Oma on Board: November 2012

KRQE lands Brooks interview

KOAT is being denied interviews with senior APS administrators, link. Apparently, KRQE is not.Last night, KRQE broadcast an interview they had with APS Supt Winston Brooks in which he was given the opportunity to address a manifest inconsistency in his claims of parental support of APS.Brooks claims 89% of parents approve of the quality of APS education, link, despite the fact that a full third of APS students are destined to drop...

APS claims 89% of parents approve

APS claims, link, a survey they did last September, showed 89% of parents approve of the quality of APS education.According to their own statistics; 33% of parents have children who drop out.It would appear a substantial number of parents approve of their children dropping out.They also report 67% of parents approve of Supt Winston Brooks;the lowest approval rating assigned in the report.Had teachers been asked, the numbers would have been different.Ergo, they will not be asked. Nor will anyone else working beside or beneath...

APS refuses to submit to KOAT interviews

Government by, for and of the people depends upon meaningful communication between the government and the people; two-way communication.There are a number of reasons why the people can't expect individual face time with the most powerful politicians and public servants.The solution we settled upon is for the people depend upon "the press" to ask the questions and then publish the responses. The press, KOAT, asked to do interviews...

Rosary ban "lifted" at Atrisco Heritage High

A week ago, according to the Journal, link, and APS communications staffer Monica Armenta,Students at the school wearing rosaries visibly are being asked to conceal them under their shirts or in their pockets, Armenta said, adding that the request is intended to limit students from identifying themselves with specific groups, either on or off campus. Armenta said it is a measure APS police and school staff are taking “to curb gang activity.This...

APS projects don't go to lowest bidder; what else goes to lesser qualified?

When APS let the contract for the work at Sandia High School, it didn't go to the lowest bidder.They've invented a rubric for the letting of contracts that includes intangibles. The intangibles in the Sandia contract amounted to a full 60%; far more than the interests of taxpayers; getting the most bang for their buck.It isn't the first time. When APS let their phone contract to Monica Armenta's mother, she wasn't the lowest bidder either, link. This is part if a pattern of behavior; a way of thinking in the...

Students packing rosaries at Atrisco Heritage

The editors take notice, link; APS is just begging for a lawsuit over a ban on the wearing of rosaries at school. Begging is exactly the right word; their lawyers will make a killing litigating settlements.The editors write, Albuquerque Public Schools must have a lot of extra money lying around for lawsuits. Actually they do, in the form of an "unlimited budget" in support of litigation.They spend so much money on litigation, their insurer, United Educators, raised our premiums on that basis. They spend so...

The power to avoid subordinate evaluation.

Socrates takes credit for observing that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.It would be difficult to find a better measure of conduct and competence in leaders, than the honest opinions of their subordinates; in particular of subordinates with demonstrable capability to participate meaningfully in that evaluation. Teachers for example.In fact, power doesn't corrupt absolutely; power doesn't corrupt at all.The opportunity...

Brooks v. Sink; a "private affair"?

The Journal reports; link, the no bid deal APS made for digital textbooks created quite a brouhaha; justifiably. But that's not the whole story. The story inside the story written by Journal investigative reporter Mike Gallagher is; it seems APS Supt Winston Brooks and recently retired Assoc Supt Linda Sink weren't getting along.It's a recurring theme; women working under Brooks and not getting along. A number of them are suing...

$368M going to highest bidders?

Two Journal reports this week of interest to taxpayers. One about APS awarding a contract to the highest bidder, link, and another about the school board and senior administration's quest for another $368M to spend on our behalf, in our stead.School bond issue and mill levy elections are the means by which taxpayers exert their will upon the politicians and public servants who will spend hundreds of millions of tax dollars. ...

Learning expensive and, apparently, quite transitory

In the Journal, link, this morning, a report on the proposed APS school calendar for next year.Of significance, spring break, which usually precedes high stakes standardized testing, will take place after the testing is completed. The logic; the longer you wait before administering the tests, the better students will do. If anyone ever explained why the tests aren't given at the end of the year, I must have missed it.The other...

In back to back meetings with no public forum

the APS School Board will make it harder for to students to shop around in their efforts to educate themselves.The Journal reports, link,A key limitation under the new policy is that students will be able to take outside credit only if they are taking a class that isn’t reasonably offered by APS.The board is experiencing a conflict of interests. On the one hand, they want to hang onto students and the money that comes with them. On the other hand, there is the school board's own code of ethics, link; their number...

A: Because they don't want you to know how bad it really is.

Q: Why will there never be a poll of APS employees, on their morale and confidence in their leadership?There has been a poll of APD police officers, link.The majority of respondents reported low morale and dissatisfaction with their chief.Subordinate evaluation?I don't need no stinkin'subordinate evaluations.If APS employees were given a similar survey, they would report low morale and dissatisfaction with their chief too.Low morale doesn't...

Armenta and Chavez; "communications staffers" or Journal bias?

It has bugged me from the first reading of Hailey Heinz' report on my federal civil rights lawsuit against the school board and a handful of individually identified board members and senior administrators.Two of the senior administrators and named respondents are APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta and Director of Communications Rigo Chavez.Chavez is being sued in his capacity as "Records Custodian" and not over his...

Do Brooks and the board really need their own Police Department?

Their legislative agenda, link, indicates APS' lobbyist will be lobbying for their very own publicly funded private police department, a far cry from their publicly funded private police force.A police "department" is a step up from police "force"The APS Police force has oversight,an APS police department will not.They will be accountable only to Brooks and the board. Brooks and the board say they need a "department".Only if they are a police department can their officers "... specialize in working with children to focus...

Information overload?

The city has recently posted more public records on their website. KKOB reports that people are wondering if the new deluge of data from the city is "too much" data.The Journal reports on the deluge as well, link.All data has to be stored somewhere. It might as well be stored in a place that is readily accessible to the people whose data it is. There cannot be "too much" data, as long as it is searchable.In theory there...

Editors ask APS for the truth

The editorial headline,APS, Give the Public Information It Deserves,promises far more than the editors deliver. It turns out that the editors are just upset because when APS puts an employee on administrative leave, they are very closed mouth about what they've been accused of doing. They wonder, is there more to the story? and conclude, who knows?The editors apparently do understand that ... providing students, parents and taxpayers...

Why won't the Journal look at the record?

The Journal, Kent Walz, Charlie Moore, Tommy Lang, whomever, has reported, link, upon my complaint in United States District Court. The report was not based on a due diligence investigation. They either haven't looked at readily available evidence; the public records of every meeting where I have allegedly misbehaved, or they're choosing to not report on it.The video and audio tapes of board and committee meetings provide incontrovertible...

The "spirit of the law" a la APS

The Journal gave APS' Custodian of Public Records Rigo Chavez space to argue that“Albuquerque Public Schools follows the letter and the spirit of the state Inspection of Public Records Act,and has done so in this case.”The "case" he refers to; the board and administration have in their possession, findings from at least three investigations into felony criminal conduct involving senior APS administrators. Those findings are public records and are subject to the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act, link. The spirit...

Journal reports lacks candor, forthrightness and honesty

Journal reporter Hailey Heinz reports, link, on my lawsuit against APS and several board members and senior administrators.Heinz investigated and reported upon the lawsuit without talking to me. Not once, not one word. Though a substantial part of the complaint has to do with retaliation over what I have written on my blog, Heinz chose to not mention it. Whatever her motivation, the effect is the same, less public exposure of allegations of a scandal in the APS.School board enforcer Marty Esquivel was allowed...

"Jerk's" mother thinks Korte is an idiot

The war of words between APS school board member and batterer Kathy Korte, and the mother of a special needs student that Korte publicly labeled a "jerk", continues, link, under a headline reading;"Mother Upset With APS Official Korte"Why does it not read; Mother Upset With APS Board Member Korte"?The mother is upset, not only because Korte labeled her son a "jerk", but also because Korte did it within her elected capacity;as a school...

Monica Armenta is a named respondent in a federal complaint.

It represents a violation of the First Amendment, for government to make a law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press. In this case, for APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta, to make a law, rule, policy, regulation, or stipulation abridging the freedom of the press. A central question is, who is the press? Who is protected by the First Amendment under the cover of the press? Whatever "the press" was at...

Open letter to the editors and news directors,

the people whose fist pounds the table last when decisions are made about investigating and reporting upon the APS.A complaint has been filed in United States District Court against the school board collectively, individual members specifically, and three individual administrators. Depending upon when the process service reaches them, they may be unaware they are being sued.My complaint is; they have denied my right to speak freely and petition my government, and they have denied me due process in reversing their denial.The...

Game on!

Late this afternoon, a complaint was filed, link, with the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico, over violations of the First and Fourteenth Amendments.For the better part of two decades, I have been trying to hold administrators and school board members honestly accountable to meaningful standards of conduct and competence.In order to silence me, and in retaliation for my engagement in Constitutionally protected activities, they violated my rights under the First and Fourteen Amendments. They discriminated...

The problem; whiny parents, jerky kids, and the media.

APS School Board Members Kathy Korte is a role model.Sometimes, a not so good one. Fortunately for APS students, they probably won't readread about her in the Journal today, link.Korte; role modeling the Pillar of Respect for the photojournalist she batteredIf we want children to grow into adults who embrace character, and courage, and honor, someone has to show them what it looks like.Korte, instead, shows them what it looks like...