If a half truth really is a whole lie ...

Then Journal editors lied to us this morning, link, though
it could be argued I suppose, that one can't lie in an editorial.

The editorial is about the new school grading system. The editorial is entitled;

A-F Has N.M. on Track To Serve Its Students

It is the opinion of the editors that, A-F grading of schools will foster improvement in the outcome of public schooling.

As any educator and most other people know; the grades A-F are based on performance; performance that is measured in percentages. There is an ideal outcome for any educational endeavor and students achieve some percentage of success.

It varies, but for the most; 90% success earns an A, 80% a B, 70% a C, 60% a D.

Imagine you are a student sitting in one of the five rows of six desks, and your teacher is returning test papers to your class. Imagine your grade is important to you.

Your paper is handed to you and is scored;

89%/B+

Further imagine; you are disappointed because you would have been especially rewarded at home, for an A.

The student next to you is very excited. S/he shows you their paper;

76%/A

Imagine how you would feel.

It is an important fact to know; the school grades were curved enormously. Beyond what one would expect. Beyond what the people would or will accept.

The editors do not know, do not understand, or do not care
to tell their readers that the schools were graded on a curve.

Or that, the best explanation offered so far is, that the 76 isn't a "percentage", rather, it is the number of points accumulated out of 100 points possible (hand to God).

NM Public Education Secretary Designate Hanna Skandera (and Governor Susana Martinez) have been asked to explain in words that any middle school student can understand, why that student's school gets an A,
and the student doesn't.

They won't, and why should they,
if the press won't make them?


Skandera and Martinez are not being candid, forthright, and honest with interest holders.

Neither are the editors.




photos Mark Bralley

APS looking to legislature to legitimize their cover up

The leadership of the Albuquerque Public Schools has it's
own police force. It is a publicly funded, private police force;
accountable to no one, except the leadership of the APS.

Individually, APS police officers are as qualified as any other police officer. Many are retired from the Albuquerque Police Department.

The police force itself however, is not. It is not certificated,
certified, or accredited by anybody but the leadership of the APS.

They employ it as a Praetorian Guard, wikilink.

Five years ago, the Albuquerque Journal investigated and reported upon felonies committed by senior APS administrators, link.

The leadership of the APS decided to use their private police force to self-investigate its own public corruption and incompetence. No other law enforcement agency, not even the District Attorney, has seen one scintilla of the evidence they gathered. They managed to hide it all until statutes of limitation expired on felony criminal misconduct.

The truth of those allegations lies in the ethically redacted public record of several investigations; including but not limited to an independent investigation culminating in the Caswell Report. That allegation, though true, can't be proved because they won't surrender the public record that convicts them.

They are spending dollars that would otherwise end up in classrooms; to pay Modrall lawyers to litigate exception for them, from the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act, and from having to surrender evidence of their own corruption.

Their self-investigation of felony criminal misconduct reeks of the appearance of a conflict of interests, the creation of which blatantly violates the APS School Board Code of Ethics which reads;

Avoid conflicts of interest or the appearance thereof ...

There is a conspiracy to cover up public corruption.
If the public record exonerated them from that allegation,
they would surrender it.

It the truth will exonerate them, they wouldn't have had to have their own police force do the investigation, and they wouldn't be hiding the evidence.

They wouldn't have had to promote their Chief of Police Steve Tellez in secret; they wouldn't have to be paying him $90K to make sure the criminal investigation never sees the light of day.

It was he who signed Marty Esquivel's unlawful restraining order, promising to deploy police force in support of Esquivel's efforts to cover up the corruption by violating my Constitutionally protected human rights to expose it.

Their expressed intention, link, pasted in significant part;

"... APS Police be recognized as an independent police department authorized by the Board of Education and overseen by the superintendent."

The problem is, APS' axis of evil; Supt Winston Brooks, School Board enforcer Marty Esquivel, and School Board President Paula Maes (currently enforcing Esquivel's unlawful order), are up to there eyeballs in the conspiracy to cover up corruption in the leadership of the APS and their police force.

As an example of the ties that bind the media and the board, Brooks is a recent recipient of a Hero of Transparency Award, despite his unswerving efforts to hide public records from public knowledge. The award was given to him by Marty Esquivel and Journal Managing Editor Kent Walz who either bamboozled the NM Foundation for Open Government Directors, or, who also new about the cover up and gave Brooks their highest honor anyway.

Paula Maes' fist pounds last on the table at the New Mexico Broadcasters Association. Co-incidentally, not one NMBA member has shown the least inclination to investigate and report upon public corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS.

They will be in the
Roundhouse next week
to try to talk legislators
into giving them even
more police force to abuse, link.




photos Mark Bralley

APS' disregard for Houston's MOU.

The leadership of the APS is trying to create a rubric for handling allegations of criminal misconduct in the APS.

The language they would like, link, reads in significant part;

If the nature of the whistleblower complaint is an allegation of criminal activity, felony or misdemeanor, of an employee, student or activity, the chief of the Albuquerque Public Schools Police Department, or his/her designee, shall complete an inquiry into the concern. Criminal activity may include, but is not limited to, substance abuse at the work place, threats, physical violence, and theft, falsification of information and destruction of property. The chief of the Albuquerque Public Schools Police Department, or his/her designee, forward the information, resolution and any necessary recommendations from the inquiry to the director of Internal Audit for appropriate follow-up.

No where is it mentioned,
the Memorandum of
Understanding they signed,
link, in which they promised
Bernalillo County Sheriff
Dan Houston, that in exchange
for commissions, they would
stop investigating their own
felony criminal misconduct;
strictly limiting them instead
to;

APS police may pursue a violent felony in progress if the violent felony was witnessed by the APS police officer. Upon witnessing a violent felony, the APS police officer will immediately notify BCSD or the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) .

That particular stipulation be enforced, is important in light of the APS PD's ongoing, five year long, self investigation of felony criminal misconduct, link, and the surrounding cover up; proof of which lies in an ethically redacted version of the Caswell Report, and in similarly redacted public records.

The Sheriff is doing nothing apparent, in response to the allegation that APS police officers watched kids get drunk for a couple of hours one night at Valley High School, link.

Maybe this will get his attention.




photo Mark Bralley

Robbins admits APS is misleading public

School Board Member David Robbins was on KOAT's news, link. He admitted that interest holders were misled by the way "it was put into a press release" telling them, APS Supt Winston Brooks' contract did not include a raise - a concern I first raised, link, on December 23, 2011.

The persons responsible for the misinformation being "put into a press release" would like taxpayers to believe that because it wasn't his base salary that they increased, he received no raise.

It is a spin on the truth calculated "... to create beliefs or leave impressions that are untrue or misleading ..."; behavior prohibited in the APS student standards of conduct and engaged in (by students) at the forfeit of their good character.

According to KOAT, a unidentified district spokesperson said Brooks was "too busy" to answer the questions raised by Robbins' admission.




photo Mark Bralley

The establishment media is complicit or complacent or something!

If the establishment media do not understand what it means to grade on a curve, wikilink, they are incompetent.

If they cannot comprehend the importance of the fact that the
recently released school grades were curved significantly;
curved beyond the point where the average parent or
community member will correctly intuit, they are incompetent.

If they don't understand that the NMPED curved their recent grades (to make schools look better) they are incompetent; the grading scale was handed to them.

Some would argue the curve went too far; it is unjustifiable.

A 75-100%
B 60- 74.9%
C 50-59.9%
D 37.5-49.9%
F less than 37.5%

Students are expected to put out 90% to earn the same grade
their school gets for 75% performance.
They must perform nearly twice as well to pass.

I cannot accept that this is not newsworthy.

If they chose to not investigate and report, for any reason
other than an honest lack of newsworthiness, they are complicit.

If the media simply don't care, they are complacent.

In the absence of any place where the people can make demands of their own, it is especially important for the fourth estate, wikilink to compel politicians and public servants to deny, defend, explain, or at the very least, acknowledge the curving they have done.

On doing nothing, while evil prevails

It's difficult to use the word evil without sounding histrionic.

It is the word Edmund Burke chose to use when he wrote;

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

I'm not saying that all of the members of the leadership of the APS are evil, but when Burke wrote about evil, these were the people he was writing about.

And when he wrote about good men doing nothing,
he was writing about us.

Bess Myerson observed;

"The accomplice to the crime of corruption is frequently
our own indifference”

We don't really care enough apparently, to create

honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct
and competence for politicians and public servants within
their public service (in the APS)

despite overwhelming evidence that they have no intention of creating it for themselves.

The next public forum

The next school board meeting public forum happens Wednesday, the 18th of January.

It will begin at 5pm, long before anyone with a job can get there.

Signs ups for public forum close at 5pm as well, long before anyone with a job can sign up.

There is no reason they can't take sign-ups up until the last two minutes of public forum.

I should say, no good and ethical reason.

Just like there is no good and ethical reason why the agenda, link, cannot be posted as built, rather than waiting until the last minute allowed by the law.

The only place they allow you to petition your government regarding the difficulty with getting on the forum, is at a public forum you cannot attend.

Deliberate, or accidental?

Some assurance please ...

It is nearly two months now since APS
Chief Operating Officer Brad Winter
promised to tell the truth about
spending at 6400 Uptown Blvd.

If the records were flattering or if
the Journal was asking, they would
have been surrendered long ago,
and before they violated the law by
not surrendering them in a timely
manner.


To date; he has produced public records of barely $150K they spent on electronic gadgetry for the board room; likely as little as 10% of total spending.

When, if, they ever find anymore public records, they will not be forwarded to me electronically. I am told they don't exist in electronic format, there is not a scanner anywhere in the whole Communications offices, and even if there was, the law does not require them to scan them instead of coping them.

I will be required to go to APS Communications offices to inspect and/or copy them (at 50 cents a page).

Worse, by going I will expose myself to more of APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta's libelous and completely unfounded accusations that;
I am in her office everyday,
I am "stalking her" and that
I am whispering to her,
threats against her family.

No complaint was ever filed regarding her allegations, and no investigation was done.

She is seen above, giving an unlawful order to APS Praetorian Guard to eject me from the Eldorado HS Gubernatorial Debate.

By going into the castle keep at 6400 Uptown Blvd, I will subject myself to additional harassment by APS police officers following unlawful orders from School Board enforcer Marty Esquivel.

I would like some assurance that if I go to see records that could have been sent to me electronically, I will not be subject to Armenta's defamation or police force harassment.

We'll see what APS Director of Communications and Custodian of Public Records will offer in the way of assurance. To date; he has not acknowledged the threats from Armenta or their Praetorian Guard.

It has been several years since Kent Walz and the Journal decided to not get to the bottom of outlandish spending on administrative and executive accoutrements for the board room, or anywhere else in the APS, for that matter.




photos Mark Bralley
I took the shot of Armenta

APS and "unethical" behavior

The changes in whistleblower policy, link and link, that are being considered by the school board, use the word "unethical" specifically, as in;

The Board of Education shall not permit unlawful or
unethical behavior by district employees.

... including Supt Winston Brooks.

Questions are begged. What does unethical mean?
It means, failing to meet ethical standards of conduct.

What are ethical standards of conduct?

There are two standards of conduct in the APS; one applies to students and the other to senior administrators and board members.

The one, is a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethical conduct. Whether those standards should or should not apply to students; whether those standards are the "right" standards is moot; it is school board policy, link.

The other standards, the ones that apply to board members and senior administrators, is the lowest of the lowest standards of conduct; whatever legal loopholes, technicalities and legal weaselry will allow. Whether that is right is moot; it is the school board's evident intention.

I offer;

It is manifestly unethical for the leadership of the APS to refuse to hold itself honestly accountable to standards of ethical conduct; in particular because they hold students accountable to standards of ethical conduct.

The leadership of the APS does not want to be held accountable to the Pillars of Character Counts! They have gone so far in their effort to evade accountability as to remove the role modeling clause from their own standards of conduct; the one that used to read;

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

There are two reasons that senior administrators and board members will not hold themselves honestly accountable to the Pillars of Character Counts!. There are only two reasons. The reasons are abhorrent. They are especially abhorrent in the senior-most role models of the standards they establish and enforce upon students.

I have asked, and asked, and asked; I have even offered a cash reward to anyone who can offer a third reason that adults will not step up as role models of accountability, honest accountability, to meaningful standards of conduct and competence.

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. The school board and senior leadership
need to show them what it looks like.

Role modeling is a conspicuous activity.
"Inconspicuous role modeling" is oxymoronic.
If students, staff and community can't see it, it isn't happening.
If they cannot point to it, it doesn't exist.

APS Supt Winston Brooks is not a conspicuous role model of accountability to the Pillars of Character Counts! Nor is School Board enforcer Marty Esquivel. Nor is the senior-most executive role model of the APS Student Standards of Conduct Paula Maes.

Ergo; they are behaving unethically.
They are modeling the very behavior they say they shall not permit!

... for either one or both of two reasons;

1. they haven't the courage and/or
2. they haven't the character
   

to hold themselves honestly accountable to standards of ethical conduct.

The same two reasons that keep the Journal and NM Broadcasters Assoc members from investigating and reporting upon the ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.




photo and frame grab Mark Bralley

Controversial policy changes tabled

In response to a query of the School Board office, I am informed that the Policy Committee tabled three controversial items;

1. an effort to deny whistle blowers due process by abandoning Audit Committee review of whistleblower complaints,
2. an effort to allow the Supt in investigate complaints against himself, and
3. an effort to allow complaints against the Supt to be investigated by School Board cronies.

I received the following reply;

The following agenda items from the January 10, Policy and Instruction Committee meeting were tabled:

II. Consideration of approval of Board of Education policy D.05 Internal Audit to be renamed D.05 Audit Committee and Reports (Discussion/Action)
III. Consideration of approval of revisions to Board of Education policy GB7 Whistleblower Complaints (Discussion/Action)
IV. Board of Education review of new Internal Audit Procedural Directive (Discussion)

Suggestions were made for changes to the language, which the board members requested to be brought to another Policy and Instruction Committee meeting for review.

I am still illegally banned by Marty Esquivel's unlawful restraining order, so I have no idea which board member deserves credit for moving to table the issues.

Another APS supervisor on administrative leave

KOAT reports, link, another APS administrator has been put on administrative leave.

As usual, APS is providing no information that interest holders can use to evaluate their performance in preventing misconduct or in dealing wayward administrators.

KOAT reports;

An APS representative would not shed any light on the situation, except to say that it's a personnel matter that should be resolved in the next few days.

Action 7 News was told a second IT worker is involved in the case, but APS won't confirm that.

APS officials said Gail will go through due process and be able to share his side of the story with his supervisors and then go in front of a disciplinary committee.

... and that's the last interest holders will ever hear.

Brooks and I agree

In his report to interest holders, link, on the A thru F grades for APS schools, APS Supt Winston Brooks wrote,

Regardless of what your school’s scores may be, my message is simple: Keep striving for excellence.

I could not agree more, though we would pursue excellence
by far different paths.

I would pursue it through honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence for APS employees and students.

He would pursue it by the same path the good ol' boys have been following for more than a 100 years; creating and maintaining a culture of fear of retaliation against whistleblowers; using a publicly funded private police force to arrest them if necessary.

He would pursue it retaliating against whistleblowers and denying due process to their complaints.




photo Mark Bralley

How about loss prevention for a change?

In the Journal this morning, we find that three city workers have been fired for stealing our resources. The day before, another story of a city worker stealing resources.

It is good that they were fired.

It would have been better if they hadn't stolen from us.

With thievery, as with every other vice, there is a battle between temptation and moral courage. If the temptation is irresistible; there isn't moral courage enough in anyone, to resist it. That's what irresistible means.

There are two solutions to public corruption;

1. hire and elect people who can stand irresistible temptation, or
2. remove the temptation.

If there is nothing to steal, there is no temptation to steal it.

If there is nothing that can be stolen (without certain accountability), there is no temptation to steal it.

Every one of these thieves made a calculation. Every one of them concluded that they could steal from the people and get away with it.

People don't come to that conclusion unless there is a substantial likelihood that they will, in fact, get away with it.

Every time a politician or public servant is caught stealing,
the politician or public servant whose job it was
to keep them from stealing in the first place,
should be fired as well.

This is not rocket science.

Casinos do it all the time, and I do mean, all the time.

Schools graded on a curve

Parents and community members regard an "A" as indicative of 90% achievement. Older parents and community members might remember having to perform at 94% to earn their "A"s.

They will be surprised to find out that NM schools only needed to earn 75 points out of 100, 75%, to be given an "A". The whole grading rubric was changed to make it look like schools are doing better than the really are.

A 75-100%
B 60- 74.9%
C 50-59.9%
D 37.5-49.9%
F < 37.5%

The whole idea behind creating an A through F grading system, was that parents and community members understand what A, B, C, D and F mean.

I asked Governor Susana Martinez and Education Secretary Hanna Skandera to justify what appears to be a lowering of the bar for schools. Their response was couched in statistical jargon; more about how they did it than, why?

I should have qualified my question by asking that they explain the overly lenient curve in words that students can understand.

I found their explanation deeply unsatisfying, and not just because it was so hard to understand. I suspect the people will not be satisfied either; if they find ever out.

The NM PED pulled a fast one and the people will never hear about it. None of the legacy news outlets I searched, seems to have noticed the double standard for students and their schools.

Or, they see the double standard and choose to not investigate and report upon it.

Either way, the wool has been pulled over the people's eyes.

Interesting aside; The wool refers to a powdered wig.
To pull the wool down over a man's eyes is to temporarily blind him.
It is an Americanism, dating to the 1830s.




photo Mark Bralley

APS mum on Brooks' extended contract

If you check APS award winning website, link, you will find no mention of the inflation of APS Supt Winston Brooks' golden parachute to $750K.

Just like you find no mention of Steve Tellez being promoted to Chief of their Praetorian Guard, link, and guardian of all evidence and testimony regarding felony criminal misconduct by the leadership of the APS and their so-called Police Dept.

Why not? except to protect their public perception.

Why not? except for their cowardice and corruption.

APS should abandon the Pillars of Character Counts!

The leadership of the APS needs to fish or cut bait on Character Counts! They cannot continue to insist that students "model and promote the Pillars of Character Counts!", and abdicate their obligation to show them what that looks like, link.

Albuquerque Public Schools; Support the potential; the video.

Not long ago, you were hearing
APS Executive Director of
Communications Monica Armenta
in radio ads, asking listeners to
support "APS' potential", link.

The plea is out in video, link;
Armenta is still the star.

The problem is still the same.
The money being spent creating
and airing these ads in the hope of
raising the public perception of the APS, could have been used instead to increase performance, which would have raised the public perception legitimately.

Instead, the warm and fuzzy will make people feel better about APS' leadership without APS doing anything to earn it.

A communications coup if ever there was one.

The as yet undisclosed cost of the ad campaign is being borne by the APS Foundation and Paula Maes' NM Broadcasters Association.

"The APS Education Foundation, link, is a non-profit organization established for promoting private support of the district and its students."

The mission of the Foundation reads;

The mission of the APS Education Foundation is to encourage, solicit, receive and administer gifts and bequests of property and funds for educational purposes for the advancement of the Albuquerque Public Schools.

What, exactly, is the educational purpose of an ad campaign,
the primary purpose of which is to make people "feel better"
about the leadership of the APS?




photo Mark Bralley

ABCDF; say what?

When I was very young (if memory serves), in order to earn
an A, proficiency between 93-100% was required. 85-92%
earned a B, 75-84 a C, 65-74 a D, and below 65, an F.

More recently; 90-100 earned an A, 80-90 a B, 70-79 a C,
60-69 a D, and 59 and below an F.

The NM PED has a new rubric, link;

A 75-100%
B 60- 74.9%
C 50-59.9%
D 37.5-49.9%
F < 37.5%

and "performance" is up!

The conclusion; the lower the standards, the better we do.

The Journal will be there, and then let them slide.

The Journal will (should be) attending the policy committee meeting tomorrow; the subject of the following two posts.

It fair to hold them accountable for their response.

Editorially, I expect they will take no exception at all;
same as with Brooks' $750K golden parachute.

From the standpoint of investigate reporting;
they will follow the lead of their editor.

You'll see.

Audit committee will bail on due process for whistle blower complaints.

Unless they are stopped, the APS Policy Committee intends to rewrite board policy to divorce themselves once and for all, from their obligation to provide due process for whistle blower complaints.

APS whistle blower complaints do not get due process. Complaints against administrators and board members are adjudicated by fellow (and possibly subordinate) administrators. It creates the appearance of a conflict of interest and of impropriety.

Until tomorrow night, school board policy requires the executive branch (the board) to evaluate every single whistle blower complaint. The administration of whistle blower complaints is accountable to the people whose power is being spent, through the school board.

They have not reviewed and approved of the administration of even one single complaint. Hundreds of whistle blower complaints have been, continue to be, and apparently will in the future be, denied the due process of executive review of a blatantly compromised administrative self-adjudication.

Their proposed new language, link, here pasted in significant part;

The Audit Committee shall receive and review ... program evaluation reports from the superintendent, or his/her designee, about ... whistleblower complaints ....

Instead of doing their job as board members and making sure that every whistle blower got due process, they will take Winston Brooks' word for the fact that he gave due process to the complaints filed against him personally.

I'm sorry - that's bullshit.

Their agenda, link, includes no public input.




photo Mark Bralley