trouble for APS in retaliation for their intention build a sports complex in Houston's neighborhood.

Houston takes umbrage at the suggestion.

In the press conference he claimed; “In that 28 years, my integrity, my honesty or my truthfulness has never been brought into disrepute.”

That he won't do anything about the leadership of the APS and their cover up of just such an inappropriate self-investigation of felony criminal misconduct; that he is apparently willing to ignore previous felony criminal misconduct in exchange for some meaningless promise that they won't do it again, creates the very disrepute he claims doesn't exist.




photo Mark Bralley