APS Virtual school sends mixed signals

There are a number of students in the APS who are about learning.  Whatever their individual reasons and motivation, they are in school to learn.  As much as they want to learn, as fast as they want to learn it.

For the most part, students who want to learn faster, are held back by system that compels them to learn "in unison", in a thought choir with up to 30 other kids, with whom they have nearly nothing in common except for the year they were born and the neighborhood they live in.

They sit in one of thirty desks arranged in rows and columns like headstones in a cemetery; each on the same page in the same book on the same day, in an effort to standardize their individual educational performance; an endeavor as relentless as it is pointless.  Even if we could herd kittens, why would we want to? and at such enormous expense.

It appears that monumental progress is at hand, but not for everyone.

APS is opening a virtual school, link.  They promise online classes for students who want to get ahead.   And that's great because, whatever is APS' mission, link, it should be;

to create independent lifelong learners
at the earliest opportunity.

and this is the first step.  Students who want to learn faster will have the opportunity to sail through their curriculum.  Many will graduate years early; many will earn college credits before they do.

However,

Students who want to learn faster but are enrolled in regular classes in brick and mortar schools be expected still, to sit down, shut up, and open their books to page ...

It makes no sense.

Wheels coming off Winter's run for city council.

Blogger Monahan reports that interim APS Supt. Brad Winter announced his intention to run for re-election to the city council.

Winter is bowlegged under his baggage;

• Winter is and was in charge of the APS Police force at all times relevant.

• The APS Police force was and is, a publicly funded private police force.  It is accountable directly to, and only to, APS board members, Winter and senior administrators.

• In, 2007, the Journal reported state and federal felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators and the leadership of their police force, link.

• The felonies were never investigated by any agency of law enforcement.  APS Police conducted a self-investigation; the results of which have been conveniently lost.

• There was another investigation done by a private eye.  His findings name the names of APS administrators who were complicit in felony criminal misconduct.

• The findings are being kept secret from public knowledge by means of litigation.  By "litigation" I mean unlimited budgets for spending without oversight for litigation and legal weaselry against the public interests.  Enormous amounts of money have and are being spent to pay lawyers to obstruct their production of public records enjoying no ethical exception to the NM Inspection of Public Records Act.

Tellez reported to Winter directly.

• The Deputy Chief at the time was Steve Tellez.  Tellez knew or should have known about the sea of corruption and incompetence in which he bobbed.
  
  Nevertheless, he was promoted to Chief.  Tellez had one of his sergeants investigate the felony criminal misconduct in which the former Chief Gil Lovato was involved, and of which his current Chief Steve Tellez, remained knowingly ignorant at best.

Lovato knew where all the bodies were
buried; he buried a bunch personally.

• Lovato boasted through his attorney Sam Bregman, if he ever got to court over his firing, there wouldn't be a single senior APS administrator left standing.

• The sergeant, Steve Gallegos, was promoted to Deputy Chief about the time he placed the only copies he ever made of the findings of his investigation into APS and Steve Tellez' hands. Gallegos claims that's the last he saw his report.

• 

  photo by macquigg

  If the report was candid, forthright and honest, it found Tellez negligently allowed or knowingly permitted felony public corruption and incompetence in the leadership of APS' police force.

• Tellez was fired a few years later after he helped himself to a bunch of ammo that wasn't his.

• Gallegos, still unable to find any copies of his report, was promoted to Chief and serves there still.  He will until a copy of his report finally shows up.

• No agency of law enforcement ever investigated state and federal felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators, and
  
  
• No evidence was ever turned over to the DA.

The leadership of the APS and their lawyers decided that no one should be prosecuted and, that they could get away with not reporting felonies.  It was and is the DA's decision, not theirs, whether criminal charges should be filed. 

Winter and the leadership of the APS have been fortunate through these many years and through innumerable APS school board, mill levy and bond issue elections, in that the local press media were willing to help them cover up the cover up.

It is difficult to believe that Journal Editor in Chief Kent Walz can continue the cover up for very much longer; in particular if Winter has a worthy opponent in the city council race.

How does Walz now report credibly on the cover up after so many years of being part of it?

Hell, he and Marty Esquivel even managed to bamboozled the NM FOG into giving former APS Supt. Winston Brooks a hero of transparency award all while the bunch of them were hiding public records that implicated APS administrators in a number of felonies.

The wheels are coming off Winter's train and Kent Walz is still aboard.




photos Mark Bralley

APS' board meeting video not posted

APS has missed their deadline for posting a link to the video of last Wednesday's school board meeting.  Coincidentally, the public forum at the meeting included a bunch of "disgruntled" current and former employees.

... just sayin

English speaking middle schoolers to see what it feels like to be a non-English speaking student

However bad it feels to be a non-English speaker in a class taught in English, however hard it is to learn new subject matter while at the same time learning a new language, students at Hayes Middle school will now find out for themselves, link.

The "leadership of the APS" has made a decision.
Made the decision mind you, not are thinking about  deciding to require English speaking students to take two of their core classes in Spanish, even against their will.

It is one thing to offer classes in Spanish.  It is an entirely different thing to require* non-Spanish speaking students to enroll in them.

* Students who don't like it are free to leave; uproot themselves from their community and attend other school.  If this isn't coercion, what is?

Students are invited to move away if they don't want to participate in a self-evidently ridiculous plan. Do the math;

• There is a quantity of knowledge students are expected to acquire during one school year.
• The quantity of knowledge in the classes must remain the same (or they will not be prepared for subsequent classes).
• Students are clearly struggling to acquire the knowledge, even in their own language.  Witness test scores and reading levels.
• It is more difficult to learn a body of knowledge in any language in which the learner is not fluent!

Even if the scheme could be made to work, there is no way that the same amount of information can be presented and acquired in the time they have.

These kinds of decisions are the product of APS' decision making process; without any open and honest two-way communication with people who were stake and interest holders in the decision.

Just so my personal opinion on teaching non-English speaking students is not misunderstood, I would like to clearly state it; each student's individual needs should be our top priority; right along side their becoming fluent in English at the earliest opportunity.

PowerPoint presentation on discipline in the APS; in the works?

60 seconds isn't very long when you are trying to explain why the leadership of the APS must be candid, forthright and honest in describing to incoming supt. Dr. Luis Valentino, "the truth" about the many issues awaiting his attention.

The school board counts on the fact that 60 seconds are not nearly enough to build a case contrary to something they do or don't want to do.  They don't want to tell the truth about student discipline in the APS.

I challenged the board and interim Supt Brad Winter to own the creation of a PowerPoint presentation on discipline in Albuquerque Public Schools.  Such a presentation would provide for Dr. Valentino, everything he needs to know.  A PowerPoint presentation would show stake and interest holders everything they need to know.

Why do we never talk about discipline?

Why is there nothing ever in the newspaper about the way children behave at school?  Sure, if some kid or handful of kids are misbehaving in ways that will sell newspapers, the Journal will step in.  Look at the papers they sold with students ''misbehaving'' around PARCC testing.

But where is the Journal's comprehensive coverage of the fundamental issue; students are out of control.  Students no longer respond (adequately) to the authority of adults. When someone tells them to stop doing something (disruptive); their response increasingly more often, is no.

What is the state of student discipline in public school classrooms and hallways?  I haven't worked in a school in over a decade.  I am presuming that since I retired, discipline has continued its decline.

I base the presumption in no small part, on the fact that there is no data to indicate otherwise.   If the fact was that things are getting better, we would be hearing about it from APS' million dollar a year public relations department.

So what is the truth?

• What is the current state of affairs?  What part of the average teachers day is consumed by chronically disruptive students?  What do teachers have to say about the way kids behave and the help they get, or not, from the administration?
• Are things getting better or worse?
• What have we tried before, and why didn't it work?
• What are we doing now, and why isn't it working?
• What are we going to try next?

Brad Winter was asked for a
candid, forthright and honest
accounting of spending over-
budget at 6400 Uptown Blvd.
He is yet to produce it

More importantly, are Brad Winter and board willing to answer those questions candidly, forthrightly and honestly?

Brad Winter was asked to tell the truth about the involvement of APS senior administrators in felony criminal misconduct that was never reported to law enforcement*.  He is yet to produce it.

*This points coincidentally to the issue of giving administrators the authority to decide what is and isn't criminal misconduct in their schools. 

If you give them an inch, they will take a mile.  The leadership of the APS took it upon themselves to decide that state and federal felony criminal misconduct wasn't ''bad enough'' that it needed to be reported.

Winter and the board are paying lawyers to this day, to hide public records that name the names of APS senior administrators who committed or covered up felony criminal misconduct.

Winter and the board are paying lawyers to this day, to cover up their cover up of felony criminal misconduct.

Winter and the board represent the senior-most role models of student standards of conduct, and there is not one of them who will accept actual, honest to God accountability even to the law.  They spend operational dollars without limit and without oversight, on non-viable litigation and legal weaselry in order to gain settlements where in they can write; and we admit no guilt.

Why in the world would anyone expect Winter or the board to put together a PowerPoint telling the truth about the most hushed up issue in APS?

Which brings us to ''the press''; the Journal, KRQE, KOAT, and KOB TV.  Everyone one of them knows about all of these issues.  The have known for years about corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS.

Journal Editor in Chief Kent Walz relentlessly refuses to investigate and report upon an ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

Why not?

To be fair, the allegation; there is an ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS is unproven.  It is difficult to substantiate in the face of the power and resources they bring to bear in covering it up.

The records they're hiding; the findings of investigations into the criminal misconduct going on in the leadership of their publicly funded private police force, would substantiate the allegation beyond doubt.

That is precisely why APS is litigating to this day to skirt the NM Inspection of Public Records Act and keep hidden, the records of their corruption and incompetence.

Why won't Walz investigate?

Would it be too expensive, too cumbersome, too time consuming?  Hardly.  All he has to do is ask APS to produce copies of every set of standards to which the leadership of the APS claim to be accountable, and of, the due process by which they can be held accountable to those standards.  A handful of documents at most.

The lack of (high enough) standards and (certain enough) accountability will be self evident.

The problem is the problems truth telling will create.  There in only one reason to hide the truth and that is to escape the consequences of the truth being known.

APS Police Chief Steve Tellez and APS
COO Brad Winter shared oversight over
corruption in the leadership of APS'
publicly funded private police force.

Brad Winter, and a handful of others will be held accountable for their parts in a cover up of felony criminal misconduct.

We can't have that.

Let's say, for the sake of discussion, the allegation is nonsense; I'm just another disgruntled former employee and in Walz' expressed opinion, a gadfly and bomb thrower.

Let's say APS does have standards of conduct and competence that are high enough to protect the public interests in the public schools.  Let's say they are actually, honestly accountable to those standards by a due process powerful enough to hold them accountable, even against their will.

Why wouldn't Walz report that?

Why wouldn't Walz inform and reassure the democracy that all is well with standards and accountability in the leadership of the largest school districts in the country?

Is it because he doesn't want to attach his name and reputation to a lie?

Is it because he is actually part of a conspiracy to cover people's asses, because that's the way good ol' boys and the privileged roll?

The real problem is that there can be no "grandfathering in".
The possibility of future corruption and incompetence cannot be eliminated without first exposing the ongoing one.  You can't eliminate corruption and incompetence without exposing the corrupt and the incompetent.

Names will be named.  Heads will roll.
People will embarrassed, shamed, fired, possibly prosecuted.

Kent Walz and the news directors at the NMBA affiliate stations can't report credibly on the ethics, standards and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS without first reporting credibly on their failure to report on the scandal heretofore.

There will be no grandfathering in.




photos Mark Bralley

Elephant in the room at SFPS board meeting

In the Journal this morning, link, a report on a meeting of the Santa Fe public schools board of education.  The school board and the superintendent wore T-shirts in support of one of their principals and his handling of criminal misconduct on his campus.

The elephant in the room; a conflict of interests;

school board members, superintendents and principals
have an interest in under reporting crime.  

Whether they actually give way to their interests is moot; there is still the appearance of a conflict of interests.  It is particularly intolerable, if the school board members, superintendents and principals steadfastly refuse to deny, defend, for even acknowledge their conflict.

The Journal proves to be still,
no great shakes in elephant spotting.

If you've an interest in character education in the Albuquerque Public Schools

there are three documents that you should read.

The first is called the Aspen Declaration, link.
It was written in July, 1992.

United States Senator Pete
Domenici helped write it.

He helped sell it to congress
who appropriated a bunch
of money to sell it to students
in the Albuquerque Public Schools.

It came in the form of a specific model for teaching about character called Character Counts!. The model was later adopted by the APS board of education by unanimous resolution.  The second document to read; the resolution  they passed, link, which reads in significant part;

3. That the Albuquerque Public Schools is committed to creating models of ethical behavior among all adults who serve students and schools;

4. That the core curriculum should continue to give explicit attention to character development as an ongoing part of school instruction;

That year and every year since, the board has told students via their Student Behavior Handbook; the third document you should read, link, page 3 at least, whereon it is written; students;

are expected to "model and promote (honest accountability to) the Pillars of Character Counts! ... link.

This is not about "Character Counts!" specifically.  It happens to be in this case because The Pillars of Character Counts! are the current standards of conduct for students and have been since 1994.

It is about the abject failure of the leadership of the APS to make good on a solemn promise to provide opportunities for the nearly 90,000 of our sons and daughters who attend the APS to develop their good character in an environment that is deliberately supportive of their efforts.  It is about reneging on their promise to be good role models of honest accountability to higher standards of conduct.

aps image

In one month, Dr Luis Valentino will take charge of the APS.  He will become the senior-most administrative role model of student standards of conduct.

Or will he?

APS Brad Winter, interim
Supt and former COO.  He
still won't tell the truth about
spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

Interim Supt Brad Winter would not (will not) step up to honest accountability to the same standards of conduct he expects students to embrace.

• Former Supt Winston Brooks would not.
• Former Supt Beth Everitt would not.
• Former Supt Joey Vigil would not.
• Former Supt Peter Horoschak would not.
• No school board member ever has, will now, nor likely, will ever.

APS' efforts to get students to embrace character and courage and honor have fallen short because of an ignoble want of honest to God role models.  Not one APS "leader" has ever been honestly accountable as a role model of anything.

The APS School Board Code of Ethics, link, is
by their own free admission, utterly unenforceable.

It's one thing to say you are accountable to a set of standards; it is a whole other, to prove it.  Yet, if it is true, if one is truly accountable, it is easy to prove.  All you have to do is point to the standards and then point to the due process by which you are accountable.

The leadership of the APS can point to neither really; not high standards and not honest to God, real accountability to those standards even against their will.

They enjoy the aide and abet of the ilk of Journal Editor in Chief Kent Walz and the news directors at the NMBA affiliate stations in Albuquerque.

If Walz and the rest were about informing the democracy they would investigate and report upon the ethics, standards and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

If only to inform the democracy that there is no scandal; there is no cover up.  Incoming Supt Valentino will take charge of an oligarchy whose members are honestly accountable to meaningful standards of conduct within their public service.

Ayn Rand argued;

To fear to face an issue 
is to believe the worst is true.

Walz and the establishment's "press" will not face the issue because the worst is true; the leadership of the APS spends hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars every year in order to not be accountable even to the law.  Witness the three quarters of a million dollars they've spent in a non-viable defense of their unconstitutional restrictions on public forums and Marty Esquivel's ego.

Walz and the rest are not complacent.
They aren't unknowingly ignorant of the scandal.
They are complicit in its cover up.

Walz and they are complicit in the cover up of an ethics, standards and accountability crises in the leadership of the APS.




photos Mark Bralley

Editors wonder; what's the point in calling the cops?

The Journal editors penned a piece yesterday;

What’s the principle in bringing the law to class?, link.

They are, I suppose, at least superficially interested in beginning a public debate on the involvement of "law enforcement" in maintaining order in schools.

Discipline in schools, mountain or molehill?

APS teachers are not, have not been, and will not be surveyed about student discipline and the effects of chronically disruptive students.

Were they, there is no reason to believe that they would respond much differently than the thirteen hundred respondents in a survey, link, entitled;

Teaching Interrupted: Do Discipline Policies in Today’s Public Schools Foster the Common Good? 

They found;

Too many students are losing critical opportunities for learning—and too many teachers are leaving the profession—because of the behavior of a few persistent troublemakers.

Persistent trouble makers; chronically disruptive students, are interfering with the education of other students.  Their right to make trouble trumps the rights of other students who count among their rights, the right to have order in the classrooms, hallways and campuses.

School boards, superintendents and principals, in their efforts to "protect" students from "law enforcement" and the consequences of their criminal misconduct, actually enable and encourage criminal misconduct.

Part of their reasoning is that there are other, better strategies for dealing with students who break the law, than involving law enforcement.  One, and the one advocated by the Journal editorial staff;

An after-school lesson in respect and self-control ...

If teachers, or anyone else working at the educational interface in the presence of chronically disruptive students, were surveyed;

Would after-school lessons in respect and self-control improve the behavior of chronically disruptive students?

The response would indicate a shared professional consensus that that that particular strategy would be about as effective, and the results as long lasting,  as "jumping" in an effort to get closer to sun.

APS is crippled in problem solving by their problem solving rubric.  They are about solving problems such as student discipline and chronically disruptive students;

• without admitting that there is a problem and

• without gathering any damning data even if data is useful in addressing problems

APS has policies but no underpinning philosophy regarding chronically disruptive students.  In fact they have no "discipline philosophy".  They closest thing they can come up with is a student behavior handbook written and the 14th grade level.  Most parents can't read and understand it, never mind students many of whom can't read at all. 

Instead of investigating and reporting on student discipline; student standards, accountability and chronically disruptive students, a sound first step in addressing those issues, Kent Walz and the Journal spew drivel;

"after-school lessons in respect and self-control."

What they need is some;

after-school lessons in honest to God journalism.

Eighth graders run amok; field trip cancelled.

Enough eighth graders at APS Tony Hillerman Middle School behaved so badly all year that a scheduled field trip to Cliff's Amusement Park was cancelled for the whole class.  KRQE, as far as I can tell, provided exclusive coverage, link. APS' award winning website offers no coverage at all, of problems at THMS.

Noteworthy, the backside comments number more than fifty. That is unusual and speaks to strong feelings on the issue.  A lot of commenters have problems with the "blanket punishment" TH laid on the entire eighth grade.  It's based on the logic, that if the rest of the class really wanted to go to Cliff's they would have done something about the chronically disruptive students at their school.

If powerful adults cannot control the chronically disruptive students at THMS, how can they expect powerless children to control them?

The report offers some incontrovertible proof that
a significant number of APS students* are out of control.

*If you think this is just Tony Hillerman's problem, you are mistaken; badly mistaken.

If you think adults who make the rules are "in charge"; look up "in charge" - it means in control.  Who is in control, the adult who makes the rule, or the student who chooses to ignore it?

The worst is true; about APS and about Kent Walz and the Journal

"To fear to face an issue is to believe the worst is true."

Ayn Rand

There is an issue that is not being faced;

student discipline in APS classrooms.

There is some debate about the breadth and depth of the issue and the problems it creates, but reasonable people agree there is "an issue".  In particular, there is an issue with chronically disruptive students interfering with the education of other students.

I maintain that the leadership of the APS is too afraid and or too corrupt to face the issue of student standards of conduct and the board and administrations largely fectless  enforcement of those standards. 
There is no evidence to the contrary.

There are at least two reasons the school board and senior administrators are afraid to talk about student discipline and chronically disruptive students;

1. it is they who establish the standards of conduct for students, and
2. it is they are responsible for their enforcement.  Enforcing discipline policies is an administrative responsibility. The failure is their failure.

Why else than the worst imaginable? is there no record at all of student discipline in the APS to examine and review; no historical record, no contemporary record, and no intention to create any records henceforward, of student discipline problems or their effect on learning.

Never forget that it was Walz
who joined Marty Esquivel in
bamboozling the NM FOG
into giving Winston Brooks 
a Dixon Award while the
three of them together were up
to their eyeballs in a cover up
of a cover up of felony 
criminal misconduct in APS.

Why else, other than Journal Editor in Chief Kent Walz' own complacency or complicity, in APS' cover up, does the Journal have no record of investigating and reporting upon student discipline in the APS?

If you "Google" "newspaper articles on student discipline" you get 127K hits.  If you search the Journal's website for "student discipline APS" you get zero hits.  I rest my case.

In the absence of their willingness to face the issue with candor, forthrightness and honesty, it is fair and prudent to believe that the worst is true;

• there are student discipline problems and chronically disruptive students in the APS; the scope of which has been deliberately minimized and or covered up.

• we cannot expect the Journal to report on real problems in the APS, if in that reporting, school board member and senior administrative incompetence or corruption will exposed.

photo Mark Bralley

SF schools chief doubles down on conflict of interests

There is a story in the Journal this morning about the Superintendent of Santa Fe Schools and his support of a principal who has been charged with a felony

“for exercising his best judgment 
in resolving a serious classroom matter.”

Sidebar;

At the time I published this post, I could not provide a link to this story.  For reasons known only to them, this is one of the stories to which the Journal won't link.  You can read it in a paper, you can read the eJournal, but you can't read it from a link.  Coincidentally, it means no comments from readers will be posted.  The previous report link, generated more than the usual number of comments.

The story here is about a conflict of interests.

Role modeling of obedience to the law;
v
getting promoted in an oligarchy.

In order to get promoted in public school administration,
you have to be a team player.  What that means is;
you have to make decisions based on what's good for the team, as opposed to, for example, obeying the law.

Case in point;

Felony criminal misconduct in the leadership of APS' publicly funded private police force, link.  No one has ever denied that senior APS administrators were involved in state and federal felony criminal misconduct.

The law (at least an ethical reading of the law) required the leadership of the APS to allow criminal investigations and evidence to be turned over to the DA in order that she could decide whether to prosecute the crimes.

"The team"; various school boards, superintendents and newspaper editors, had conflicting interests.  Their interests lay in covering it all up.  The players left with a bunch of cash they hadn't earned and or retirement with honors, and the DA never saw a shred of evidence.

When it came to following the law or protecting the team, the team's interests prevailed.

Acts are either against the law or not.  At some point, someone somewhere, has to make two decisions;

1. whether any particular act is against the law or not, and
2. whether there is any point in prosecution

It is not in the best interests of anyone, to allow the decisions to be made by people who are manifestly conflicted.  Principals are manifestly conflicted.

It requires "authority" to make decisions.
Police officers have the authority to decide whether a particular crime should be prosecuted.  That authority is given them in the law.

Where is the law that reads;

manifestly conflicted principals have the authority
to decide which crimes will and will not be prosecuted.

A recent audit of the APS found; principals routinely falsifying crime statistics at their schools in order to protect the school's (and their own) reputation.

It happens.

Teacher batters students - Santa Fe Public Schools sez; no blood, no foul

Apparently, a middle school teacher in Santa Fe grew so frustrated by willfully disobedient students that she threw some books at them, link.

We will for the time being, sidestep the issue of the frustration even the finest teachers experience while trying to "teach" out of control students, and with the abject failure of the administration at all levels, to deal with chronically disruptive students.

But, we really, really should get back to those subjects sometime soon.

It seems clear from the report that assaults and batteries occurred.  Those are criminal acts no matter how we feel about the circumstances leading up to them; whether they were provoked or justified.  Whether to "prosecute" a criminal act is the purview of law enforcement; police officers and district attorneys.

Santa Fe Public Schools has a better idea. Rather than refer all criminal acts to law enforcement, the Santa Fe Public Schools has decided to empower administrators at all levels, with the authority to decid which crimes will and will not be reported to law enforcement.

The principal's defense according to the Journal;

“based on common school practice, if there is an altercation at the school where medical assistance is not required, then law enforcement is not contacted and the incident is handled internally.”

Santa Fe Public Schools are not alone in believing they have the authority to decide which crimes should and should not be reported to law enforcement.

When APS senior administrators were involved in state and federal felonies, link, the board and senior administration simply decided to "not report" those felonies to law enforcement.  They took it upon themselves to decide that prosecution wasn't appropriate.  They continue to think it is appropriate, as they are spending operational dollars to this day, hiding public records and maintaining the cover up.

There is an appearance of a conflict of interests created when administrators are allowed to manipulate crime statistics.  A recent audit of the APS found that principals routinely falsified crime statistics at their schools to protect their public image.

I was once told by an APS deputy superintendent that, when he was a high school principal, if he had told the truth about what was going on in his school, the realtors in his neighborhood would have had his neck.

He would also not have found himself promoted out of his "crime free high school" into a deputy superintendency.

Ayn Rand pointed out;

"To fear to face an issue is to believe the worst is true."

School boards and superintendents refuse to talk about the issues of student discipline and chronically disruptive students, not because there aren't any, but because there are so many.

The same can be said for the Journal.

They wouldn't be afraid to investigate and report on student discipline problems and chronically disruptive in the APS, if they weren't genuinely afraid of what they might find and then be compelled to report to stake and interest holders.

Winter leaving; question lingers

APS promised to occupy one tower and rent out the other.
Instead, they filled both towers to the gunwales in a stampede of
administrators looking for their offices in the sky.

How many of the dollars that we gave to APS to build classrooms for our children, were spent renovating the administrative complex at 6499 Uptown Blvd?

It is fair question to ask.

Spending there, included a new board room.

Just for the board room and surrounding renovations, spending went more than a half a million dollars over budget, link.

They were audited at the time by Meyners & Co. whose findings included;

1. inadequate financial standards, and
2. inadequate accountability to such standards as there were, and
3. inadequate record keeping

the one, two and three horses of public corruption and embezzlement.

At the time, senior administrators were letting $50K contracts "without involving purchasing".

Lots of money was spent on electronic gadgetry including apparently
nearly useless state of the art digital recording equipment to record,
stream and archive regular school board meetings.

If hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars weren't embezzled, I can't imagine why not; there was certainly low hanging fruit; there for the taking.

Corrupt and incompetent former APS
Chief of Police Steve Tellez reported to
you guessed it, Brad Winter.

If hundreds and hundreds of
thousands of dollars were not
embezzled, interim Supt Brad
Winter would produce the
candid, forthright and honest
accounting that he promised.

Spending over which he had
oversight and responsibility.

If Kent Walz and the Journal were to investigate and report the truth, Brad Winter would be leaving in disgrace.  They won't, and instead, Winter will be retired with the all the hoopla and celebration they can muster.




photos Mark Bralley

Does Supt Valentino know; APS has NO discipline philosophy?

Albuquerque Public Schools has no written discipline philosophy.

Hard to believe?  A request for any public records of a "discipline philosophy" produced no records.  A mention is made of the "APS Student Behavior Handbook", link.

Why have a discipline philosophy?  What difference would it make.

A cogent philosophy provides a foundation for discipline policies.  Without fundamental philosophical underpinnings, the only reason for a student to obey any is "because I said so".

Anyone who has used that particular line on a child, knows how particularly ineffective that approach really is.

As basic a philosophical position as;

whether to "punish" deliberate misconduct.

is not addressed anywhere in the Handbook; certainly not in words any student could understand.  The Student Behavior Handbook is written in language readable to those who read at the 14th grade level.

The entire document is rendered moot by a "weasel clause".
So named by the adults who actually deal with students face to face and sometimes therefore, require the administration to punish (for example) a chronically and deliberately disruptive student.

The weasel clause is found on the second page of the Handbooks and reads;

Nothing in the following is intended to prevent a staff member, teacher, principal or other administrator from using his/her best judgement with respect to a particular situation.

Let's begin by disabusing ourselves of the notion that the weasel clause actually applies to "staff members and teachers".  Any teacher who thinks they can use their best judgement in lieu of following school board policy will find out quickly, otherwise.

The clause is there to allow administrators to tint disciplinary decisions with political and personal interests.  Principals who punish students for deliberate misconduct are unpopular with those students, their parents, and with senior administrators who have to deal with those unhappy parents.  I admit, I paint with a broad brush.

An awful lot of principals want offices in the recently and very expensively renovated twin towers.

"The twins"; APS' edifice to corruption and incompetence.
A candid, forthright and honest accounting is still unavailable.

One doesn't get an office and staff in there by making waves.

In any case, an administrative decision to not punish even criminally misbehaving students, is justified by their defense; they used "their best judgement".

Their best judgement is not subject to review.
It does not require a defense.  It is what it is and it allows
administrators to do whatever they want without accountability
to the Handbook or to the staff member or teacher who needed them to do something else.

Any complaint by a staff member or teacher about an administrator's best judgement, falls into processes riddled with appearances of conflicts of interests and impropriety. 

Complainants can at some point "sue" for relief.  That's what I did. 
"Legal" defenses for incompetent and or corrupt board members and senior administrators cost the "operational" fund millions of dollars.  They cost so much, the record of how much they cost is still unavailable.

Because the "leadership" of the APS is willing to spend untold operational dollars on legal weaselry; against the public interests, and without limit and without oversight, due process  for even the most legitimate complaint, is damned hard to find.

APS has no discipline philosophy because they don't want to be pinned down.  Instead of building a wall of policies on a sound foundation, they have laid their blocks on sand.  They can shift the policies one way or another as politically necessary.  Always of course, using their best judgement.

The first rule in any set of rules, whether it is written or not,
is; you have to obey the rules.

The first rule no longer applies when one accumulates enough power, or in the case of the leadership of the APS, have acquired control over enough of someone else's power and resource to buy their exception.

They are manifestly willing to squander our trust and treasure in order to escape honest accountability to any meaningful standards of conduct or competence.

They get away with it, because the establishment's media allows them to.  I would say "complicit or complacent" but who is kidding whom; complacent my ass, the press is not complacent about an ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the state's largest school district.  They are complicit it covering up or they would be fighting like hell to expose it.

Unless of course, in order to expose it with any credibility, they first have to explain some credibly, why they have not reported credibly heretofore on a cover up they've known about since 2007.

The board, their supt and his senior administrative staff could not get away their manifest lack of accountability even to the law, were it not for Journal Editor in Chief Kent Walz and his ilk; Paula Maes and the NM Broadcasters Assoc local affiliates; KRQE, KOAT, and KOB TV.




photo Mark Bralley

To what standards exactly, and how?

In my previous, I posed a question.  The question is for politicians and public servants, and anyone else whom the people are supposed to "trust" with control over enormous public resources and power; power and resources that belong fundamentally, to the people.

Within your public service, those hours which you wield the people's power and spend their resources;

To what standards of conduct and competence are you willing to be held actually and honestly accountable?

How?  By what process will you ensure due process of complaints filed against you?

Protesting the removal of the public
forum from their public meetings
circa 2007, link.

This isn't the first time I've asked the question.
I was reminded in 2013, link; I asked the question in my very first post, link, in August 2006.

At the time, I was complaining about the fact that the newspapers wouldn't investigate and report on the ethics, standards and accountability scandal* in the leadership.  

*It is a "scandal" and not a "crisis" because 
they're spending operational dollars to cover it up.

... and because the newspaper is part of the cover up of the "crisis".





photo Mark Bralley

Within your public service ...

to what standards of conduct and competence, will you hold yourself actually and honestly accountable?

That is a question to which, the leadership of the APS; school board members, superintendents and senior administrators, relentlessly refuse to respond candidly, forthrightly and honestly.

• They will not point to their standards of conduct and competence; clear, unequivocal and written down.

• They will not point to the process or procedure for holding them accountable, even, and especially against their will.

The reasons that they will not respond truthfully are because;

• Their standards are really no higher than run of the mill despite what they would like you to believe; nothing to be proud of.  There are no real "higher" standards to which they can be held accountable.  If there were, they would be posted on APS' award winning website. Go ahead, look them up, see what you can find.

• There is no due process* for holding them accountable to such standards as they do have.  The school board freely admits for example; they are utterly unaccountable to their own Code of Ethics.

*The closest complainants and whistleblowers can get to due process, is to file their complaints in court.  All other adjudications come from administrators with manifest appearances of conflicts of interests and impropriety - subordinate adjudication of complaints against senior administrators and officials, for example.

This really shouldn't and doesn't count as "due process" because the relationship is always one of David suing Goliath and his lawyers and their large bore pipeline to operational dollars.

In the last three years for example, they've spent three quarters of a million dollars in a non-viable defense of a school board member's ego.  They continue to spend to this day, to hide public records revealing their cover up of a cover up of felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators.

Complainants have to spend their own money to litigate, while the school board and senior administrators' legal defenses are covered with operational dollars which they can spend without limit and without oversight.

They spend dollars that could, should and would be otherwise spent in classrooms, without shame.  They spend them on legal weaselry; bending the law to their own interests and contrary to its spirit, to escape the consequences of their own incompetence and or corruption.

Walz' balls - AWOL or
cradled in APS palms?

You probably think that's bullshit.

It isn't.  If the Kent Walz and the
Journal had the balls and or the
inclination, their investigation and
report would echo the allegations.

Why else, do you think,
they will neither investigate nor report?

Wouldn't it be at least or even more
newsworthy if they could investigate
and report that school board members and senior administrators are actually, honestly accountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence; if only for the few hours a day they serve students and the community?

Stake and interest holders deserve an open and honest examination and review of the standards and accountability that secure the public interests in the public schools.

Assurances by the school board and superintendent; they are honestly accountable to meaningful standards of conduct, are simply not true.  They are unsupported by their record.  They are unsupported by facts or evidence.

Why else would they not welcome,
before Supt Valentino accepts responsibility,
an;

Independent examination and review of;
ethics, standards and accountability in the APS.

photo Mark Bralley

Seniors never learned meaning of the word "prank"

After twelve years sitting in columns and rows, growing from children to adults; at least some seniors at Los Lunas High School came away with no understanding of the meaning or concept of a "prank", link.

They did not learn during the last twelve years, other people, their property and their personal safety deserve respect.  And, therefore, disrespectful and irresponsible behavior are "bad".

One of the miscreants defended the misbehavior in the usual way; hey man;

“We’re not bad kids, like I said just trying to have fun…
live up our last day of high school.

At least one parent has a closer but still incomplete grasp, posting on facebook;

“Harmless senior pranks are one thing, but a prank
that can harm others is what ruins it for everyone!”

And then, there is the "accountability"; the reason the next batch of seniors won't do exactly the same thing next year;

Police said students were held accountable ...,
but ... did not elaborate. (emphasis added)

If anyone thinks there are not seniors are graduating everywhere, yes, even in the APS, who haven't acquired good character in public schools, they have much to learn.

People argue;

It isn't the responsibility of public schools to grow character in children.  The onus falls on parents, families, churches, girl and boy scouts, etc, etc, etc.

Those people do not comprehend the staggering number of children whose home lives provide little, no, or bad advice on growing and keeping good character.

If we really expect children to grow into adults who embrace character and courage and honor, we are going to have to teach them about them.
If schools do not do it, will will not get done.

The proper time to influence the character of a child
is about a hundred years before he is born.

Dean Inge

If he's right, we're already a hundred years too late for an entire generation.

Kindergarteners toss softballs to Valentino

OK, I get it.  APS Supt Valentino's first days in town shouldn't be characterized by hardball questions on serious issues. So does the leadership of the APS.

They invited only kindergarteners and their best friends in the press media, to ask the first series of questions.  APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta still denies her "credentials" to members of the press who might ask inconvenient questions at their staged "press" conferences/public relations events.

So when is the appropriate time to ask Luis Valentino;

• What do you think about APS' student standards of conduct?  And more importantly,

• What do you consider to be the obligations and responsibilities of their adult role models; in particular their senior-most executive and administrative role models?

If those represent legitimate questions, they deserve a good faith response some where, some time.

APS rules will not allow their new superintendent, or any one of them for that matter, to be asked questions point blank, period.  There are only two physical opportunities to ask questions of the senior leadership of the APS;

1. Questions can of course, be asked during the public forum at school board meetings, except the board is still pretending that they are "not allowed" to answer questions during public forum and will not, 
or
2. you can ask your questions after springing out of a bush somewhere.

Frankly, I'm getting too old for springing out of bushes so the only thing I can do is ask the questions at public forum and the only thing they will do is pretend the law won't let Valentino or the board respond.

"The city should apply a whole lot of sunshine to this cleanup project" say Journal editors.

Or, Should CABQ CAO Rob Perry be fired?

With regard to the relationship between then APD Chief Ray Schultz and Taser Int'l Inc, the Journal editors wrote, link ;

"The aromas of an appearance of a conflict of interest at the least or potential criminal violations at the worst are stinking up the kitchen."

How clever!  "Stinking up the kitchen."

The city has a procurement code that fails to keep the city's chief administrative officer's good buddy from cutting a millions of dollars deal in his own interests, and the editors liken it to a stinky kitchen?!

The head chef, Rob Perry knew
or should have known; hell; should
know now about any weaknesses in the procurement code.

How many other weaknesses are there yet to be exploited?

Isn't this the expertise we were supposedly paying for when Mayor Richard Berry decided to give Perry a $33K a year raise?

Why wasn't Perry studying the code instead of harassing citizens and reporters who attend too closely to the shenanigans in City Hall, link.

"There is much to plug your nose about ..." 

the editors wrote when describing "... former Albuquerque Police Department Chief Ray Schultz’s relationship with Taser International Inc."

Is plugging our collective nose really the answer when
the problem is a the lack of transparency in city government?

I would prefer if the Journal just started holding Perry's toes to the fire.

I would prefer it as well, if taste and calories correlated inversely, but then;

You can't always get what you want.

Mick Jagger and, 

everyone's mother

photo Mark Bralley

Peercy still afraid

However much importance is assigned to the issue (clearly I feel more strongly about it than most), the naked hypocrisy of school board members and senior administrators, barely accountable to the law* expecting students to hold themselves honestly accountable to a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct, link, is unbearable.

*APS board members, superintendents and senior administrators are not actually, honestly accountable to the law.  Millions of dollars flow yearly into the coffers of APS "family" law firms who then spend hundreds and hundreds of thousands of those dollars, dollars that would, could and should be spent in classrooms instead, litigating exceptions to the law for school board members, superintendents and senior administrators who have broken those laws.  And in large and secret settlements to keep people quiet.

Nearly three quarters of a million operational dollars have been spent for example, on a non-viable defense of violations of my civil rights and, former school board member Marty Esquivel's ego.  The spending took place without oversight, link, and without limits.

I could go on and on and on, but that's Kent Walz' Journal's job.

The point is, there is not a single APS school board member or senior administrator who is willing to stand up as a role model* of accountability to APS student standards of conduct.  Hypocrites are openly laying claim to high standards and accountability while relentlessly refusing to talk about either.

*There is no such thing as an inconspicuous role model; the concept is oxymoronic.  They can't claim to be actually and honestly accountable if they can't point to their actual, honest accountability.  Accountability is not an intention; it is a tangible.

There isn't a single board member or senior administrator willing to be held actually and honestly accountable as a role model.  What more proof could one need, than to point out that there isn't a single board member or senior administrator who is willing to even to talk about ethics, standards and accountability.

Seriously, if school board members and senior administrators are actually, honestly accountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence, why is there no evidence of either those standards or that accountability; how can there not be a record of either?

Policy and Instruction Committee Chair David Peercy does not look up during public forum when the subject is APS' role modeling clause.  In fairness, in rarely looks up when I am the speaker.

Peercy is the APS school board member most responsible for the lack of a principled resolution to the problem of double standards of conduct in the APS.

We don't need no stinkin' Role
Modeling clause, or any public
input on the issue.

Though it has been on his committee's agenda for years and years, Peercy will not permit open and honest public discussion of ethics, standards and accountability in the APS.

More specifically, he will not allow a discussion of student standards of conduct and the responsibilities of school board members, superintendents and senior administrators as role models of accountability to those same standards.  He opposes restoring the role modeling clause to his own standards of conduct.  Until it was removed almost a decade ago by unanimous vote of the board it read;

In no case shall the standards of conduct for an adult
be lower than the standards of conduct for students.

Peercy's inability to look up when I talk about his obligations as one of the district's senior most role models is a metaphor for the entire leadership of the APS; not one of them will talk about ethics, standards, or, and most specifically, their actual, honest accountability, even to the law.  There is not one conspicuous role model of student standards among them.

It takes character and courage to talk about character and courage and accountability.

If there are any other reasons to not end double standards in APS, other than;

1. a lack of character and or
2. a lack of courage, 

one would be doing David Peercy and the "leadership" of the APS a huge favor by pointing out on their behalf, as many as one of them here;

1. ___________________________________________ 

2. ___________________________________________

photo Mark Bralley

Valentino widening the gene pool in APS leadership

The Journal reports, link, that APS Supt Luis Valentino will bring two senior administrators with him when he takes over in June.  They will earn between them, a third of a million dollars a year.  Unclear at this point whether the hirings represent additional demands on a strapped operational funds budget.

APS image

Actually, bringing a trusted team of his own will insulate Valentino from the dark side of APS leadership. He will have at least two people watching his back and agenda should he find himself in a position where he will have to make waves in order to address problems.

Whatever else is true about the leadership of the APS, one doesn't end up there by making waves. Unfortunate if reasonable solutions to important problems can't help but identity the people who failed to fix or mitigate them.

Take for example, student discipline.

The APS administrator most responsible for mitigating the problem holds that job, not because they have addressed the problem or even acknowledged it, but because they've been successful in keeping stake and interest holders from knowing how bad things really are. Seriously, when was the last time you heard anything from APS about student discipline? Trust me, if things were getting better, APS Exec Director of Communications Monica Armenta would be pasting it all over their "award winning website".

APS Police Chief Steve
Gallegos "can't find" a
copy his investigation
of felony criminal abuse
of a secure federal data base.

Take for example, the chief of their publicly funded private police force.

He is in that position, not because he is any great shakes as a cop (far from it!) or because he is a competent administrator (he was the subject of a no confidence vote by APS his subordinates).

He holds that position because he conveniently lost the only copy of a formal criminal investigation he did, link, that named the names of senior APS administrators who were involved in felony criminal misconduct, link.  No criminal charges were filed because APS conducted the only (self)investigations and never turned the evidence over to the DA for prosecution.  Gallegos has been part and parcel to the cover up ever since and pulls down nearly $108K a year as a result.

Supt Valentino will find I'm afraid, that two loyal team mates isn't nearly enough in a building full of people more interested"covering up" than "cleaning up".




photo ched macquigg

On the character and courage of APS Supt Luis Valentino

Theodore Roosevelt observed that;

To educate in the mind and not in the morals
is to create a menace to society.

Of the all the things we expect a public school education to do for our children, which is more important than helping them develop their good character?

I get that there are unresolved issues in and around "character education".  I believe most of those issues could be resolved in open and honest public discussion.

There will not be an open and honest discussion of ethics, standards and accountability in the APS by the deliberate decision of "leadership" of the APS, link.  They simply will not hear of any such discussion.  You have to wonder, why not?

I have a record of advocating on behalf of a particular model for character education called "Character Counts!.  I advocate on behalf of CC! and the Pillars of Character Counts!, link, for two reasons;

1. As far as models for character education go, I have not seen a better one. And,
2. The Pillars of Character Counts! are and have been APS' student standards of conduct since 1994*.

*The APS board unanimously adopted Character Counts! in 1994 and, every year since, has reiterated, by means of the APS Student Behavior Handbook; that they expect students to "model and promote (honest accountability to) the Pillars of Character Counts!

The board has never rescinded their resolution.

They did however, grow uncomfortable with the expectation that because they established and enforced higher standards on students, they, as the senior most executive role models of student standards, were accountable themselves to those same standards.

The proximate result of their discomfort was their decision to remove the role modeling clause* from their own standards of conduct.

*In no case shall the standards of conduct for an adult
be lower than the standards of conduct for students.

Since the board voted unanimously to strike the role modeling clause from their own standards of conduct, there have been two sets of standards of conduct in the APS;

1. one for students; the Pillars of Character Counts! and 
2. a different, much lower standard, for school board members, superintendents and senior administrators; the law*.

*"The law" is the set of standards that all "higher" standards are higher than.  The law represent the lowest standards of conduct acceptable among civilized human beings.

Were the law not low enough standards, the leadership of the APS spends millions of operational* dollars every year on litigation, the most of which is a bunch of legal weaselry intended to allowed board members, superintendents and senior administrators to escape actual and honest accountability even to the law.

*Operational funds are the money that could, should and would be spent in classrooms were they not being spent in courtrooms.  

For example, since November 2012, the leadership of the APS has spent three quarters of a million dollars in operational funds, in litigation in a non-viable defense of former APS school board enforcer Marty Esquivel's ego and, and in an effort to litigate an exception for themselves from the NM Inspection of Public Records Act, in order to hide public records that will expose a cover up of felony criminal misconduct involving a number of senor APS administrators.

In any case, the fact that there are two sets of standards of conduct in the APS; one for students, one for "leadership";

1. Students are expected to model and promote honest accountability the Pillars of Character Counts!; a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct, while
2. the "leadership" of the APS are manifestly unaccountable even to the law

is morally reprehensible.  It is utterly indefensible.

The best defense of indefensible position is to hide it, which is exactly why the leadership of the APS is stonewalling the question instead of trying to defend their hypocritical expectation of students; that they will hold themselves accountable to higher standards of conduct than adults.

Every generation expects the next generation to be the first generation to hold itself accountable to higher standards of conduct; ethical standards of conduct.  Do as I say, not as I do.

If we really want students to grow into adults who embrace character and courage and honor, someone is going to have to show them what they look like.

APS image

Which brings us to APS Supt Luis Valentino and to the test of his mettle.  He is or will be, the senior-most administrative role model of student standards of conduct.

Will he step up to or hide from that obligation?

Ever since the board voted to strike their role modeling clause, I have been attending school board meetings and speaking during the public comment period.  I have repeatedly challenged school board members and superintendents to step up as honest to God role models.

Is there one of you, with the character and the courage to hold yourself honest accountable to the same standards of conduct you have established and enforce upon students?

Their response to the question has run the gamut from ignoring the question completely to trying to ban me from school board meetings for life for asking it over and over again.  They have never responded candidly, forthrightly and honestly to a legitimate question about the public interests and their public service.

Their current position is to pretend that they are prohibited from answering questions during public fora by law, rather than their own lack of character and courage.

One cannot be a role model of accountability except by being accountable; actually, honestly accountable. There is no such thing as an inconspicuous role model; the concept is oxymoronic. 

If Supt Luis Valentino is not willing to stand up and declare his personal accountability to student standards of conduct, he is not willing to be a role model.

If he does not expect the same for himself (and his administration) he forfeits moral high ground and his right to expect students to hold high standards for themselves.

There is no opportunity anywhere in the APS, for open and honest public discussion of ethics, standards and accountability in the APS.

How can people who are too afraid or too corrupt even to talk about the ethics and standards that bind them, or about the (lack of) due process available to hold them accountable to those standards and ethics, be trusted to have either high standards or real accountability?

Under different circumstances, the refusal of the board and their various superintendents to talk openly and honestly about ethics, standards and accountability would draw the attention of "the press".  There would be an investigation and report upon ethics, standards and accountability in the leadership of a school system that spends fully a fifth of the state's entire budget.

Unfortunately, the press; the Journal and the local NMBA affiliates are at best complacent regarding the ethics, standards and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, and at worst, deliberately complicit in the cover up.

Journal Editor in Chief and
Esquivel crony Kent Walz,
foremost among them.




photo Mark Bralley

$420K misspent and "Oversight can always improve ..."

The understatement of the year, according to the Journal, link; came from Michael Sandoval, Director of NM DOT Transportation Programs.

That, after suggesting that the $400K misspent under his oversight was a relative pittance; only "a fraction" of the $33M that could have been misspent.

If under Sandoval, oversight can always improve,
then under Sandoval, oversight is always inadequate.

Self oversight is oxymoronic.
Subordinate oversight is oxymoronic.

If we want to end the cultures of corruption and incompetence that characterize government in New Mexico, we are going to have to provide external oversight and impose real consequences on those who cannot or will not protect public interests and resources.

Earlier start date for APS Supt Valentino?

The APS School Board will meet next Wednesday. 
They have announced their intention to vote to move up Supt Luis Valentino's start date by about 10 days.  He was supposed to begin on Wednesday July 1, 2015 but will apparently start instead on Monday June 22.

The board offers no explanation, link, of the need to change the hiring date, simply;

The Board of Education is asked to approve a change to Dr. Valentino’s contract that moves up the start date to June 22, 2015, from July 1, 2015.

What does APS Supt Valentino know about ethics, standards and accountability (in the APS)?

If the APS is to reach its potential in educating nearly 90,000 of this community's sons and daughters, there must be in place;

• high enough standards of conduct and competence, and

• actual, honest accountability to those standards; accountability even for the most powerful and even against their will.

APS image

APS Supt Luis Valentino does not know that the standards of conduct and competence that apply to APS school board members and senior administrators are mediocre at best and largely unenforceable*.

*For example, and by their own admission,  the APS School Board Code of Ethics is utterly unenforceable.

He does not know that students are expected to model and promote accountability to a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct.  Nor that they have been for more than two decades; nor that the expectation has been repeatedly articulated in the APS Student Behavior Handbook;

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

Side note;

Anyone who would like to debate whether the Pillars should or should not be APS student standards of conduct is 21 years too late to participate in that debate.  The simple fact is; the Pillars are the standards of conduct that the board establishes and enforces upon students and will be until the board meets in public and votes otherwise.

Valentino doesn't know that in 2005 or 2006, the board grew uncomfortable with the expectation that they, as the senior most executive role models of student standards of conduct . were actually accountable to those higher standards of conduct.  And that as a result, the board voted to remove the role modeling clause from their own standards of conduct.  It used to read;

In no case shall the standards of conduct for an adult
be lower than the standards of conduct for students. 

The effect of their unanimous, morally corrupt and cowardly vote was that they are no longer accountable as "role models" of ethical standards of conduct and by their reasoning; no longer accountable to the higher standards they refuse to model and promote. 

They are accountable now only to the law; the standards of conduct that all higher standards are higher than.  Were that not bad enough, the board spends, without oversight, operational dollars by the hundreds of thousands on legal weaselry in order to escape accountability even to the law.

Valentino doesn't know that a recent audit of the APS revealed a culture of fear of retaliation against whistle blowers.  He doesn't know that there is no due process for complaints filed against school board members and senior administrators.

He doesn't know.  Yet.

It will be explained to him during public forums two minutes at a time, until he recognizes that he has parachuted into an ethics, standards and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS and demonstrates by his response whether he intends to right the wrong or join in the cover up.

Will he identify high standards and establish honest accountability to them?

It begins with an independent, impartial examination and review of ethics, standards and accountability in the APS; the findings of which will be surrendered to public knowledge.