The leadership of the APS, and their body maps

Recollect for me please, the name of a single senior APS administrator that was "fired" by the leadership of the APS, except by means of an extended paid administrative leave and a bootfull of cash.
(usually on the order of several hundred thousand dollars)

Which begs the question;

Why can't the leadership of the APS fire a
senior administrator without paying them off?

The only answer is that fired senior administators, and their lawyers, have some leverage.

Unless you can point to another possibility; that leverage is a body map.

Former, APS Police Chief Gil Lovato said that when his body map became public, there would not be a single senior APS administrator left standing.

Rather than having Lovato expose his map to the record in an open courtroom, he was "retired" by means of$40K worth of paid leave, and
apparently will not have to reimburse the APS evidence room for
missing money.

If an organization tolerates corruption and incompetence,
then one does not rise to seniority in that organization
without a body map.

If there were any other explanation at all,
must less a good and ethical explanation,
other than that

the leadership of the APS is wracked with
corruption and incompetence,
and tax dollars are being spent to cover it up.

they wouldn't have to stonewall the question.



As a corollary;
When APS Deputy Superintendent Michael Vigil was arrested for aggravated drunk driving, APS board member Robert Lucero insisted on his immediate termination. Lucero's argument was that Michael Vigil had failed so badly as a role model for students, that he deserved termination. (In the end, Vigil continued to "work" at full salary for some time, apparently doing nothing, and then he left with a quarter mil in unwitting tax payer support for education.)

Now consider Robert Lucero's failure as a role model;

• he voted to remove from his own standard of conduct, the phrase;

  in no case shall the standard of conduct for an adult (him) be lower than the standard of conduct for students, and

• he voted to deny whistle blower protection to those who expose ethical misconduct by administrators or board members, and
• he tabled a motion before the board, which would have created a policy that would require APS administrators to respond to legitimate questions, candidly, forthrightly, and honestly.
• he voted for himself a code of ethical conduct that even he admits is completely unenforceable.
  

But mostly, Robert Lucero will not now stand up
and hold himself accountable as role model for students and staff.

Robert Lucero will not answer the question;

Will you hold yourself accountable as a role model for students?

Robert Lucero cannot manifest the character and courage even
to talk about character and courage.

His lack of character and courage sets a far worse example for students, than Michael Vigil's drunk driving.

Yet, Robert Lucero will not be held accountable for his failure as a role model.

Because, in truth, there is no one in the entire leadership of the APS with any interest at all in talking about accountability. There is not one willing to be held honestly accountable as a role model of a standard of conduct which requires them to tell the truth.

Because, in truth, there is no one in the entire leadership of the APS with any interest at all in being held honestly accountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence.

If there were, they would be standing up and demanding an immediate impartial accountability audit of the entire leadership of the APS.

Security ramped up at APS' Uptown Complex

I have oft encouraged stakeholders to tour the Uptown digs
of the leadership of the APS. I think they should see the
opulent offices where men sit and decide that there is not
money enough left over, to give the poor EAs a raise.

The tour will now be harder to accomplish.

Responding to "a high number of transients" using facilities
inappropriately and leaving messes, the leadership has decided
to ramp up security on the building. Visitors now have to
enter through the front of the building and surrender their
drivers license in exchange for a visitor pass.

I was not required to declare my destination, since I had
been cut off on the way into a scheduled board meeting,
but I would not be surprised to find that destination declaration
will be part of the piece, and that anyone who declares that
they want to inspect for opulence through out the building will
find their plan rejected.

Following Monday, story in the Journal; link

APS Chief Financial Officer Gina Hickman

Seeing her in the audience of the board meeting, reminded me that no one has yet offered any explanation why she was promoted to CFO, even though she did not blow the whistle on the profound departmental shortcomings finally identified by Meyners auditors;

• inadequate policies and procedures,
• inadequate accountability, and
• inadequate record keeping.

Nor have we any explanation why Michael Kimbrell, another subordinate who didn't blow the whistle on the shenanigans in the APS Finance Division, has been promoted to Director of Internal Audits.

The appointments of those who did nothing to draw attention to the problems when they were integral to them, to positions from which a cover up can be mounted, creates the appearance of impropriety.

The leadership of the APS steadfastly refuses to answer legitimate questions surrounding what could be the loss to taxpayers of millions of tax dollars wasted or stolen;

compounding the appearance of impropriety.

AVID on the horizon in APS Schools

The program is expensive and supposedly very effective.
link

Winston Brooks has experience with it in Wichita and is a big proponent.

Jon Barela (APS Foundation) said the he is hooked up with those who could donate the millions of dollars that it would cost to implement it.

Stay tuned.

15 walk throughs a week for APS principals

If I understood correctly, Winston Brooks has ordered principals
to do 15 walk throughs of their schools each week.

On the face of it, it seems like a great idea; no more principals
too busy in their offices to know what is going on in their schools.

Unclear at this point, where do principals find the extra hours in a day, to do the walk throughs?

A high school principal could easily spend an hour walking through a school. Even an elementary school principal might well spend an hour on such a venture.

Where do the extra hours come from; who will do the work that the principals are doing in their offices that keeps them from walking through their schools in the first place?

Board eschews micro management

Subsequent to the Houston training, the board is apparently
of a mind to draw more distinct lines between their responsibilities as board members, and the responsibilities of the superintendent.

Our board, some members more than others, has a tendency to involve itself inappropriately in the business of administration. Their job is to hire a superintendent, not do the work of a superintendent.

Take for example, the struggle between the teaching assistants and the district. It is a management issue; it is Winston Brooks responsibility to settle the dispute. Yet Robert Lucero has managed to insert himself into the mix, again finding a way to get on TV to voice his opinion. He has even been accused of starting the rumor of a planned "sick out" to be staged by the assistants.

Line drawing on respective responsibilities seems prudent, and overdue.

Constitutional Amendment 1; nine member school board and mail in ballots.

I think the amendment is going nowhere because there are two
questions on a single ballot; a nine member school board, and
mail in balloting. I am under the impression that two questions
cannot be settled by one vote.

In any case, should APS have a nine member board?

The consensus of the board was that nine members would
make the process unbearably ponderous, it is hard enough
to get seven people to agree on something, much less nine.

Which leads to a fundamental flaw in school board meetings,
and meetings in general in the APS.

The leadership of the APS does not believe in meeting facilitation. one link of 502,000 hits for "meeting facilitators".

No matter how talented one is as a board member or administrator, it does not follow that one is a talented meeting facilitator, or even a productive committee member.

Take for example, yesterday morning's board meeting.
The purpose of the meeting was to debrief on the learning
that the board experienced on their trip to Houston.

Robert Lucero spent fully a tenth of the meeting, talking about his idea to subvert the school naming process, and name the next APS school after Tony Hillerman.

At the end of the meeting, it was obvious that there was ground uncovered, yet the meeting ended relatively on time as required.

Had there been a facilitator, Robert Lucero could have been cut at least a little shorter, and more of the meat of the meeting could have been chewed.

I cannot tell you how many meetings I attended as a teacher,
meetings, some of profound importance, that dissolved into
interpersonal squabbles and time wasted while certain others
droned on about one thing or another.

The lack of facilitation at meetings, and the lack of training on how to be a productive participant in a meeting, has an immeasurable, but significant cost.

Stakeholders cannot simply be involved without preparation and training.

The board could use a facilitator, and a parliamentarian.

A meeting facilitator needs to be skilled in keeping meetings on track. They don't have to be conversant in the subjects of meetings; the expertise is brought to the table by the participants.

The board had a person at the meeting who's job it was to take notes on a large easel. For what purpose, to what end? For the same investment of resources, a facilitator could have been furnished.

Perhaps we would have listened more to board members reactions to their training, and less to Robert Lucero's need to spearhead a school naming campaign.

Never in my life, have I voted against so many bond isses.

But they really give us no choice.

If they refuse to be held honestly accountable for
how they spend our power and resources,

we simply cannot give them any more.

Not one more dime of our resources.

Not one iota* of our power.

*a very small quantity; a jot, a whit, a bit, a particle,
an atom, a grain, a mite ...

Is Robert Lucero ADHD, or just plain rude?

Robert Lucero reminds me of a student who cannot sit still,
and who cannot stop talking to their neighbor.

Poor Marty Esquivel sits next to him at board meetings
and is being constantly distracted by Lucero's need to chat
about who knows what.

Lucero even gets out his seat when others are talking,
to go visit with other board members and senior administrators.



Robert Lucero would like to be the spearhead of an effort to
name a middle school after Tony Hillerman.

He wants it so badly that he is willing to ignore past practice
in the naming process for schools.

To heck with what the stakeholders want to name their own
neighborhood school, it will be Tony Hillerman MS
if Robert Lucero has anything to say about it.

And he will have something to say about it.




Kudos to Board member Delores Griego for standing up
for the rights of stakeholders in the issue.

And for "bitch slapping" Robert Lucero on the record
for being pompous.

It was hysterical.

I wish I could write something unflattering about Jon Barela

I went to the board meeting this morning wanting to see
Jon Barela do something I could criticize.

Instead I found him articulate, intelligent, studied, and on point;
and with no apparent need to be the center of attention.

If only he would stand on the record and discuss role modeling;
candidly, forthrightly, and honestly.


If he cannot discuss character and courage openly and honestly,
he cannot be a role model of character and courage.

And is therefore disqualified, as a qualified member of a board of education.

As are; Marty Esquivel, Delores Griego, Mary Lee Martin, Berna Facio, Robert Lucero, and Paula Maes.

And by the same logic, unqualified to be senior administrators; Winston Brooks, Linda Sink, and Brad Winter.

Not one of these can advocate character and courage.

Therefore, not one of them can be a role model of character and courage.

The 90K of our children in the APS are entitled to administrative role models of the student standard of conduct; good role models of the student standard of conduct.


It is an overriding consideration.

It is a deal breaker.


cc Jon Barela at Barela_jon(at)aps.edu

School Board Meeting tomorrow morning

The agenda link suggests that they will tell us what
taxpayers got in return for their investment of over $20K,

to send them all to Houston Texas, to study "accountability".


Still unclear;
whether that means that they will now be more accountable,
or less.


My money is riding on less accountable.

Actually, so is yours.

Any students "... modeling and promoting the Pillars of Character Counts! ..."

as required by the APS Student Standards of Conduct,
in the APS Student Behavior Handbook.

will be doing so without the support of the leadership of the APS


who, by their own deliberate decision,
have excepted themselves from accountability to
the APS Student Standards of Conduct,


and who are backpedaling on the issue of administrative role modeling of the APS Student Standards of Conduct,
as fast as their little legs can move.

Up to the point of ignoring a national celebration of the
APS Student Standards of Conduct. link and
despite the fact that there are two APS administrators
who's jobs are to lead that celebration in the APS.

How can the leadership of the APS role model courage,
and character, and honor,

if they cannot even speak the words out loud?



Come on, people.


Who is going to show 90,000 of our sons and daughters
what honor, and character, and courage, look like?


If not its senior most role models;

• APS Superintendent Winston Brooks,

and APS School Board Members;

• Marty Esquivel,
• Delores Griego,
• Mary Lee Martin,
• Berna Facio,
• Robert Lucero,
• Paula Maes,
  
• and Jon Barela.

More than the law requires, and less than the law allows

Students in the APS are taught that their character depends
on their willingness to do more than the law requires, and
less than the law allows.

A case in point; the surrender of public records.

Doing more than the law requires, a school district that immediately posts records requests, and responses, on the internet for everyone to see, and free of charge.

The leadership of the APS, by their record, cannot demonstrate
that they surrender documents at all.

The law "allows" redaction of public records for good and ethical reasons.

The leadership of the APS redacts entire bodies of evidence, because the law "allows" them to; albeit only by using "legal" technicalities, loopholes and weaselry.


The standard of conduct that Winston Brooks enforces upon students, requires him to surrender an ethically redacted truth about the public corruption and criminal conspiracy in the leadership of the APS. link

Instead, he will join an ongoing conspiracy to hide the truth.


He will teach students, by his personal example,
to hide as much truth as the law allows.


Is that really the lesson we want to impart on the next generation of public servants?

To whom in the leadership of the APS, does this apply?

It comes from the Journal piece by Colleen Heild. link

Investigators in recent weeks have been questioning whether Lovato took liberties in running his department and whether he improperly directed APS resources to benefit one of his supervisors.

Now if you asked the leadership of the APS,
which of the good ol' boys is "... one of his supervisors",
they will not hear the question.

Nor will they hear the question;

What ever became of that supervisor?

Was it Tom Savage?

No, it couldn't be.
We paid for a big ol' party to retire him with honors.

Was it Beth Everitt?

No, it couldn't be.
We paid for a big ol' party to retire her with honors.


So who was it? And what ever became of them?


Good, legitimate questions that the good ol' boys simply
will not hear.

Its just not the way they roll.



End the madness.




I have been reading the article more closely, and must confess that apparently, I misread the Journal article. They are talking about a subordinate whose job is called "supervisor."

I guess that would be the woman named in the article, who allegedly received a lot of money and trinkets from Lovato and the APS PD, that were unearned.

She was not fired for accepting any of these goodies.

She remains on the payroll, and I suspect, unwilling to offer testimony about any of the good ol' boys that keep her on the payroll.

Power does NOT corrupt; much less absolutely

It is a lack of honest accountability for the abuse of power
that corrupts.

Absolutely.

You really should take a few minutes to read this link.

It is a story that appeared in the Journal almost two years ago.

It has to do with credible allegations of felony criminal misconduct, which have yet to see the light of day.

Public servants are hiding substantial evidence of public corruption and criminal conspiracy.

They are using public resources, (unwitting tax payer support for "education"), to underwrite the litigation which excepts them from accountability to the law.

Public resources are being used to suppress the truth about public corruption including felony criminal misconduct.

link

Having read the article, is there smoke, or is there fire?

It is unresolved and still secret.

All of this, is being kept secret by public servants using public power and resources against the public interest and in the most egregious betrayal of the public trust imaginable.

The only thing you know for certain, is that one of the good ol' boys was paid a half a years salary to keep him out of court. He, APS Police Chief Gil Lovato said at the time;

If the whole truth gets out, (in an open court hearing)
there won't be a single APS senior administrator left standing.

And all the rest of it is still secret. Stakeholders have no idea who did what, and more importantly, if they were ever held accountable for what they did; betraying the public trust.


Now you have to ask yourself,
why isn't the Journal following up on this?

In two months, statutes of limitation expire.
Good ol' boys go scot free.

Can you say you say; GET OUT OF JAIL FREE card?

District Attorney Kari Brandenburg,
where are you?

You said you would protect us from public corruption.

Character Counts! Week passes in secret, in the APS

The Pillars of Character Counts! are the APS student standard of conduct. APS pays a full time administrator to head up Character Counts! in the APS.

Yet the week celebrating the nationally recognized, accepted, and respected code of ethical conduct link, has passed without notice in the APS.

Because the leadership of the APS does not want to draw attention to the fact that they have renounced the Pillars of Character Counts! as their own standard of conduct. They have abdicated as role models. They removed from their own standard of conduct the words;

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

No wonder they need to hide.

How can you be a role model in hiding?
Is it not oxymoronic?


How can the leadership of the APS simply decide to be role models no longer?

How can they get away with it?

APS Board Member Jon Barela's disconnect on trustworthiness

In the Journal this morning, link

Newly appointed school board member Jon Barela said
the district's billion-dollar budget and high-dollar contracts
require accountability.

"Clearly we've become a very big business," Barela said.
"I think it's important for us to be as very transparent as
possible. I think we all have a public trust as board members."

Yet if you ask Jon Barela if he will sit and answer legitimate questions, candidly, forthrightly, and honestly, you get the same deer in the headlights look you get from everyone else in the leadership of the APS when they are asked the same question.

Assuming that they overcome their shame long enough to actually look you in the eye.


If you examine the leadership of the APS for any transparency at all, you will find none; they won't answer questions, and they won't surrender public records.

Ask them to tell you how much of the public trust and treasure they squandered at 6400 Uptown Blvd, and on a still unjustified new boardroom, at a time when they were saving money by eliminating fire safety inspections in schools to save money.

If you ask them to show you a record of honest accountability to any standard of conduct at all, they can surrender nothing. A record of honest accountability to any standard of conduct at all, simply does not exist.

Right now, the leadership of the APS is hiding evidence of felony criminal misconduct by senior administrators . link

Jon Barela is just like the people who disenfranchised an entire electorate to install him, their crony (Modrally and APS good ol' boy), on the school board weeks before a legitimate election for the seat.

They talk about trustworthiness, because it is a major component of the standards of conduct that they enforce upon students, and because it looks good in the newspaper. But there is not one of them with the character and the courage to actually discuss, in public and on the record, either trustworthiness, or their very real obligations as role models of the student standards of conduct.

The simple truth is that no one in the entire leadership of the APS can show anyone any proof at all that they are honestly accountable to any standard of conduct at all, even the law. The record of APS Modrall is one of litigating exception to the law for APS administrators and board members. There is no other reason for them to continue to hide that record. There is no other reason for them to refuse to comply with the law, the NMIPRA, and surrender that record to public inspection.

They have no choice but to hide the public record of past efforts to hold them accountable, even to the law.

Yet Jon Barela has the unmitigated gall to be quoted in the Journal, blowing about transparency, accountability, and trustworthiness.


Bottom line; there is not a single person in the entire leadership of the APS with the character and the courage to hold themselves honestly accountable as role models of the student standard of conduct. There is not one of them with the character and the courage to even talk about character and courage.


How can anyone of them be a role model of character and
courage, if there is not one of them who can even
speak the words without choking on them?

Shame on Jon Barela, and shame on them all.



cc Jon Barela at Barela_Jon(at)aps.edu

NM Republican Party Rules committee delays decision; or did they?

Blogger Joe Monahan noticed the NMRP Rules Committee
still hasn't weighed in on the matter of Jon Barela's violation
of the party rules. link

Monahan reports;

"...the rules committee may want to delay any decision
until after the voting."

I am concerned that what the "rules committee" wants,
is of no interest to the person or two who made the decision.
It is unlikely that the majority of the rules committee are
the ones who are obfuscating the meeting of the committee and
the settlement of the issue.

I rather suspect that the good ol' boys who want the meeting not to happen, are not asking the rank and file on the committee for their opinion.


It's just not the way they roll.

An illustrative example of a legitimate question, for Kari Brandenburg

In January of 2006, the Journal published a story about public corruption and criminal conspiracy in the leadership of the Albuquerque Public Schools. There were credible allegations, and substantial evidence of; felony criminal misconduct. link

In two months, statutes of limitation will expire, and senior APS administrators will escape accountability even to the law.

They will go scot-free.

Can Kari Brandenburg show us any proof at all,
that she did anything at all,

to prevent this from happening?

Can she show us any proof at all
that she has stood up for our interests in this scandal?