Brooks, Esquivel threaten APS employees. Journal publishes it for them.

That's not the way the Saturday Journal front page top of the fold headline reads, link; it uses the word "caution" instead, applying it only to "employee/legislators". One doesn't have to read too far between the lines to perceive the threat and to conclude it doesn't really apply to only those employees who serve are legislators.

Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Winston Brooks said Friday he plans to take a harder stance against misbehavior by employees who are also state legislators.

He spoke in response to two "incidents" involving APS employees who are legislators; Rep Sheryl Williams-Stapleton and Senator Bernadette Sanchez.

We are familiar with the Williams-Stapleton incident, a racist comment that Brooks "plans" to have reviewed (some day) by his own Human Resources people. Unclear, why the review is still in the "planning" stage, apparently yet to begin.

The other has to do with an email written by Sen Sanchez, to the Supt and the School Board complaining about Brooks' Chief of Staff Joseph Escobedo. Sanchez apparently declined an invitation to attend a meeting with APS senior administrators and area legislators, citing problems with Escobedo as justification. According to the Journal; Sanchez wrote:

“Please do not have Joseph Escobedo contact me as the last time I spoke to him he was rude and I have no tolerance for that behavior. It has been difficult enough to communicate with him due to his lack of experience and knowledge in regards to education and the system.”

I feel obliged to add that Escobedo,
a former student of mine, has never
been anything less than courteous,
respectful and professional in all our
interactions.

The Journal chose to not ask for or, to not publish the whole letter, though it would seem to qualify as a public record under the NM Inspection of Public Records Act.




Board enforcer Marty Esquivel assailed the Senator claiming the email was unprofessional and that she was "throwing her weight around" and acting "inappropriately".

While board members might not want to receive emails complaining about administrative conduct and competence, interest holders have every right to send them; doing so doesn't reasonably constitute "inappropriate" behavior.

Esquivel, who has a history of disrespect in his own emails, calling people nut cases and worse, said differences should be worked out through "respectful" dialogue. By which he means in private, beyond the attention of interest holders who might want to pick a side.

Esquivel has expressed no interest in respectful dialogue with those who signed the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication Petition; happy to join the rest of the board in denying them and their petition even rudimentary due process.

Esquivel would rather "differences" be discussed in secret from stakeholders, not out in the open. He regards open and honest public discussions of "differences" as "disrespectful" and has gone so far as to use his Praetorian Guard to arrest those who insist upon public, rather than private, dissent.

According to the Journal;

Brooks also said he thought Sanchez’s email was inappropriate, although he does not think it warrants disciplinary action.

Brooks argued that he is walking a fine line between abiding by school board policy that prohibits retaliation against legislators for their speech, actions and votes, and disciplining her for "bad behavior".

A question is begged; did Sen Sanchez "behave badly" by emailing the board with her concerns about Escobedo? What exactly, did she do wrong except complain (rather publicly) about the conduct and competence of a senior administrator?

A recent independent audit of the leadership of the APS found "... a culture of fear of retribution and retaliation ..." against those who try to expose administrative or executive misconduct and incompetence.

Esquivel has suction with the Journal and its Managing Editor Kent Walz. In fact, he and Walz together, managed to bamboozle the NM FOG Directors into giving Winston Brooks a Dixon Award for, in effect, hiding the Caswell Report on APS administrative incompetence and corruption, keeping it secret from public knowledge even in violation of the NMIPRA.

Walz, unfortunately, is clearly comfortable with helping to suppress the Caswell Report.

He is, in fact, the heavy in the scandal. If he weren't all about covering up the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS, it would be made public and the people could throw board members like Esquivel out of office and replace them with board members who would hire a Superintendent who would end the culture of fear of retaliation against those who try to improve the system by exposing incompetence and wrongdoing.




photos Mark Bralley

"Honestly, I am sorry"

And with that, Rep Sheryl Williams-Stapleton paid her penance for calling the Governor a "Mexican".

She won't even accept personal responsibility for the slur.
She apologized "... for the hurtful words that were said ...";
not for the words she said. The words apparently,
said themselves.

Any sane person is sorry for their misconduct.
They're especially sorry when they get caught.
If they've done something really, really bad,
then they're really, really sorry.

With that as the bar, Williams-Stapleton has done no more
than anyone in the same situation would do. That makes her,
not a leader.

Williams-Stapleton's Democratic colleagues won't ask her to resign, though they would be howling for her resignation if she were a Republican and everyone knows it. She should resign her leadership position anyway.

A leader does not simply accept consequences for their mistakes, they provide them. They show subordinates what it looks like to step up to real consequences for real failure to meet agreed upon standards of conduct. They show subordinates that they are willing to hold themselves honestly accountable to the same standards of conduct they establish and enforce upon others.

They stand aside when they can no longer lead.

Lujan lets Williams-Stapleton slide on slur

Rob Nicolewski reports, link,

Speaker of the House Ben Lujan has admitted he will not seek to remove Rep Sheryl Williams-Stapleton from her leadership post in the House for calling Governor Susana Martinez a "Mexican".

I have to wonder, if Williams-Stapleton was a Republican, or if she had called Lujan a "Mexican",
would he be so accommodating?

On hypotheticals, as good a source as any for an answer is
my Magic 8-Ball, wikilink.

... shake, shake, shake;

It says; very doubtful




photo Mark Bralley

APS leadership takes a break

APS administrative offices will be closed from December 23 through January 2nd, link.

The school board has cancelled the three meetings they scheduled for this week, link. They always do; schedule meetings during the week of Christmas Break and then cancel them.

Forget for a moment whether they should be taking the week off, why schedule meetings if you know you're going to cancel them anyway? And if there's really nothing else for them to do, why are they still claiming to be too busy to give the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication Petition it's due process?

Granted, with students gone for two weeks there's little point in having teachers and site administrators at school, but what about senior administrators with their digs in Sleepy Hollow?

Should senior administrators, people making between $100-250K a year to raise APS success rates above 50%, be taking a long holiday too?

APS Supt Winston Brooks for example, has a lot on his plate
whether students are in school or not. He has to find time to
figure out what to do about the conduct unbecoming a senior
administrator; Rep Sheryl Williams-Stapleton.

Brooks told the press he needed time to "review" the situation
before deciding what to do.

There are really only two facts to consider;

1. did Williams-Stapleton call the Governor a "Mexican" and
2. was she getting paid by APS at the time?

In truth, those are the only two germane facts and it doesn't
take three weeks to review them. What he really needs to do
is to let the furor die down before he "decides" to mete out the
standard consequence for senior administrators gone wild;
no real punishment at all.

In three weeks, interest holders will have lost interest, he can
do whatever he wants, and nobody will take notice.




photo Mark Bralley

Brooks is hypocrite; they all are.

APS Supt Winston Brooks has reminded employees, link,
they serve as role models to students.

He, however, does not.

Nor does any other senior administrator.

Nor does any board member.

Students are "expected to model and promote the Pillars of Character Counts!" link, senior administrators and board members are not; not since they removed the role modeling clause from their own standards of conduct.

Ask any senior administrator if they will hold themselves honestly accountable to the same standards of conduct they established and enforce upon students; a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct.

They won't answer;
they won't even look
you in the eyes.

None of them will.

Character is taught by example;
it is taught only by example.

All leadership is by example only.


That's what lead means.




photos Mark Bralley

Journal ignores teachers

I read with interest, everything the Journal publishes on student discipline in the APS, from supposedly fair and balanced investigation and reporting, to editorial opinions based on who knows what.

I have yet to read anything that indicates that a reporter or editor has actually talked to a teacher about the problem. Editors are so clueless they're writing things like; link,

Police and APS officials agree that repeated disruptions by unruly students are often better handled by calling parents or in-school suspension.

You would be hard pressed I think, to find many, if any, teachers whose experience includes calling the parents of chronically disruptive students and seeing their disruption end. These kids are as out of control at home as they are at school.

Who is more qualified to opine on the issue of students disrupting classrooms and campuses, than teachers. Yet, as far as I can tell, not one has been asked for their input on the issue.

Teachers in the APS have between them as many as 100,000 years of teaching experience, and no one (in a position of influence or authority) seems the least bit inclined to listen to them or take their advice.

The leadership of the APS isn't going to survey teachers because their input would condemn the administration for their failure to enforce district and school discipline policies. The Journal, editorially or otherwise, isn't going to survey teachers either.

The leadership of the APS is only covering their own asses.
How else would you explain seven meetings on District Goals
and never talking about the issues student discipline and
chronically disruptive students even once?

These are after all, the same folks who removed the role modeling clause and obligation, 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.

The media's interest in avoiding teachers' input is less easy
to qualify. It could be as simple as APS Supt Winston Brooks
or Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta
simply calling their cronies in the establishment's media and
asking them not to.

How else would you explain their failure to investigate and
report upon the district wide issue?

Williams-Stapleton should resign

Rep Sheryl Williams-Stapleton called Governor Susana Martinez a "Mexican".

The Republican Party thinks she should resign from her leadership position in the House; the Democrats don't. If she were Republican, the Dems would be calling for her resignation and the Republicans would be soft peddling her slur.

Williams-Stapleton would have us believe the outburst was an anomoly; it hasn't happened before and wont't happen again. Even so, she should resign, but not just for the racist slur. She should resign for what she did afterward;

• blaming it on "the Republicans"


• pretending she wasn't referring to Governor Susana Martinez; and


• a soft apology to anyone who "might have been" offended.


• calling a newsconference and not inviting KRQE because of their story on her violation of District policies and being paid for her legislative service (a violation of their civil rights).

Leadership is not so much about never making a mistake, as it is about how you handle the mistake afterward. We tell children about George Washington and the Cherry tree as an example of holding one's self honest accountable for their conduct, as an example to subordinates.

Williams-Stapleton's apology; I would like to apologize for any damage that might have been done to the tree by the axe, falls short.

Too short for real leadership.

Brooks and Williams-Stapleton bullying role models

and not in a good way.

APS Supt Winston Brooks has a widespread reputation as a bully.


Now we have another APS senior administrator vying for the title;
Rep Sheryl Williams-Stapleton.

Yelling "Don't mess with me!" and a blatantly racist reference to the Governor is not the behavior that should be role modeled in front of students and the community.

Like Brooks, she will get away with it; how can they hold her accountable for bullying and ignore Brooks even more egregious conduct, link.

They both get away with it because the School Board had the foresight to remove the role modeling clause from School Board Policy; the one which once read;

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

Student standards of course, prohibit both bullying and racist remarks.





photo Mark Bralley

An Open Letter to the Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education:

I was asked by a reader, to publish this letter. The writer asked that their identity not be revealed for fear of retribution and retaliation.

As a product of Albuquerque Public Schools, a taxpayer, and most importantly, a parent of an APS child, I feel it is imperative that I express my utter disgust Sheryl Williams Stapleton’s conduct yesterday during yesterday’s Legislative Education Study Committee. If you are not aware of her racist outburst, you can find it documented on many websites, including the national political website Human Events.

To briefly recap, at one point during the session, Ms. Stapleton yelled at another State Representative, shouting "Don't mess with me," and then accusing her of “carrying water for ‘The Mexican.’” Even more tragic is her defense – it seems she has grandparents from Cuba and Puerto Rico, implying that she is entitled to talk to people that way. Consider the ramifications of this poor defense. I have spent most of my life living in the deep South and the Hispanic Southwest. Using Ms. Williams-Stapleton’s conduct, I can pretty much use any racial epithet I choose. Hardly – this upbringing taught me a lot about diversity, a lesson that Ms. Williams-Stapleton clearly did not receive. For that, I wish to thank APS.

However, the point of my correspondence is not to criticize Ms. Williams-Stapleton’s actions. I doubt the Board of Education would be concerned with addressing highly politicized issues like this. Rather, I have three concerns that I feel must be addressed by both the Board of Education, and Ms. Williams-Stapleton’s Supervisor, Winston Brooks.

1 – With this sort of conduct being demonstrated publicly by highly-placed administrative employees, how can I be confident that my child is receiving a culturally diverse education at Albuquerque Public Schools? And, "don't mess with me?" How can I be confident that my child is learning mature conflict resolution skills?

2 – On Tuesday night, I watched Winston Brooks explain how APS is dealing with continued budget cuts from the Legislature. How does the Board of Education think this will help endear themselves to the Legislature, and what is the plan of action to ensure that this bombastic racism does not affect my child’s quality of education?

3 - As has been well documented by many television reports, Ms. Williams-Stapleton is a paid APS employee during her work as a State Representative. Is the Board of Education going to tolerate this sort of behavior from an employee representing the Board of Education?

As a parent and taxpayer, I will not be satisfied until Ms. Williams-Stapleton is terminated immediately. I can only assume that, if Ms. Williams-Stapleton continues to be employed by APS, the Board of Education is endorsing this behavior. As a parent, if it does not happen, I will have no choice but to remove my child from an institution that endorses racial hate speech. As a voter and a taxpayer, I will yield no benefit from APS, and will vote down any and all bond issues, and urge my representative to continue to cut funding.

APS is at a unique crossroads in the news right now. On one hand, you see great news stories about the anti-bullying club at Sandia High School. On the other hand, you hear about budget crises, and quality of education being impacted. This event is a tragic collision at that intersection as we watch APS wasting $167,000 paying an employee to bully people while yelling racial hate-speech.

"Justly" arrested?

An anonymous backsider wrote that I had been "justly arrested", link.

At the very most fundamental level;
I was arrested for peacefully petitioning my government.
I was arrested for exercising my Constitutionally protected
human rights.

At the level of the thinking of the leadership of the APS,
I was arrested for violating a "banning letter".

The banning letter was penned by School Board enforcer Marty Esquivel.
He wrote the letter in violation of the law or, in violation of School Board Policy.

School Board Policy prohibits the writing of "banning letters" on behalf of the board without the expressed authority of the board. The Open Meetings Act prohibits the board from expressing that authority in a secret meeting.

On top of that, I was arrested by a Praetorian Guard; a publicly funded private police force whose leadership is covering up their own felony criminal misconduct, link.

Where is the justice in that?

In a just world, I would go to the media, tell them what's going on, and they would investigate and report upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

Just desserts would be served, in a just world.

But the world isn't just.

The establishment media;
Kent Walz' Journal, KRQE,
KOAT, KOB, and KKOB,
know about, or remain willfully
ignorant of credible allegations
and evidence of a coverup of
felony criminal misconduct by
APS senior administrators, and they won't investigate and report upon them.

Where is the justice in that?

Where is the character and courage?




photo and frame grab Mark Bralley

APS cops watch kids drink for two hours

I have been informed that a number of APS Police Officers, stationed at Valley High School on the evening of October 27th, sat in their car(s) and watched students drinking for up to two hours. One wonders, why?

I'm told that the incident was reported to Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston's office, as he commissions the officers and should deal with what appears to be nonfeasance; perhaps malfeasance.

I emailed BCSD Legal Adviser and PIO Jennifer Vega-Brown and asked her if Houston was going to do anything about officers sitting and watching kids getting drunk on APS property.

Vega-Brown acknowledged receipt of my email Friday last, and has not yet responded.

What conclusions can be drawn from their refusal to respond to the legitimate question candidly, forthrightly and honestly?

1. the report is false, the Sheriff is going to do nothing.
2. the report is true, the Sheriff is going to do nothing.
3. the investigation is ongoing and cannot be commented upon.

If either conjecture 1 or 3 is correct, Vega-Brown could respond by simply pointing to the circumstances. She did not.

Which leaves conjecture 2 and begs a question; why not?

Unfortunately, asking them that question is no more likely to generate a response than did the original question.

Round and round we goes,
where we stops, no one knows.

Peercy's mettle tested; he comes up short, again.

David Peercy chairs the APS Policy Committee. The agenda is up to him. If he wants something on the agenda, he can put it on.

Peercy's mettle has been tested before, link. He had the opportunity and responsibility to conduct an open and honest discussion of administrative and executive role modeling of the APS Student Standards of Conduct, and he chickened out. That or he is simply lacks the character to hold himself honestly accountable as a role model.

If he is afraid or unwilling carry on an open and honest discussion of even the most legitimate issue, all he has to do is ignore it until it finally goes away (the role modeling clause conveniently disappeared from his list of tabled issues).

He has been tested again. Again, he has come up short.

At any meeting between the time the petition was submitted, August 10th, and now, he could have, should have, put the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication's petition on the table for open and honest discussion, and he chickened out. That or he simply lacks the character to allow open and honest communication about the public interests and his public service.

Peercy lacks the character and the courage to talk openly and honestly with the community members he serves.

How many times must he prove it?




photo Mark Bralley

More propaganda from Brooks

The Journal gives APS Supt Winston Brooks a column a month to spin whatever he wants, however he wants, without fear of contradiction even in a letter to the editor. In the Journal this morning, link, Brooks latest column;
Community Voices are Being Heard.

Spin one;

"I’m always delighted when I’m approached by parents, grandparents, concerned citizens and others who want to play an active role in making our school community better."

The controverting truth; Tell that to the peaceful protestors at the District Goals Setting Meeting at Manzano High School, link. Tell that to those whose petition is being ignored. Brooks could act administratively to support the Citizens Advisory Council on Communications, but has not.

Spin 2,

"... we've begun" a partnership to advocate for strategies and policies that trigger positive change.

The truth; there is nothing more fundamental to a partnership than open and honest two-way communication. Yet Brooks cannot point to a venue where actual two-way communication takes place. He cannot and will not, point to a time, a day and a place where he will stand still and answer questions about

• his abdication as a role model of the student standards of conduct,
• the hiding of the Caswell report on felony public corruption in his publicly funded private police force,
• the obstruction of an independent audit of administrative standards and accountability, or
• a whistle blower program that denies due process to legitimate complaints.

Spin 3;

APS administration has offered the public information necessary to be informed on some of the critical issues ahead ...

The truth; one of the most critical issues in education is student discipline and chronically disruptive students. Where is any information at all, on student discipline? A recent audit found APS routinely falsifying crime statistics to protect their reputation.

Spin 4;

"The advocacy agenda will be set by the group, not me or the district."

The truth; the leadership of the APS has no intention of allowing the agenda to be controlled by anyone but themselves. It is the inability of the leadership of the APS to control the agenda of the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication which has them stonewalling the petition.

Perhaps the most disingenuous spin of all;

I hope all of us welcome ... questions.

Talk is cheap.




photo Mark Bralley

"No individual to blame"; really?

The Journal editorial, link, begins;

"It should have been a no-brainer, but it wasn’t — for a very long time."

APS has what they call a "capital improvement budget"; a running account of the money the district has for capital improvements and a plan for spending it. Over a period of several years, the list of promised capital improvements grew $128M larger than the money available to pay for them. The Journal editors aver the imbalance was the result of lackadaisy; a lack of interest, vigor, and determination, listlessness, lethargy, laziness and indolence.

A "consultant" was paid six teacher salaries to find that cost overruns, funding of projects not on the master plan, and even a failed bond issue were not taken into account by APS leadership. Their excuses include; turnover in the office of the Chief Financial Officer, inability to use software upon which they spent millions of dollars, overspending, and poor accounting.

The buck stops squarely on the desks of the people we pay the most; a quarter of a million dollars a year, to make sure this stuff doesn't happen; Beth Everitt and now APS Supt Winston Brooks, and the person they put in charge of making sure this didn't happen; APS COO Brad Winter.

Yet Brooks, and the Journal would have us believe; no "individual is to blame'. In fact, the editors would like kudos to be given to Brooks and APS CFO Don Moya "stepping up and fixing" the problem rather than continuing to ignore it.

The editors write;

The administration wisely put new fail-safe provisions in place so this doesn’t happen again, including moving the master plan from operations to the finance department.

Well duh!

Why is it that we cannot expect that this would have been done already, and hold people accountable for not having done it?

APS Chief Operations Officer and City Councilor Brad Winter has had his hand on the tiller throughout this entire fiasco. We pay him $136,680 a year for the expertise and experience that should prevent calamities such as these.

He could have, and should have, put fail-safe provisions in place long ago and did not, yet "no individual is to blame".

At least according to those who really are to blame, and their Journal cronies.




photo Mark Bralley

Brad Winter subject of nonfeasance complaint.

APS Chief Operation Officer Brad Winter has been named in a complaint filed through Ethical Advocate; APS' whistleblower complaint and protection program.

I filed the complaint in no small part to demonstrate again that it will do no good to file a complaint; legitimate complaints against administrators and board members do not receive due process.

This though, the promise of due process for complaints is fundamental to the very integrity of any program whose purpose is to provide honest accountability to any kind of standards.

I filed it as well, as a matter of
principle; I believe APS' Chief
Operating Officer Brad Winter
is guilty of nonfeasance at the
very least; malfeasance at worst.

He promised to surrender the
public record of spending in the
John Milne Boardroom, if a
formal request for public records
was filed. It was, and he reneged.

The complaint reads in significant part;

Please describe in detail the situation or event

APS' Chief Operating Officer Brad Winter made a commitment to surrender a candid, forthright and honest accounting of spending on the John Milne Boardroom. He made the commitment in front of witnesses at the Goals Setting Meeting at Manzano High School on November 17th, 2011.

He promised to surrender the record in response to a request for public records.

I filed a bonafide and accepted request for the public records, and Winter (the APS) has failed to surrender the record in violation of the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act.

While he may argue that the surrender of public records is between me and their custodian of public records, it was his commitment to surrender the record. If he was in no position to ensure the surrender, he should not have made the commitment.

Please provide details, including who, when, and where:

If there is anyone at all, in the entire senior leadership of the APS or on the school board, who is unaware of the effort to hide the public record of spending on the John Milne Boardroom, they are willfully ignorant.

How do you think this situation should be resolved?

Brad Winter should honor his commitment to (see that) a candid, forthright and honest accounting of spending on the John Milne Boardroom be surrendered to public knowledge.

Do you have any additional comments?

Winters, and the leadership of the APS, have been hiding this information, since my first formal request in January, 2008.

His, and their, nonfeasance is willful and deliberate.

Winter's refusal to surrender public records enjoys the tacit approval of the entire leadership of the APS, all of whom have a self interest in keeping the information secret from public knowledge.

They have an ongoing record of hiding public records. Witness; their unlawful hiding of the public records of felony criminal misconduct in the leadership of the APS and their publicly funded private police force, circa 2006-7, and since.; the Caswell Report.

photo Mark Bralley

More school board shenanigans?

During "Board Member Comments" after the public forum at the last regular school board meeting, David Robbins suggested that the Petition for standing for the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication, would finally see due process at the next Policy Committee Meeting.

That is my recollection. The video for the meeting was supposed to have been posted on APS' website on Friday; it's still not up, so I cannot confirm his commitment or link you to it.

The Policy Committee meeting (rescheduled from the 13th to the 14th) agenda has been published and does not include discussion or action on the petition.

There is another committee meeting scheduled; the District and Community Relations Committee meeting. This committee would also be a reasonable venue to bring up the stonewalling on the petition, except that, for the first time in a long, long time, there is no public forum on the agenda, link.

Update; District Relations Committee Chair Lorenzo Garcia has offered an explanation for the removal of the public forum and the substitution of a "round robin discussion";

The meeting is with the leadership of the Legislature from Albuquerque. It is a special District and Community Relations meeting, hence no public forum. The intent is to have a dialogue with Legislators and the APS Board and key administration officials about upcoming legislation and issues.

The denial of due process for petitioners and their petition continues unabated. Why?

If petitioners are successful, a venue will be created that will end unwarranted secrecy in the APS; corruption and incompetence will be exposed. The corrupt and incompetent in the leadership of the APS have much to fear.

Neither the board nor the administrations wants to discuss the petition in public.

If they're not afraid of exposure, then, of what exactly, are they afraid?

"Candor is undisciplined"

This morning on Face the Nation, Rep Steve King, Iowa,
suggested that Presidential Candidate Newt Gingrich has shown
a "lack of discipline" in bringing up "the Palestinian question", link, and questions about immigration, link, when he didn't have to.

Let's see;

• a candidate with candor; willing to lay issues on the table for open and honest discussion, willing to take whatever lumps that brings,
  or
• a candidate with discipline; willing to confine their remarks only to approved sound bites, never leaving the party line.

... hmm

Trevor gets it

The Journal editors may be willing to cut the leadership of the APS more slack than they deserve, but their political cartoonist Trevor, is not so accommodating.

In case you missed it, APS Supt Winston Brooks, seen sitting in Santa's lap, was very excited to point out that, though we're failing nearly two students out of three, we're not doing any worse than other "similar" districts, link.

APS cop cleared

Bernalillo County Sheriff
Dan Houston has completed
his investigation of an APS
police officer who's commission
he had withdrawn after the
handcuffing of an out of control
student, link, found no criminal
wrongdoing, and restored the
officer's commission.

He was reportedly upset apparently,
because the leadership of the APS
had not been candid, forthright or honest with him regarding the incident.

APS' Executive Director of
Communications and Crisis
Manager Monica Armenta
has already assured us that
no APS polices were violated.

The officer has been cooling
her heels on administrative
leave for nearly a month for
no other reason than that
APS Supt Winston Brooks
thought she had acted "inappropriately", though apparently within the law and APS policies.

That, and it made good press.


photos Mark Bralley

Proving corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS

I have never said or suggested that every single administrator and board member in the APS is corrupt or incompetent; though I have gone so far as too say, there is not one single administrator or board member who does not have guilty knowledge of administrative and/or executive corruption and incompetence.

They do not act on their knowledge because of the documented culture of fear of retribution and retaliation if they do.

It would be nearly impossible for me to prove that there is corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS. I would be fighting against an unlimited budget for the litigation to prevent the exposure. I would be fighting against an establishment media inbred in the leadership of the APS.

Much easier to prove; by both the leadership of the APS and their media; the converse. The converse being; it is impossible for corruption and incompetence to exist in the leadership of the APS.

More specifically; there are standards and accountability to those standards that make corruption and incompetence impossibly difficult to hide.

APS' million dollar communications effort could compile a candid, forthright and honest communication about administrative and executive standards of conduct and competence. They could point to standards of conduct and competence that are clear, unequivocal, and high enough to control and prevent corruption and incompetence. If they exist.

They could show us systems and procedures for holding them accountable to those standards that do not reek of appearances of conflicts of interest and impropriety.

The establishment media could just as easily prove that they're not part of a cover up; by asking the leadership of the APS to explain and defend their standards of conduct and their actual accountability to them, and then reporting the truth to stakeholders.

That neither of them will do either, means something;
a lack of courage, a lack of character, or, both.

APS ranks 6th

According to APS' award winning website, link, if you count up the teachers who have earned their National Board Certification, link, this year, APS ranks 6th in the country. 340 APS teachers have earned the certificate, just over half of all of the certificate holders in the state.

APS Supt Winston Brooks said;

"We’ve always said we have great teachers in APS.
This is just more proof.”

All of which begs a question;

If APS has so many great teachers, why aren't they doing a better job of educating our children? Why are two-thirds of students failing to meet proficiency standards?

Why does all this education and expertise seem to make so little difference on the ground?

Two possibilities occur to me; the first is that the certification is meaningless in terms of measuring or predicting teachers' real effectiveness. The other possibility is that, these people really are highly qualified and are being held back by a system that fails to recognize what they bring to the table.

The truth is that none of the 340 National Board Certified APS teachers have any more input at the table where decisions are made, than any of the other APS teachers who between them have more than 100,000 years of teaching experience.

Students have more influence on the Supt than teachers, link.

It's kind of like hiring world class chefs and then making them follow recipes from a Betty Crocker Cookbook.

What would you expect except run of the mill output?

Only following orders?

The Nuremberg Defense, link, is used by people who don't want to be held accountable for their actions which were ordered by a superior.

APS' secretly promoted Chief
of Police Steve Tellez probably
has probably sworn some kind
of oath to defend the
Constitution, and he probably
doesn't want to keep arresting
me for trying to exercise my
Constitutionally protected
human rights to speak freely
and to petition my
government, but he does.

$90K a year probably helps assuage his discomfort.

He is enforcing an unlawful restraining order (they call it a "banning letter") created by school board enforcer Marty Esquivel.

Tellez enforced it last night, my sixteenth unlawful arrest by Tellez or his subordinates, who are only "following orders".

They were taken aback last night when I moved my peaceful protest indoors. The unlawful restraining order, link, revokes my "privilege" attend board meetings. It does not prevent me from entering the building where a board meeting is taking place.

After a confab with Chief Operations Officer Brad Winter, and Supt Winston Brooks, Tellez was "ordered" to arrest me and force me out of the building.

The practical difference between standing inside and outside, and holding the same poster a half inch further away, escapes me, other than the kick they seem to be getting out of doing it.




photos Mark Bralley

Board acknowledges CACoC Petition

At the public forum last night, the board was again challenged to provide due process for the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication's Petition, link.

Board President Paula Maes reiterated what she said was a commitment, link, to deal with the petition after the conclusion of the recent series of District Goal Setting meetings. Never mind that the meetings provided nothing material to the discussion of whether to recognize the standing of the only group, citizen or administrative, with a workable plan to create open and honest two-way communication between the leadership of the APS and the community members they serve.

Board Member David Robbins also stepped up to the plate; "promising?" that the Petition would be on the agenda of the next Policy Committee Meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, December 14.

Robbins claimed the board has been "too busy" to deal with the Petition, though since the Petition was submitted, fourteen board meetings have been "cancelled" (presumably for lack of anything to do).

The Policy Committee is chaired by Board Member David Peercy.

That Peercy can summon the character and courage to put the Petition on the agenda remains to be proven. Peercy owns the fact that "administrative and executive role modeling of the APS Student Standards of Conduct, was first tabled and then vanished from his Policy Committee's agenda, link.

In the absence of any good and ethical reason to prolong the delay, if the Petition is not placed on the agenda of the Policy Committee Meeting, it can only be because the board's interests are served by continuing to deny the petition, its due process.




photos Mark Bralley

APS "average" Halleluiah

APS Supt Winston Brooks and
the Journal, link, are pleased
as punch to report that APS
isn't the worst school district
in the country.

Brooks is "ecstatic" that APS,
while failing 2 kids out of 3,
isn't doing any worse job than
"similar" districts.

The testing that pleased Brooks and the Journal so much, revealed;

APS performed better than average in fourth-grade math, with 34 percent of students scoring “proficient” or better on the NAEP test. For all large cities combined, the percentage was 30 percent. That difference is statistically significant, ..."

While the difference between a failure rate of 66% is "statistically' significantly better than school districts which fail 70%, I fail to see anything to get excited about - we're still failing two kids out of three.

Brooks admits being "ecstatic" that for "the first time APS has been able to compare itself to districts with similar demographics and challenges. “I think it’s very instructive to know.”

Ok, so it's instructive to know we're not failing worse than most.

We're still failing.




photo Mark Bralley

Winter stonewalling, and breaking the law.

APS Chief Operating Officer Brad Winter doesn't want to tell the truth about the spending on APS new board room.

I've been trying to get the truth out of him for years.

At the District Goals Meeting at Manzano High School on Thursday November 17th, I called him out again and he promised to surrender the truth, but only if I filed a formal request for public records.

I did, the following morning.

According to the law; the NM Inspection of Public Records Act, the records must be surrendered within 15 calendar days of the request. That would be have been Friday last; maybe Saturday depending on whether the day of request counts or not.

APS is in violation of the law.

I could sue for the records of course; take on APS lawyers with their unlimited budget for litigating exception to the law for APS senior administrators and board members. But why should I have to?

It's our board room, it's our money. The truth about the spending of public resources belongs to the people.

I shouldn't have to sue to see it.

Nobody should.




photo Mark Bralley

Another budgeting snafu in the APS

The Journal comes with a report, linkless; the district comes with its own report, link, and taxpayers find there's a $128M gap between the capital improvements the district has promised, and the money they actually have to complete them.

According to APS,

There is no evidence of incompetency or inappropriate behavior, so there’s no individual to blame.

Rather,

"a perfect storm of the events ... caused the need for readjustment."

According to the Journal,

"the Albuquerque school district has a $128 million gap in its capital program due to overspending, accounting errors and the economy, ..."

The Journal offers;

Many problems found in the report stemmed from failure to adjust the master plan when circumstances changed. For example, the plan was not updated in 2002 when a bond question was defeated by voters. It was also not adjusted when projects ran over budget or when capital money was spent on projects outside the master plan.

Those who aren't responsible, APS Chief Operating Officer Brad Winter, and Chief Financial Officer Don Moya, just finished seven public meetings where they presented the successes enjoyed by their capital planners and the Finance Department and no mention was made of the report, 18 months in the making.

New District Goals to be presented

The agenda for the December 7 School Board Meeting has been posted at last, link.

On the agenda; a presentation
by Supt Winston Brooks.

They're calling it;

Preliminary Input and Consideration of Approval for Plan from Community Meetings Regarding District Goals (Discussion/Action) Presenter: Winston Brooks, Superintendent

This is where the leadership of the APS presents the conclusions they drew from seven meetings on seven nights in seven different corners of the district.

This is where we see what a couple of million dollars a year worth of APS senior leadership is worth. This is where their mettle is tested.

I can't wait to hear Winston Brooks tell us how important communications are; or in the alternative, not use the word at all. He's between a rock and a hard place; on the one side, the need to utter all the usual and meaningless platitudes about the importance of establishing communication with stakeholders, and his other side, his manifest denial of due process for the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication Petition. Ouch.

Noteworthy; the only public notice about the planned presentation, the agenda, was published at the last moment. Noteworthy; they are not proudly promoting their presentation; encouraging attendance rather than discouraging it.

I will be kept out of the meeting and away from the public forum by officers in APS' publicly funded private police force. They will be obeying their own corrupt leadership and enforcing Marty Esquivel's unlawful restraining order.

If you cannot attend in person, you can watch the meeting live, link, in real time. Real time for meeting goers means 5pm, earlier if you want to sign up for the public forum.

If you can't watch it live, you'll have to wait a few days for them to push the button that makes the web-stream available as an archive.




photos Mark Bralley

APS Communications Department

There is racial tension at Highland High School.

If you google racial tension at Highland High School, you will
find it made the news, link.

If you search racial tension at Highland High School on APS'
award- winning website, link, you will find nothing at all.

... just saying.

Administrative and executive conduct and competence, in the APS

Whether the Albuquerque Public Schools succeeds or fails to adequately educate nearly 90,000 of our sons and daughters, depends on a number of factors some of which we can control and others we must simply accept.

One we can control, and one which consumes the overwhelming majority of spending on education, is human resources.

If the spending of human resources is done well, if there are meaningful standards and real accountability to them, the likelihood of succeeding educationally increases exponentially.

There are really only two aspects of the spending of human resources that affect the outcome;

the standards that apply to their spending, and
actual accountability to those standards.

There must be both. If there is no accountability, there isn't one whit of difference between the highest of standards and the lowest, in terms of outcome. And, if the standards are not high enough to ensure success, then even honest accountability to them makes the same, not one whit of difference.

If we want to predict the likelihood of APS administrators and board members actually fixing problems, we have to look to the standards and accountability which apply to their public service.

I suspect that an impartial examination of the standards that apply to APS administrators and board members would find them average; written by lawyers whose interests lie in mitigating their client's actual and future accountability to any meaningful standards of conduct and competence.

Whether the standards of conduct and competence that apply to administrators and board members are adequate, is not a rhetorical question. Nor is it impossible to measure empirically.

It requires only impartial investigation and reporting.

A good start would be for the leadership of the APS to simply answer the questions about the standards that apply to the leadership of the APS, by posting on their award winning website; a candid, forthright and honest list of every standard of conduct and competence that applies to them.

Then, let's look at their honest accountability to even the lowest of those standards.

Under their list of the standards that apply to them, they could identify all the processes under which allegations of failure to meet those standards, can be filed. They won't, but they could.

They won't because even the slightest scrutiny of them will reveal; there is no place within the entire APS, where the least powerful stakeholders can file a legitimate complaint against an administrator or board member and expect due process for their complaint.

There is no place in the entire APS where the complaint will not be adjudicated by someone who is clearly impartial, having no interest in the outcome of the adjudication. For example, a complaint filed against Supt Winston Brooks is adjudicated by a subordinate.

There is no place in the entire APS where adjudication does not include the appearance of a conflict of interest.

The School Board recently struck language from School Board Policy that had provided due process for whistle blower complaints, and now they have none.

If there is not honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence, under a system that is beyond undue influence, and powerful enough to hold even the most senior administrator or board member accountable, even against their will, all of the time,then there is honest accountability none of the time.

That they will neither post their standards nor defend their processes (for accountability to them), speaks to their fundamental unwillingness to be held honestly accountable for their conduct and competence,

and to their failure to adequately educate those 90,000 of this community's sons and daughters.

Super SAC is a sham

The Journal reports that students on the Superintendent's Student Advisory Council are "Partners in Policy", link.

The gist, if you believe education reporter Hailey Heinz, is that students are actually participating in decision making that affects their interests.

I don't believe it for a minute, but let's assume, for the sake of argument, students do actually have a voice. Questions are begged;

• Why do students have a voice, but their teachers don't?
• Why do students have a voice, but their parents don't?
• Why do students have a voice, but taxpayers don't?

There is no Teachers Advisory Council, there is no Parents Advisory Council, and there is no Community Advisory Council (witness the denial of due process for the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication's Petition for standing).

Students and Brooks may well enjoy their little confabs, but if students think they have any more of a voice than their teachers, their parents and their community, they are sadly mistaken.

It is a sham.

Letter to the editors, upon posting.

APS School Board; best in the state!

The Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education attended
the New Mexico School Boards Association Annual Convention, Friday and Saturday last.

They were voted the Best School Board in the state, link, due in part, to, "... the board’s diligence to continually seek community input ..."

Those who laud the APS School Board on their diligence to continually seek community input, were either unaware of, or did not care about the board's efforts to stifle community input through efforts that run the gamut from a paucity of public forums, through prohibiting the asking of questions at forums, to arresting people for holding posters in peaceful protest of the board's denial of due process to a legitimate petition for standing for the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication.

Those who gave the board an award for "seeking community input" are ignorant or corrupt; ignorant seems the likely culprit. How would they know what really goes on at board meetings?

They certainly wouldn't have been able to read about it in the Journal which has yet to investigate and report upon even one of the outrages perpetrated by the board on free speech and the right to petition one's government. Nor have they reported upon any of the other ongoing outrages including;

• denial of due process to whistleblower complaints, nor
• the cover up of public corruption in the leadership of their publicly funded private police force, nor
• their abandonment of their responsibilities and obligations as role models of the student standards of conduct, the Pillars of Character Counts!, nor on
  
• the board and leadership's ongoing refusal to hold themselves honestly accountable to their own Code of Ethics.

The Board was also recognized for raising graduation rates, though they did so mostly by making what was a four year plan into a five year plan, and by dropping the students least likely to graduate from their calculations, link.

Marty Esquivel and Paula Maes were the only board members who were not recognized for, and were not given Leadership Development Awards, indicating perhaps, a shred of legitimacy in that process.

I hope the board shares their accolades with their crony Journal Managing Editor Kent Walz, without who's aiding and abetting, he would not have even been considered for positive recognition.

Walz is seen here before the NM Foundation for Open Government Awards Banquet giving APS Supt Winston Brooks the formerly prestigious Dixon Award for heroes of transparency while Brooks was, and is, busily hiding the Caswell Report on corruption in the leadership of the APS Police Force, from public knowledge.

Just another example of the good ol' boys slapping each other on the back and giving each other awards they have not earned and do not deserve, and turning a blind eye to each others shortcomings, failures and naked corruption.




frame grab Mark Bralley

Editors call out Armenta and APS

The Journal editors have pounded out an editorial, link, in which they wonder aloud; "Why are Burping and Cash a Crime in the APS?"

The editorial is manifestly dishonest or, it is based on their genuine belief that a student was actually put in jail for nothing more than burping.

It is within their power and responsibility to actually investigate the facts; to ferret out the public records created between the burp and the slamming of a jail cell door. If there was an assault and battery in there somewhere, shouldn't it be part of the story?

They complain that APS Executive Director of Communications and Crisis Manager Monica Armenta (APS) has yet to comment on the lawsuit "... which raises troubling allegations ..." but not troubling enough, apparently, to warrant a real investigation and reporting.

The public record of the actual arrest is held by the city, not APS. A Journal reporter could get a copy if they thought it (the truth; the whole truth and nothing but the ethically redacted truth) was important.

Armenta did comment actually; telling the Journal a few days earlier, link; she "... had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment."

"Could not" being the fly in the ointment. (Ignore for the time being, the premise that APS' Crisis Manager "has not seen" a lawsuit that will affect APS' image so dramatically.)

APS administrators and board members routinely pretend that the law "prohibits" them from standing and delivering candid, forthright and honest answers to legitimate questions about the public interests and about their public service.

When Armenta was a presenter at District Goal Setting Meetings, she often told citizens that she was not allowed to respond to their legitimate questions.

When Board Members hold public forums, they claim they're not allowed to respond to questions asked in public forum.

Not allowed? by whom? each other?

The editors argue;

"... when you are funded by taxpayer dollars and accountable to the public you owe them a full explanation ..."

They continued;

"The “P” in APS stands for public. District officials owe students, parents and taxpayers a complete accounting ..."

So how do you explain the fact that the Journal editors are ignoring the dispute over the petition for standing for the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication?

If the editors really want a complete accounting of the spending of the public trust and treasure, why aren't they standing in support of an earnest effort to do exactly that?

Why won't they write an editorial in support of the petitioners and their petition; why won't they decry the board's months long denial of due process?

Why won't they call the the board out for;

• denying due process to hundreds of whistle blower complaints, or
• hiding the Caswell Report on public corruption in the leadership of APS' police force,
• their unlawful restraining order banning dissidence at public forums at school board meetings, and arresting a half dozen petitioners for holding posters in a peaceful petition of their grievance against their school board.
  

Journal Managing Editor Kent Walz and School Board Member Marty Esquivel are tight. The two of them managed to bamboozle the NM Foundation for Open Government's Board of Directors into giving APS Supt Winston Brooks their formerly prestigious Dixon Award, while was and still is, refusing to surrender an ethically redacted version of the Caswell Report to public knowledge, and refusing to explain, defend, or even acknowledge his refusal.

The integrity of the editorial staff is damaged by their failure to acknowledge the appearance of a conflict of interest in Walz deciding what truths about Esquivel and Brooks, get investigated and reported upon.

An honest investigation and report upon ethics and accountability in the leadership of the APS, including but not limited to the denial of due process to a legitimate citizen petition, would go a long way to restore their integrity.

In the meantime, the editors doth protest too much
about the wrong things.

cc the editors upon posting.




frame grab Mark Bralley

Brandenburg still waiting on APS

The simple truth is that a number of APS senior administrators committed a number of felonies. No one in the leadership of the APS, or their lawyers, has ever, or will ever, deny that simple fact. Nor will they surrender to public knowledge; the Caswell Report on an independent investigation of the corruption, and which names the names of APS senior administrators who broke the law.

Nor will they deny; the only investigation of felony criminal misconduct in the leadership of the APS Police Force was done by the leadership of the APS Police Force itself.

Nor will they deny; they have never surrendered any evidence of felony criminal misconduct to District Attorney Kari Brandenburg for her determination whether to prosecute APS senior administrators.

In early 2008, nearly a year after the scandal was exposed on the front page of the Sunday Journal, link, I asked Brandenburg for any public record the showed that APS had surrendered one shred of the evidence they collected. She refused, so I filed a complaint with the NM AGO.

In response to the complaint, Brandenburg wrote to the Attorney General's Office on February 19, 2008, and told their investigator that she didn't have to surrender those records because doing so "... would compromise the integrity of the ongoing investigation and prosecution of the case."

In August of that year, she gave us an update;

The investigation is ongoing & being reviewed. It will take months before we make any decisions, as it is complex and we are working on many other things, too.

Four years later, she's still investigating, link, and the evidence of felony criminal misconduct by APS senior administrators is still secret from public knowledge.

Statutes of limitation on the felonies have or soon will expire.

She once admitted, in public and on the record, that APS hasn't surrendered any evidence of felony criminal misconduct, and she was powerless to compel them to do so.

Apparently so is the Attorney General, link.

So which is it; Is Brandenburg investigating, or just sitting around waiting for the leadership of the APS to surrender evidence of their own felony criminal misconduct?

And why won't the Journal investigate and report upon what's going on?




photo Mark Bralley

Character Counts!; failure to launch

In 1994, the Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education adopted standards of conduct for students; and by logical extension, for adults. They adopted the standards unanimously. The standards of conduct for students have not changed since;

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

This is not about Character Counts!, link, a nationally recognized, accepted and respected model for character education. The failure to launch character education in the Albuquerque Public Schools would include every other model for character education that required adults to hold themselves honestly accountable as role models; any model that required their honest accountability to the same standards of conduct they enforce upon students.

At one point, the standards of conduct that applied to the leadership of the APS had a role modeling clause. It read;

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

They removed the clause from their code of conduct,
rather than be held accountable to it in litigation against them.

The Pillars of Character Counts! play, not because they are the only standards, or even because they are the best. They play because they are the standards the Board specifically and expressly adopted and because they are currently cited in School Board Policy.

If the leadership of the APS wants to change the standards of conduct for students, then let's have that open and honest public discussion.

You may wonder why the leadership of the APS won't talk about student standards of conduct and their obligations as role models for students, of honest accountability to those standards.

They're willing to tell children that George Washington's example of holding one's self honestly accountable their conduct is worthy of emulation, but they're not willing to show kids what it looks like. Character and courage are taught by example; they are taught only by example.

Long ago, School Board Member David Robbins put the role modeling clause on the agenda in a policy committee meeting. David Peercy tabled it until it finally disappeared (in violation of Roberts Rules and School Board Policy).

Co-incidentally, Robbins turned his back on his commitment and obligation to fight to hold board members and administrators accountable as role models; not a peep.

Robbins is no longer willing to insist that the leadership hold themselves honestly accountable to the Pillars of Character Counts!; as reasonable standards of conduct for students and for them.

He has abandoned the Pillars of Respect, Responsibility and Trustworthiness as his personal standards as a Board Member and senior role model of APS Student Standards of Conduct. Now he embraces the manhandling of peaceful protesters calling him out on his public service, link.

In a conversation with School Board Member David Robbins, long ago, I ventured that there are only two reasons why the leadership of the APS won't hold themselves honestly accountable as role models of the Pillars of Character Counts!; a lack of courage and/or, a lack of character. He agreed.

If there is a third reason; any reason beside cowardice and corruption, that the leadership of the APS will not step up as role models of the Pillars of Character Counts!, I cannot imagine it, and no one, and I mean no one, in the leadership of the APS has suggested what it might be.

The proof; they will not communicate openly and honestly about executive and administrative standards of conduct, nor about their obligations as role models for students, staff and community.

Character Counts! failed to launch in the APS, because we couldn't find a single board member or administrator willing to hold themselves honestly accountable as a role model of accountability to the Pillars of Character Counts!, not even for the few hours a day they hold students accountable to them.

Not one.

Character counts, apparently, only for kids.




photo Mark Bralley

More oversight failure

The people's power and resources are not held by the people. Control over both must be surrendered to government. Because that power and those resources can be expected to corrupt those who spend them, absolutely, oversight is necessary. Without oversight, we have only "trust" in politicians and public servants, to protect our power and resources from being squandered, stolen, or abused.

It is impractical to expect "the people" to provide oversight on a day to day basis. The government has to oversee itself. When government fails to provide adequate oversight, it is no small thing. The failure of oversight, promised and not delivered, is fundamental to the persistence of public corruption and incompetence. It is part and parcel to the cultures of corruption and incompetence in government.

Accountability (read; oversight) is fatal to public corruption and incompetence. 100% accountability is 100% fatal.

Consider the Police Oversight Commission; it is a perfect example of supposed oversight over the wielding of power entrusted to public servants.

In the Journal this morning, link, we read about an investigation that found; though it is supposed to have nine members (nominated by City Councilors and appointed by the Mayor) the POC has only seven, and that even those are not even properly trained and educated."

We trusted "the government" to protect our power and resources from abuse and now we find "it" failed.

It's fair, I think, to blame
Mayor Richard Berry, for
the problems on the POC.

In response to the issues of
under representation and
training, he offers;
“I would always recommend
... more training, especially
for something like this;
it’s critical.”

His recommendation strikes me as too little and too late.

There has already been a failure of oversight, and the buck stops on his desk.

The buck touches down on another desk on the way to Berry's, and that is the desk of POC Chairwoman Bambi Folk, who, surprise, surprise, "... could not be reached for comment."




photo Mark Bralley

Student goes to jail for burping?

On the front page of the Journal today, link, we are led to believe a student was sent to jail for burping.

I'll bet there's more to the story than; kid burps, kid goes to jail.

Little light is shed on the incident by APS Executive Director of Communications and Crisis Manager Monica Armenta who told the Journal, she "hasn't seen the lawsuit and can't comment."

There's something else that Monica Armenta hasn't seen and can't comment on; APS' efforts to control chronically disruptive students before they "burp" and then get hauled off to jail.

She cannot show you the district's Student Discipline Philosophy, because there isn't one. There is not one shared philosophical underpinning for any of APS' discipline policies. There is not even agreement on whether to "punish" deliberate misconduct. The result is a discipline policy of virtually unlimited second chances followed by frustration driven overreaction.

Student discipline problems stem failure to shape behavior before it becomes misbehavior. Yet Armenta can't show you any district wide effort to prevent student misconduct by developing good character in students. The lack of preparation leads to "last straw", "last nerve" overreactions to relatively insignificant misconduct.

She cannot show you a meaningful proactive approach to dealing with student discipline, behavior and character development.

She cannot, or will not, put together a PowerPoint presentation on student discipline in the APS. APS Supt Winston Brooks will not defend his failure to make improving student discipline a district goal, nor why he will not have a public meeting goal setting meeting on student discipline.

Why not?

Because neither Armenta, nor Brooks, nor anyone else in the leadership of the APS wants to have to explain to you, why the leadership is will not hold themselves accountable as role models of the standards they create and enforce upon students. She can't, or won't, tell you why APS has no role modeling clause in their own standards of conduct. Or, why they removed the one they did have that read;

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

They won't have a public meeting because Armenta can't explain to you, why a kid goes to jail for "burping" and Supt Winston Brooks can commit a public assault and battery, link, and doesn't even get written up for it.

Not even by the Journal.




photo Mark Bralley