Special Board meeting to discuss litigation

The APS School Board will meet in secret Wednesday to discuss pending litigation, link.

They will not discuss, and have not yet discussed, the litigation I have brought against the district.

The board remaining willingly ignorant of the details including the liability that defendants School Board President Marty Esquivel and Supt Winston Brooks have created for the district.

Same old, same old.

APS strokes retirees while cash reserves double; will sextuple.

APS has announced, through the Journal, link, that they have doubled their cash reserves from about $17M to about $36M since 2010.

APS CFO Don Moya is recommending, in the next few years, increasing the cash reserves to 10% of the budget; sextupling the 2010 reserves.

There is an advantage to having large cash reserves; for one thing it improves bond ratings which lowers the interest rate APS pays on money it borrows for capital improvements.

Growing the cash balance while telling retired teachers they are not going to receive a promised retirement benefit because the district "can't afford" to keep its word, is likely to not sit well with the 1800 retired teachers who got shafted in the process, link.




photo Mark Bralley

More on Tellez' testimony

The leadership of the APS holds many meetings of many kinds.  Regular, special, and school board committee meetings take place in the castle keep, wikilink.

"Community involvement meetings" take place in various places. There were public meetings in particular, on bullying and goal setting.

It is APS Police Chief Steve Tellez' sworn testimony that at these meetings, I would follow senior members of the leadership of the APS and repeatedly invade their personal space.

I beg to differ.

It is interesting to note that the Chief of Police Steve Tellez, who was following me around and arguably under the circumstances, invading my personal space, never thought in all of these many invasions, to take a picture of the invasion.  You know; gather evidence.

At all times when I am on APS property, I am put under immediate surveillance by as many as two or more police officers.  In six years, they have not witnessed me doing anything worthy of a photograph, much less criminal charges.



Tellez did not mention what I actually do at meetings.

He did not mention that I sit or stand in the back of the meeting.  I don't crowd anybody unnecessarily.  If I did, there would be evidence; there would testimony that isn't conflicted.

He failed to mention that often, I asked questions of the senior leadership of the APS.  The questions, though imminently legitimate, made them feel uncomfortable.  They don't like it when I ask questions; they don't like it a lot.

I once asked Winston Brooks,

Why do we never talk about student discipline?  

If I could ask him another question, I would ask him,

Why do we never talk about student discipline?

Brooks thinks, if he can dodge a question a certain number of times, it can't be asked again.


Tellez testified that most of the "in their face" encounters took place "after school board meetings".

The record, if the record has not gone missing, will show; I almost never stayed until the end of any school board meeting.  I went for the public forum, watched the audience leave, listened to Matters of Information, and then left.

Tellez did not mention that I had made them genuinely uncomfortable on a number of occasions, simply by asking them to respond legitimate questions about subjects like character education, standards, and accountability.


It is upon Tellez' utterly unjustified recommendation, that an entire administrative complex has been hardened in anticipation of my inevitable armed assault (in support of role modeling of the Pillars of Character Counts!).  Yeah, right.


Look at Winston Brooks' face.  Tellez is telling him something about the fact that I had entered the keep, and had brought with me; a poster.  Glaring at the photographer, APS Coo Brad Winter. Tellez reports directly to him, unless of course Brooks is standing there and wants a piece.

On the subject of posters, it is Tellez' sworn testimony that I/we held up posters in a manner that blocked the view of other members of the audience.

Getting the APS thumb from Steve Tellez

Contemporaneous photographs suggest Tellez' testimony simply isn't true.  There are no audience members behind us, no view being blocked.

A compliance inducing pinch is delivered.

If ever a view was being blocked by a poster, Tellez or someone else would have taken a photograph; as evidence.

There are photographs in evidence, of peaceful, silent, and entirely civil protest in the back of the room.  A Constitutionally protected activity; the petition of our government, over redress of our grievances.


He has perjured himself.  He cannot produce any physical evidence to support his sometimes laughable testimony.  He said he watched a videotape of me sneaking in a side door.  He can't show us the video or explain why he cannot show us the video.  Physical evidence was within his grasp, and now it has gone missing.

Why?  How?  By whom?

It is Tellez apparently, who is the fountain of the pernicious gossip that is whipping up the hysteria in the leadership of the APS.

Gossip hell, let's call it what it is; slander and libel.

Tellez has testified that the record of weapons charges against students bringing weapons to school is being manipulated by "administrative solutions" depending on whether the arrest is made by and APS cop or a city cop.

The Journal, KRQE, KOAT, and KOB TV all know about it.




photo Mark Bralley

Steve Tellez; gunfighter

APS Police Chief Steve Tellez walked into his deposition yesterday with a big iron on his hip.  The semi-automatic pistol is almost comically large for a man of his stature.  He told us later, it was a Kimber 45, link.  His gun is far bigger than the weapons he issues to even the most qualified and experienced gunfighters under his command.

Kimber tactical weapons are a favorite of professional gunfighters and wannabe gunfighters alike. 

He wears on his belt what appear to be two high capacity magazines.  If he carries in them, what is commonly known as police positive ammunition, the gun is easily powerful enough to blow a student's head off.

Since APS is fond of lining children up in rows, an errant round from Tellez' hand cannon could potentially kill or maim a number of students with a single shot.

What is not so obvious is whether Tellez can shoot his big gun safely and effectively.  Has he qualified with such a big gun?  Can he hit the broad side of a barn?

Steve Tellez, shootist or menace?

I would ask to see the public records of his firearms qualification, but I can't.

A search of APS award winning website for his firearms qualification results produced zero hits.

Belly to belly with Brooks

APS Chief of Police Steve Tellez testified that I have walked upto APS Supt Winston Brooks and gotten in his face.  He said I closed to 3-6 inches.

My lawyer and I were standing up facing each other with a Sharpie between our noses.  We were illustrating how completely preposterous his testimony was.  It made me laugh.

After some time to think about it, and after being reminded that he was testifying under oath, he changed his testimony.  I wasn't getting in Brooks' face, I was getting in his belly.

Winston Brooks and I have big bellies according to Tellez, and he was talking about the distance between our bellies. 

Let's say three inches for my belly and six for Brooks.  That means our noses would have been 12 to 15 inches apart; and Tellez is busy estimating the distance between our belly buttons?  Does Brooks have an outie?

APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta testified that APS Communications Department Staff were ordered to take photos of me and Mark Bralley.  None have been produced as evidence.  Not one.

The place has more closed circuit cameras than a casino.  56 certified police officers are supposed to be wearing lapel cams, and using them.

There are no pictures of me getting in Brooks' belly
because it never, ever happened, ever.




photo Mark Bralley

Tellez models Trustworthiness, but not very well

APS Police Chief Steve Tellez swore to tell the truth during his deposition today, and did not.

He made stuff up entirely and misrepresented even more.

It's beginning to sound like a broken record; them claiming I've done all this awful stuff, and then admitting that they have nothing but conflicted testimony to corroborate it.  There isn't any videotape, there isn't any audio, and there aren't any photographs of me doing anything, ever, that even remotely justifies a lifetime ban from exercising at board meetings, my several constitutionally protected human rights to participate.

A clear case in point; Tellez testified that he "watched a videotape" of me sneaking into a side door of the castle keep at 6400 Uptown Blvd.  I absolutely deny the allegation.  He cannot produce the video tape he swore he watched.  He offered no explanation why he did not preserve evidence of what I suppose would have been criminal trespass.

UPDATE: the transcript has been produced; his actual words from page 206 lines 9-14

9 On at least two occasions he had somebody

10 go through one of the side doors, and open the door

11 for him so he could come in through one of the side

12 doors. And one of my officers saw him on the cameras

13 doing that, and so he went to the side door and

14 denied him access to the building in that instance.

Tellez testified, if memory and poor note taking skill serve,
there are 14 pan, swivel and tilt video cameras on the first floor of their castle keep, being watched twenty-four, seven.  There are six certified, badge wearing gun toting APS Police officers in City Centre and they routinely pay cops to do nothing but watch me.  They have investigated me, they have had surveillance on me.  In nearly a ten years, they haven't managed to create and maintain any evidence that justifies banning me from board meetings; no video, no audio, no still camera footage.

I claim existing video, audio and stills show me trying to hold the leadership of the APS accountable for their conduct and competence.  I claim the evidence is of their resistance to honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct even for the few hours a day they hold students accountable to higher standards of conduct than the law. 

I have they allege,  "taken thousands of photographs of APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta." All of their evidence altogether shows I taken only a few; all entirely justifiable.

Tellez alleged that I have on many occasions, taken a fighting stance; fists clenched, about to attack; that I have repeatedly invaded personal spaces; repeatedly leaned over people to intimidate them and, God knows what else; and no real evidence to show.  Only conflicted testimony.

Tellez swore; I sobbed, head in hands, in the lobby of his police force, whining about how unfairly the APS Police force was treating me.  Bullshit.  And again, no video, no audio, no nothing.

Tellez could have, if he had ever wanted to, donned a lapel camera like any decent cop does.. He could have turned it on every time I misbehaved - like any decent cop would.  He could have but he didn't; they never do.  Why not?

Tellez mad dogged me twice during his deposition.
I called him on it by interrupting inappropriately.
It will cost me points - it is what it is.

Tellez testified he is the Chief of a police "department".  If I understand the situation correctly, they really are not a police "department" at all.  For as long as they are not, they are prohibited from ever again self-investigating felony criminal misconduct and hiding the findings from the District Attorney and public knowledge.

Tellez testified that a kid who gets caught with a knife at school faces two possible fates.   If they get caught by a city cop, the kid goes to jail.  If APS police are called, an " administrative solution" will be applied to "technically criminal" offenses.  Administrators decide whether to create "records of criminal misconduct" that count against them in their claim to be reducing criminal misconduct in their schools.  It's called an appearance of a conflict of interests.

The records of weapons possession by APS students is being
skewed.  It all depends on who gets to the offender first;

1. a city cop or deputy sheriff, or
2. a member of APS' publicly funded, private police force.

Click to enlarge

Tellez admitted that an emblem adorns his police cars and his left shoulder.  The emblem includes the Pillars of Character Counts!.

He never actually said;

I am the senior-most role model of the Pillars of Character Counts! in the entire APS police force.  

And he sure as hell never said;

and I am willingly to hold myself honestly accountable to the same standards of conduct as students, staff, administration and school board members; the Pillars of Character Counts!, a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct.

I was told in teacher training that no student's project is worthless;
it can always serve as a bad example.
I never found that as funny as did the people who said that kind of thing.

We have no use for bad examples in education.  Of all of the endeavors of mankind, none needs to be more free of bad examples than education.

If we really want children to grow to embrace character and courage and honor; someone has to show them what it looks like.

Bad examples cannot do that.  Nor can a time worn fable
about a little boy, a shiny new ax and a cherry tree.

Character is taught by example.
Character is taught only by example.
Leadership is by personal example.




photos Mark Bralley

Two lawyers watch over Esquivel's interests

I was deposed yesterday.  The deposition was interrupted by previous obligation of mine, and so, will be continued.  After a nearly full day of deposition, I remain confident that the truth exonerates me.

Three lawyers sit opposite me and my lawyer.

One of them represents the board and the individual defendants, two represent APS School Board President Marty Esquivel.

I have been told that I am not allowed to ask them any questions about

• their contracts with the district, 
• about the oversight over spending of public power and resources, and, 
• about whether they are both billing taxpayers during depositions.

I believe they are legitimate questions.
I believe I have a right to ask them.

I am informed that I must ask all questions through my lawyer.

Frankly, I'd rather he asking more important questions.

Which is not to say, those legitimate questions
are in any way, unimportant.

Brouhaha over APS retiree life insurance

The Journal reports this morning, link,

About 100 retirees packed the Albuquerque Public Schools board room Tuesday morning, intermittently jeering at board members and at one point breaking into a chorus of the civil rights anthem, “We Shall Overcome."

At one point, she (Kathy Korte) was interrupted by jeers from the crowd.

"... the retirees noisily cleared the room, shouting, “We need a new school board!” as well as clapping and singing.

By any reasonable measure, the attendees as a whole, disrupted the meeting.

The Journal gave no indication that any of the disruptive attendees was arrested by the APS Police force or banned from future participation in school board meetings.

President John Kennedy wrote;

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible,
make violent revolution inevitable."

from which we can extrapolate;
those who make it impossibly difficult to discuss important issues openly, honestly and most importantly, civilly,
make less civil discussion inevitable.

APS Quality of Education Survey Results to be discussed

According to their agenda, link, the APS board intends on Wednesday night, to discuss;

B. Quality of Education Survey Results (Discussion)
Presenter: Rose Ann McKernan, Instruction and Accountability Executive Director, and Tom Genne, Research, Deployment &. Accountability Director

Missing from the agenda, a link to the actual results, should any interest-holder care to participate meaningfully in the discussion thereof.

Update; a link has been added to the agenda; too late to be in accord with the Open Meetings Act, but better late than never.

Are Armenta and Esquivel lying, or just really stupid?

Mahatma Gandhi, wikilink, once observed, in the struggle against power,

first they ignore you
then they laugh at you
then they fight you
then you win. 

The Journal was already in the habit of ignoring me when I stood up at public forums and asked the board to explain why students are expected to hold themselves accountable to ethical standards of conduct and they are not.

So I upped the ante, daring them to not print a photograph of a guy standing in the back of a board meeting wearing an elephant mask.

They called my bluff.  Not only did they not report on my standing in the back of the room wearing the mask, they didn't even report when APS Praetorian Guard arrested me and ejected me from the meeting for wearing it.

Now comes sworn testimony from Marty Esquivel and Monica Armenta.

Esquivel swore under oath, he didn't recognize the "elephant in the room", he actually thought I was supposed to be "a mouse".














Armenta swore under oath, she also didn't recognize the "elephant in the room", she thought and still does; I was "Chucky Cheese".

Armenta has forgotten apparently that she actually walked up to me to tell me that she had figured out that I was trying to be the "elephant in the room". 

Update; I found the actual actual exchange;

"I know its not Halloween", Armena said, so what was I doing?
"Drawing attention to the elephant in the room", I responded.

I represent then, that it was Rigo Chavez who walked up to me and indicated he understood I was the elephant in the room.

I say Esquivel and Armenta are "laughing" at me,
and then lying about it under oath.





Armenta, Esquivel, and mask photos Mark Bralley

APS Director of Risk Management sez; "I'm not going to answer that"

The question I had asked APS Director of Risk Management Mike Wilson was; am I reporting correctly that you are the highest ranking person in the APS who is providing oversight over spending in the defenses School Board President Marty Esquivel and APS Supt Winston Brooks?

Lawyers on both his flanks explained to me the because we are in litigation; questions have to go through the lawyers.  I asked if I was being told that there is not a single person in the APS that I can still ask questions of directly, and told that is correct.

Mike Wilson is an APS senior administrator.  He is also a senior role model of standards of conduct that require a willingness to "do more than the law requires, and less than the law allows".  He is a senior role model because there is no logical argument that excepts him from accountability to the same standards as his boss Winston Brooks.

An effort is being made to cover up the fact that Brooks and Esquivel are spending without oversight; subordinate oversight is oxymoronic.

"I'm not going to answer that." is not an acceptable response to a legitimate question about public servants and their public service.

It may be "legal",
it is not acceptable.

"First, we need to kill all the PIOs"

William Shakespeare; derived

Trip Jennings weighed in, link, on the people's search for the truth about the spending of their power and resources.  The search is not going well.

There is a line of people standing between the people and the ethically redacted truth.  We pay their salaries and give them control over our power to use in our interests.  They should be facing in, not out.  They should be our champions, not our adversaries.  At the very least they are our mercenaries.

Instead, they stand in a line facing out, against us,
smiling, waving, and ducking our questions.

If it is ever to be government of, by and for the people,
the people will need to know the the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but
the ethically redacted truth.

Standing between us and the truth, the PIOs.

First, we have to make our way past them.

"Domenici's long past program Character Counts!"

APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta was testifying under oath this morning about some of the many things that she considers evidence of my mental ill health.

She testified how I just never would stop talking about

United States Senator Pete "Domenici's long past program Character Counts!"

There is a document called the APS Student Behavior Handbook.  In so far as the school board approves it ever year, the handbook is an extension of APS  School Board Policy.

According to the student handbook and school board policy;

Students are expected to model and promote the Pillars of Character Counts! Respect, Responsibility, Caring, Fairness, Citizenship and Trustworthiness.

Click to enlarge

When my lawyer asked her if she realized that APS Police cars wear an emblem including the six Pillars of Character Counts!, she said no, and still didn't get it.

It is clear from her testimony that she doesn't have the slightest idea what Character Counts! is about.  None of them do.  I would be surprised if any one of them could name the six pillars, much less hold themselves honestly accountable to them.

When the board voted to remove the role modeling clause from their own standards of conduct, they did it, if I remember correctly, by unanimous vote.  It used to read;

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

Students are expected to hold themselves honestly accountable to a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct; the Pillars of Character Counts! link.

The entire leadership of the APS simply abdicated as senior-most role models of the standards of conduct they establish and enforce upon students.

They've been covering it up ever since.

The ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS is so well covered up that the Executive Director of Communications can look you right in the eye and having sworn a solemn oath and tell you, their obligations as role models of the Pillars of Character Counts! are "long past".






Journal Editor Kent Walz will tell you some day about the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.

Before he does, make him tell you why he didn't tell you about it when it began, nearly a decade ago.




photos Mark Bralley

Brooks' in secret evaluation cancelled

According to their agenda, link, the APS Board of Education and Supt Winston Brooks had intended to adjourn into a meeting in secret from stakeholders, Friday morning, to discuss; "... the Superintendent’s Progress for the District, and take action".

The meeting has been cancelled, link, without explanation.

Good that it has been cancelled, of course, that it is cancelled without explanation.

The Open Meetings Act requires "reasonable specificity" when describing what it is that they intend to discuss in secret from the people whose power and resources are being discussed.

The Act requires "reasonable specificity" when describing what they actually  discussed during the in secret meeting.

"Discussion of the Superintendent's Progress for the District" is not as specific as it might be;  it is not as specific as it should be.

Brooks' "progress for the district" is either adequate or inadequate.  The people will never know which, because the evaluations are done in secret.  A recent audit by the Council of the Great City Schools found;

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

If Brooks' "progress for district" was adequate;
there would be no reason to hide it.

Brooks drops 20% claim

APS Supt Winston Brooks announced on KKOB, that APS' graduation rate had increased 20% during his tenure as Superintendent.  The claim is more than a little disingenuous, link.

I am pleased to report that by the time the Journal and APS, link, got around to publishing APS Ready For School Year, the claim of 20% and the false impression it created had been dropped.

The Journal gives Brooks a guest column, link, every month.
Brooks uses the column to polish the APS apple;
the Journal uses the column to polish Brooks. 

I call your attention to the photograph that accompanies Brooks' column.

According to common wisdom; a picture is worth a thousand words.  The Journal spent a thousand words painting a false picture of Brooks' vitality.  It lacks candor, forthrightness and honesty.  It is journalistic malpractice.

I don't care if everybody else is doing it too.


I am pleased to point out that in removing his 20% claim, Brooks modeled for students, the Pillar of Responsibility; specifically not taking full credit, where less credit is due.

Perhaps Brooks is capable of role modeling the Pillars of Character Counts! after all.




photo Mark Bralley

APS Police Chief misses 2nd deposition

For the second time now, six people with better things to do, sat around a table waiting for APS Police Chief Steve Tellez to show up for his deposition.  Again, he didn't show up.

Last time it was a "family emergency";  this morning he was simply too ill to tell the truth about his part in the violation of my civil rights and the cover up of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators and the leadership of APS' police department.

I am given to understand that Tellez has a history of not showing up at hearings and depositions.

Hopefully, his disease will not spread to APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta who is on tap for some truth telling of her own on Thursday.




photo  Mark Bralley

District 0 for 3 in depositions

APS School Board President and Defendant Marty Esquivel banned me, effectively for life, from participating in APS school board meetings.  The basis of the ban, he argued, was my out of control behavior at previous public forums and meetings.

He, by and through his lawyers, has produced a number of video tapes of my petitions and claims they are evidence of my out of control behavior.

Out of control?  Out of whose control?

Esquivel will try to convince a federal court jury that I was personally "out of control".  He will try to convince them that I was so out of control that there was a real possibility that I would "get a rifle and shoot up the place".  The evidence, produced in the form of videotapes of the actual incidents, indicates otherwise.

I was not out of control; I was beyond Marty Esquivel's control.  It is not against the law; it is not even unethical.  I would be proud if any of the thousands of students to whom I preached Character Counts! witnessed me doing it again.  He ordered my to stop doing things that I have every right to do; speaking freely, assembling freely and, petitioning my government for redress of my several grievances; all of which are Constitutionally protected human rights. 

In any event, the third of at least six depositions took place today.  APS' Director of Communications Rigo Chavez answered questions under oath.

When asked to point to any real evidence that I have threatened any of the leadership of the APS ever, he could not.  He did claim that I had invaded Defendant Monica Armenta's "personal space" on at least two occasions.  I have no recollection of either, and Chavez did not elaborate on what I did when I was allegedly there.  He claimed as well that I have invaded School Board Manager Brenda Yager's personal space on two occasions.  Again, I have no recollection of either, and Chavez did not elaborate on what I am supposed to have done once there.

When asked to back up their allegations with proof, they cannot.

Former School Board Member David Robbins could not

Marty Esquivel himself could not, and Rigo Chavez could not.
0 for 3 by my count.

Tuesday APS Chief of Police Steve Tellez will swear to tell the truth.  The truth is, he has already been asked for any evidence he has that I have ever threatened any one of them ever.  He has said he has none.

Thursday, APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta, the fountainhead of the slander and libel against me, will testify that that I have never threatened her or her family.  Or she will lie under oath.

On the 27th of this month, APS Supt Winston Brooks will swear to tell the truth.  He will testify that he has no real evidence that I ever actually threatened anyone, ever.  Or he will lie under oath.

At that point, the leadership of the APS will be 0 for 6 in an effort to conjure up some threat where no threat exists.

If ever I had behaved threateningly, it would be have been with the understanding that I had absolutely nothing to gain, and absolutely everything to lose.

Consider that damage they have done to the messenger's reputation with all their libel and slander, with no evidence at all.  The proof is in fact, overwhelmingly against them.

Consider the damage that would be done to my "cause" if I had chosen to actually threaten any one of them.  Nothing to gain; everything to lose, why would I even consider it?

This not about my conduct; it is about the content of my speech.

This is about the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.




photos Mark Bralley

Brooks shading the truth on 20% higher graduation rate

APS Supt Winston Brooks appeared on the Bob Clark Show Friday.  KKOB is currently running a snippet as "news".

Brooks claimed the district's graduation rate when he arrived was around 50% and is now around 70%.  He, by extension, claims credit for the districts success.

When most people hear, "the graduation rate" has gone up, they assume wrongly that the district is doing a better job of educating the nearly 90,000 of our sons and daughters in APS schools.

In fact, graduation rates are up significantly for two reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of education in the APS.  The first, was the decision to calculate the rate on 5 years of high school rather than 4.  Whether that is appropriate is a separate issue; it raised the graduation rate without delivering any more education.  The second, a decision to take 9th graders who fail the 9th grade, out of the calculus.

Frankly, I can't imagine how you can get away with discounting those students at the highest risk, from the calculation of graduation rates, but they did, and it raised the graduation rate, link.

These and likely other reasons that have nothing to do with doing their job any better, have the effect of raising graduation rates.

I mention all of this because Winston Brooks is the senior-most administrative role model in the APS, of the Pillars of Character Counts!.  I mention that because the Pillars are the standards Brooks enforces upon students.

According to the Pillar of Trustworthiness, Brooks was required to be more candid, more forthright, and more honest with stakeholders.  His Responsibility was to make certain that stakeholders understood the truth in exactly the way he understands the truth.

Another case in point; Brooks' failure to produce a candid, forthright and honest accounting of spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

The castle keep at 6400 Uptown Blvd - at what cost?

Another case in point, Brooks failure to describe candidly, forthrightly and honestly, what became of the several investigations of felony criminal misconduct in the leadership of the APS and their publicly funded private police force.

I can understand why men like Brooks don't want to be held honestly accountable to the Pillars of Character Counts!; a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethics.  It requires inordinate character and courage.  It requires truth telling.

What I can't understand is, how he can simply abdicate his duties and obligations as a role model and nobody seems to care.

If the Pillars of Character Counts! are too high a standard for men like Brooks and School Board President, and senior-most role model in the entire APS Marty Esquivel, then the standards are too high for students.

Do as I say, not as I do
never worked and never will.

If we really want students to grow into adults who embrace character and courage and honor, someone has to show them what it looks like.




photos Mark Bralley

APS Board adopts Character Counts! by unanimous resolution!

The Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education passed a resolution adopting Character Counts! for the APS.

The Resolution reads;

Resolution

To endorse and Implement Character Counts! Program in the Albuquerque Public Schools

Whereas, Albuquerque Public Schools reaffirms the need to join with other community groups to actively engage in the development and demonstration of ethical behavior among youth, adults, and

Whereas, the mission of Albuquerque Public Schools is to provide learners of all ages the skills and knowledge needed to become successful and productive members of a dynamic society, and

Whereas, the Albuquerque Public Schools recognizes that students in our schools are more likely now than in the past to experience family disintegration, homicide, drug use, teen age pregnancy, dishonesty, suicide, and strong messages from media and society that undermine home teaching of ethical values, and

Whereas, the Albuquerque Public Schools recognizes that no single community institution can instill ethical behavior in youth and adults if it is acting without the support of other institutions and groups, and

Whereas, the Albuquerque Public Schools recognizes the important role played by teachers and other adults in school settings in modeling good character for young people

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED;

1. That the Albuquerque Public Schools endorses the Aspen Declaration on Character Education as well as the Character Counts! Program as ways to develop character based on six core ethical values; trustworthiness, respect, responsibility , fairness, caring and citizenship;

2. That the Albuquerque Public Schools will enter into community-wide discussions with other institutions and groups to reach agreements about the role of each in promoting ethical behavior among young people, and adults in various aspects of life;

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

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

5. That materials, teaching methods, partnerships, and services to support school programs shall be selected, in part, for their capacity to support the development of character among youth and adults;

6. That all schools examine school curriculum and practices to identify and extend opportunities for developing character, especially through the utilization of violence-prevention programs, mediation training, community service programs. fair rules which are fairy enforced, democratic practices in classrooms and organizations, and extracurricular activities which help students learn and model caring and ethical behavior.

DATED this 2nd day of March, 1994

Because the Resolution does not include a sunset clause, and because it has never been rescinded or repealed, it is as binding today as it was the night it was passed almost 20 years ago.

In the intervening decades, the administration of the APS has failed to carry out resolution in a number of respects;

1. They have failed to enter into community-wide discussions with other institutions and groups to reach agreements about the role of each in promoting ethical behavior among young people, and adults in various aspects of life, and,
2. They have failed to create models of ethical behavior among all adults who serve students and schools, and,
3. They have failed to give explicit attention to character development in the core curriculum and, as an ongoing part of school instruction, and,
4. They have failed to select materials, teaching methods, partnerships, and services to support school programs, in part, for their capacity to support the development of character among youth and adults, and
5. They have failed to examine school curriculum and practices to identify and extend opportunities for developing character.

In the interim, they did take the time to abdicate their duties, obligations, and responsibilities as role models of student standards of conduct by repealing the role modeling clause in their own standards of conduct.  It used to read;

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

It no longer does.

The board needs to live up to their resolution or repeal it.
They intend to do either.

The one would require more character and courage
than they can summon, and well,  the other would too.

They will follow a third path; pretend there is no problem.

They are joined in that endeavor by Kent Walz' Journal, and by the news directors at KRQE, KOAT, KOB, and KKOB radio.

Submitted; Letters to the Editors, Albuquerque Journal, upon posting.

APS leadership inconspicuous on leadership

If you ask the senior most executive role model of APS' student standards of conduct, School Board President Marty Esquivel if he is a role model for students and staff, he will tell you no.  He is not, he once said to me, because he is not an educator.

APS Supt Winston Brooks will not tell you why he is not a role model of honest accountability to the same standards of conduct he enforces upon students.  He will stonewall the question.

The scandal hinges on the meaning of the word "accountable".  To people like Esquivel and Brooks, that means you stand up some where, some time and tell people you are "accountable" to the "highest standards" of conduct and competence.

Those who go looking for the place where a complaint can be filed against them over failure to meet actual standards, and where that complaint will see due process; find a system crippled by the appearances of conflicts of interest and impropriety.

"Honestly accountable" means accountable under a system over which you have no undue influence, and powerful enough to hold you accountable, even against your will.  Accountability in the APS, their whistle blower program; Ethical Advocate for one, means subordinates and colleagues hold superior administrators and board members accountable for their conduct and competence.

Take for example the money that Brooks and Esquivel are spending on their legal defense against complaints over manifest civil rights violations.

They report on their spending to the Director of Risk Management and a Claim Analyst. Subordinates are signing off on the amount of money they're spending and on what. They are signing off on litigation against the public interests and on behalf of the personal interests of the defendants.

Subordinate oversight is oxymoronic.

So far, they have managed to avoid the standard "case analysis" presentation to the rest of the board. The rest of the board still enjoys plausible deniability with respect to knowing how operational dollars are being squandered. It is their responsibility to the people to insist upon a presentation of case analyses.

Take as another example, their refusal to model honest accountability to the Pillars of Character Counts!; a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethics, and more importantly, APS' student standards of conduct.

This is neither the time or place to argue about the suitability of the Pillars as standards for students and their adult role models.  The time and place was a school board meeting nearly twenty years ago when the board unanimously adopted the Pillars as the student standards.  They still, as a matter of school board policy, require students to "model and promote the Pillars of Character Counts!"

Upon the declaration of that expectation, they don the mantelets of role models of honest accountability to the Pillars of Character Counts!  It doesn't make one whit of difference if they agree or not; they are the senior most role models of the standards of conduct they establish and enforce upon students.

The board sees their choices as two;

1. establish accountability to standards of conduct to which they have no interest in being held actually, honestly accountable; even for those hours a day they hold students accountable, or
   
2. ignore the issue. 

And by ignore, I mean spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and a great deal of influence on keeping the establishment media from reporting the truth about the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.  Their choice; self evident.

The board has two honorable choices; the one considerably more honorable than the other;

1. hold themselves honestly accountable to student standards of conduct; "more than the law requires and less than the law allows", or
   
2. lower student standards to standards low enough that the "leadership" are finally comfortable being held accountable to them.  Their current standards; if it's legal its alright; the lowest standards of conduct acceptable among civilized human beings.

Your choices number two;

1. do something or
   
2. don't

Most people, when they say somebody should do something, they mean somebody-else should do something.  Waiting for the perfect circumstances to stand up and fight, guarantees only that you will never stand up and fight.

Remember the words of Edmund Burke;

All that is necessary for evil to prevail in the world,
is for good men to do nothing.

I'm not saying Brooks and Esquivel are evil (or not), but the leadership of the APS who will not hold themselves honestly accountable as role models of APS student standard of conduct are kind of people Burke was writing about, and you are the people he was writing to.

Required reading for this exercise; the Aspen Declaration, link, the basis for the Board's adoption of Character Counts!, and the resolution, link, they passed unanimously adopting the Pillars of Character Counts! as APS' student standards of conduct.