Oma on Board: June 2013

Esquivel lets students down

APS School Board President Marty Esquivel is the subject of a number of complaints file in federal court. He would like very much, to escape the consequences of his several violations of my civil rights.The truth is not on his side.He doesn't want to tell the truth in response to Interrogatories,he doesn't want to produce the truth in response to Requests for Production.He looking for standards of conduct that allow him to not tell...

NM FOG elects Executive Committee - badly

Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce President and Chief Executive Officer Terri Cole has been elected FOG's (interim?) President. The election of the Executive Committee normally takes place in October. This one took place "earlier this month". Another election is scheduled for the fall. "Administrator 2" informed me that "there were some delays and the board had not met since October", and, "there was a vote for a...

Eubank Elementary School staff is "sick". Winston Brooks is the cure?

In the Journal this morning, link, we read that Eubank Elementary School is "struggling". The Journal coverage amounts to reporting the administrative spin on the problem, as usual. Data on real problems at the school; violence, drugs, weapons, chronic disobedience; is still being carefully, deliberately, hidden, link.The data they provide on the struggle is predictably sketchy. The usual demographic data can be found...

APS School Board voted; the Pillars of Character Counts! are still the student standards of conduct.

I have stumbled upon the minutes, link, of the March 18, 2013 Policy and Instruction Committee meeting.They indicate that, following the annual review, School Board Vice President Kathy Korte moved to accept changes in the Student Behavior Handbook, link. Her motion was seconded by Lorenzo Garcia, and then passed unanimously by the entire board. It was on the agenda, link, for final approval at a regular board meeting two days...

APS Board Meeting minutes and videos - nowhere to be found.

The leadership of the APS made a commitment to post minutes and videotapes of board meetings. A quick check on their award winning website, link, reveals they've not posted minutes since the beginning of April. They've not posted a videotape since March.Why not? Has their policy changed? When? Why?The Journal, KRQE, KOAT, and KOB TV can at least get in the doors at 6400 Uptown Blvd, they could ask why APS' live stream of board meetings is not viewable, why board meeting videotapes are not being posted,...

"Learning to read, reading to learn"; anything more than a jingle?

Decisions are being made that will have a profound impact on the education and lives of children in public schools.It will be a mistake to make those decisions based on a jingle;"the catchy sound of a simple, repetitious rhyme or doggerel"rather than on the best interests of those children.It will always be in the best interests of a child to be learning.It will always be in their best interests even if they're learning something other than;the same thing 30 other kids are learning; all at once, or, what anyone else thinks...

APS School Board split

It would appear there is a split in the APS School Board - basically old members against new. The newbies are School Board Member Analee Maestas with two years of experience and the brand new members, Donald Duran and Steven Michael Quezada.Whether a split board is good or bad is subject to dispute; it's nice to have a smooth running board in basic agreement, but it can be taken too far as in the monolithic boards under former School...

Will Esquivel be deposed? Will Brooks? Will Armenta?

I was asked by a friend if I believed that the most powerful people in the APS are actually going to be deposed; testify under oath.The possibility that they and co-defendants David Robbins and Rigo Chavez might somehow weasel out of testifying under oath is a constant possibility; their litigation budget is unlimited and there is no (public) oversight, link, over the spending.The board and administration pretend that lawyers defending...

Who is the "press"? Sez who?

“Man is free at the instant he wants to be.” according to Voltaire wikilink.And by logical extension;Wo/man is the press, at the instant s/he wants to be.According to the First Amendment to the Constitution; the government, at every level,shall make no law ... abridging ... the freedom of the press.A law that requires man to "prove" they are the press,and in especially that, they be required to prove it to somebureaucrat indulging a whim,...

APS Board Meeting open to the public

The APS School Board will have a regular board meeting Wednesday night. On the agenda, link, "discussions" of the district's progress on the first two of its four goals.Progress on the third goal was subject of a previously postponed presentation and defense by APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta.Armenta's "spin" on her own progress(the leadership of the APS being loathe as it is to evaluation of itself by anybody...

The Citizens Advisory Council on Communication

In August, 2011, a group of good and decent people got together, wrote a petition, gathered more than a hundred signatures, and then hand delivered it, link, to the school board during a public forum at a regular school board meeting.It was ignored until March, 2012. link, when it was "considered" by the District and Community Relations Committee. The petition was denied a good faith response; in particular by School Board Vice President...

Armenta goes into hiding

APS Communications Director Monica Armenta was scheduled, in a regular board meeting last Wednesday, to present and defend her part and progress in meeting the third of the district's four goals; establishing communication between APS and the community it serves.Had she presented last Wednesday,there would have been a public forum, her presentation would have been videotaped and most importantly, it would have been (supposedly)...

Will Marty Esquivel commit perjury?

Or will he instead, finally admit that he has no intention to be held accountable as the senior-most role model of APS student standards of conduct?Note; student standards of conduct is lower case. There is no such thing as "APS Student Standards of Conduct".There is a place, the APS Student Behavior Handbook, where students are told they are expected to "model and promote" the Pillars of Character Counts!There are no higher standards...

Board meeting video not posted

Taxpayers have invested a great deal of money in video equipment and salaries in order to make video recordings of board meetings and whatever else they feel like taping. The district has made a commitment to post the video by the following Friday; yesterday.A check on APS award winning website, link, reveals that not only has this week's video not been posted, neither has the one from the previous regular board meeting. Nor from the meeting before that, nor the one before that, nor the one before that.If you choose...

APS postpones progress reports

On the agenda at the APS School Board meeting yesterday, two progress reports.APS' highly paid Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta was scheduled to defend her progress in reaching the third of the districts four goals;Family and Community Involvement; APS will meaningfully engage families and enhance partnerships with the community to maximize student achievement.Also on the agenda, the highly paid Chief of Police Steve...

APS student standards of conduct compared to APS Supt Winston Brooks' standards of conduct

They should be the same right? They aren't. There are two standards of conduct in the APS,the one that applies to students and the one that applies to their adult role models; the people who write the standards of conduct that apply to the people who write the standards conduct.The one, manifestly so very much higher than the other.If you go to APS' award winning website and search for "student standards of conduct" you will find Student Rules, link.You will find the Student Behavior Handbook, link.A quick check...

APS "communications" effort disengenous at best

During the APS school board meeting Wednesday, there will be a public discussion around their goal number 3:APS will meaningfully engage families and enhance partnerships with the community to maximize student achievement.Conspicuously absent from the recently reworded goal to improve communication with interest holders, is any mention of the word "communication", in particular, any mention of "two-way" communication. By "public discussion"...

APS has put a document together.

They call it Community Input on Goals.It represents everything they learned during theircommunity meetings on APS Goals setting.I do mean everything.Even for APS, it is not to be believed.It is 109 pages long, link.I can't begin to guess how much it cost taxpayers,nor can I begin to describe,of how little use it will be to them....