When I was a student in the APS, there was a week in the fall that students eagerly anticipated. It was the week of Teacher Convention and students got a couple of days off.Likely there were teachers who looked forward to that week as well; an opportunity to get together with other practitioners and improve their individual and collective practice.Teachers no longer have conventions, but administrators do. In town this week the Council of the Great City Schools convention.The leadership of the APS is deeply involved, link. ...
Is the Council of the Great City Schools Fall Conference a boondoggle?
read more "Is the Council of the Great City Schools Fall Conference a boondoggle?"
Brooks Tweets! Journal covers it?
In the Journal this morning, link, we find that the leadership of the APS attended a rally and while there tweeted and re-tweeted photographs of posters with uncomplimentary depictions of the governor and public education secretary.Apparently, the Journal reporter questioned the propriety of the tweets and was told, no offense intended.With respect to the likelihood of anymore disrespectful tweets in future, the highly paid APS Executive...
Peercy to be honored, but not for his moral courage
The Journal reports, link, APS School Board Member David Peercy is apparently in consideration for a prestigious award from the Council of the Great City Schools. He is in the running for theRichard R. Green Award, which APS Superintendent Winston Brooks described as “the most important award a superintendent, administrator or school board member can receive.Whatever the award is for, it is not for moral courage.David Peercy runs APS Policy...
Journal education reporter moves on
Unless I missed it, Journal education reporter left without so much as a peep in print. In a tweet to her followers, she indicates that she works now for UNM's Center for Ed Policy Research.Hailey Heinz, Board Member David Peercy and APS COO Brad WinterShe is but the latest in a line of education reporters who no longer do. Heinz distinguished herself in my mind as the only Journal reporter who flat out refused to listen to...
"Winston Brooks: misleading the public ..."
So begins the flip side of a flier sent to River City residents this week. The flier was the product of New Mexico Competes.According to blogger Joe Monahan, link, New Mexico Competes primarily for more power consolidated in the hands of Governor Susana Martinez and shadow governor Jay McCleskey.The self evident purpose of the flier is to dishonestly manipulate public opinion regarding APS Supt Winston Brooks and education reform.I...
Esquivel and Walz should resign from NM FOG leadership
New Mexico in Depth and Heath Haussamen, link, come with a piece on problems in the leadership of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, to whit;FOG Pres Terri Colea President wanting to give unearned accolades to deliberate obstructionists and,a Vice President who is self evidently conflicted in his roles as an elected and public servant and, as a watchdog over electeds and public servants.NM FOG VP Marty Esquivel's appearance...
William Dixon must be spinning in his grave!
Turn in one's grave, wikilink.William Dixon, in whose name the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government presents Dixon Awards to heroes of open government, was a co-founder of FOG; he and Journal Managing Editor Kent Walz put it together together.A Dixon Award has been given to both Marty Esquivel and Winston Brooks. That would be unsettling enough for the founder, as both of them are up to their eyeballs in a cover up of corruption...
KRQE, KOAT, and KOB TV cowardly or corrupt?
There is an ethics and accountability scandal in the leadership of the APS.All anyone in the media, or anyone else for that matter, has to do to investigate the allegation to their complete and utter satisfaction, is write an email toAPS Director of Communications and Custodian of Public Records Rigo Chavez.They don't have to go anywhere, they don't have to do anything, and they don't have to believe anybody. All they have to do is...
More dishonesty, of the Esquivelian kind.
APS School Board President Marty Esquivel, by and through his lawyers, has told a federal court that he "... is entitled to summary judgement (sic) on Plaintiff's claims as they relate to ... the August 25, 2010 Audit Committee Meeting based on a lack of personal participation. (emphasis added)In his sworn testimony, Esquivel says he said "(Get) Out. Please get out." I don't believe he actually said "please" for whatever that's worth....
Monahan picks scab off NM FOG
Blogger Joe Monahan sounded a FOG ALERT this morning, link.I have sounded the alert as well,as recently as yesterday.I have been sounding the alert ever since the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government gave APS Supt Winston Brooks a Dixon Award for heroic transparency, while knowing that he was hiding, and continues to hide, the finding of several investigations of felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators. Findings...
NM FOG Vice President says, the First Amendment is just too damn confusing, for anyone to expect him to follow it.
New Mexico Foundation for OpenGovernment Vice President (andDefendant in a federal civil rightslawsuit) Marty Esquivel argues thatthe law is too unsettled for him tohave known that what he does to mein the following video violated myFirst Amendment rights. Esquivel ejected me, he insists, not because of what I was saying, but because what I was saying included personal attacks and dealt with personnel issues. It did not, as you...
Esquivel lies again, this time before a federal court judge
In Defendant Marty Esquivel's Motion for Summary Judgment, he made a claim that is an outright lie. All of his motions are characterized by a profound lack of honesty, but I point to this one in particular because it is so demonstrably, unequivocally dishonest.The claim is based on Esquivel's sworn testimony, and reads;"(During my public forum appearance on November 4, 2009, I made) allegations that a particular senior APS administrative...
APS teacher morale horrifically bad throughout the district
APS Supt Winston Brooks, in a Journal report, link, suggested that “75 percent of the morale problem is because of the PED reforms and 25 percent is because of the implementation of the new common core standards.”Consider for a moment, the statistical unlikelihood that his estimations are accurate. Are there really no other factors in declining morale among teachers; not even one?Bad times and bad morale don't necessarily correlate.Good leaders can get people through bad times andwith their chins up.Bad leadership and...
The Council of the Great City Schools Fall Conference coming to APS
APS Supt Winston Brooks has a monthly Journal column. This morning, link he wrote about the upcoming national conference of the Council of the Great City Schools.His column is called "From the Top" and, in an interesting aside;during his deposition, Brooks made it clear that he actually believes the Kevlar reinforced dais; the raised platform at the front of the John Milne Boardroom behind which he and the board hide during school...
Armenta swears; no one (in the media) ever asked
In her sworn deposition testimony, APS Executive Director of Communications Monica Armenta testified that there is nothing she needs to know that could be found on my blog.She was asked, if she never read the blog, how does she know that there is nothing on it she needs to know.She replied;... no one has ever asked me a question in the media about it. There has never been a question, according to this, is this happening? There...
It was Melendres who reported that no top administrators in APS would be left standing
In a Journal report, dated June 8, 2007, link, it was APS Modrall APS attorney Art Melendres who offered up the boast for publication;"Sam Bregman has said that, by the time this lawsuit is over, there will be probably no top administrators in APS standing because his goal is to take everyone down."Why would Bregman think that the truth that APS Police Chief Gil Lovato had to tell, would bring down the top of the APS?It could be nothing...
The first government takeover; the takeover of government
When the government was first formed, it was widely understood, but not yet expressed, that government was to be of the people, by the people and for the people.As government matured, it became more independent. Less attention by the people was necessary and, less attention was paid. The people wandered off to make livings, raise families and build a country.The power of government grew in inverse proportion to the people's...
Skandera's PIO; debate; we don't need no stinkin' debate!
Albuquerque Teachers Federation President Ellen Bernstein invited NM Public Education Secretary Hanna to Skandera to participate in a “formal debate” on the new teacher evaluation system.Teachers, arguably the most qualified to speak on teaching and teacher evaluation, want to sit down and have a two way discussion about how teachers should be evaluated.Bernstein asked for a serious debate “that includes the voices of the professional...
Where does the press get to stand?
There are good and ethical restrictions on where members of the press (or anyone else) can stand and participate in the deliberations of their government; the wielding of their power and the spending of their trust and treasure.Genuine safety concerns are exemplar;you can't set up a tripod in anyplace that complicates an emergency evacuation.There are at least two schools of thought;1. The government has the right to tell the...
I know squat about Character Counts!
During her sworn testimony, APS School Board Member Kathy Korte offered that I was in no place to tell her anything about Character Counts! because I am ignorant on that subject.My lawyer asked her if she knew I was trained in Character Counts! by its founder Michael Josephson. (That I had done dozens of highly acclaimed trainings before audiences including a sitting Governor, and APS superintendent, and that I am as knowledgeable...
Journal editors think I'm a gadfly; they have written as much
1. A persistent irritating critic; a nuisance.2. One that acts as a provocative stimulus; a goad.3. Any of various flies, especially of the family Tabanidae, that bite or annoy livestock and other animals. They think ill of me after years of defamation by the leadership of the APS. They think ill of me because the leadership of the APS convinced them to. The editors accepted the slander and libel and acted upon it. Whether...
Is Brad Winter's testimony credible?
I am going to write from memory here; if the transcript contradicts me, I will let you know.APS COO Brad Winter was testifying under oath. He testified that after the August 25 Audit Committee Meeting, I walked up to him and invaded his personal space by leaning in and whispering something he took to be "threatening" in his ear. I already told you what honestly happened, link.Winter ended up arguing that no one has ever leaned...
I cannot, I was told, have it both ways
I have testified under oath, that I believe the leadership of the APS has made a deliberate decision to ignore me.I have testified as well, that I believe the leadership of the APS is retaliating against me because of the content of my speech at public forum, and because of what I write on my blog.You can't have it both ways, I'm told. If they are retaliating against you, they are not ignoring you.Honestly, I never thought of it that...
Korte doubles down on "the kid is a jerk" remark
APS School Board Member Kathy Korte drew some attention, when in an email to constituents, she referred to an APS student as a jerk, to a parent as whiny, and to her belief that KOAT TV cannot be trusted to tell the truth about APS.KOAT reported on it. link. School Board Member Targets Action 7 News in EmailToday in her sworn testimony, she indicatedshe still feels the same way about the little jerk,so there. In so far as her expressed belief that KOAT TVcannot be trusted to tell the truth about APS, she and Ifind ourselves...
Korte testimony indicates no understanding of her obligations as a role model of student standards of conduct.
In her sworn deposition thismorning, APS School BoardMember Kathy Korteanswered enough questionsabout Character Counts! andabout the role modeling ofthem, to conclude that thereare severe limits on herknowledge about either.Nothing in her testimony would lead anyone to believe that she knows; Character Counts! was adopted for the entire APS by unanimous school board resolution. The 1994 resolution has been neither rescinded nor modified. ...
George Washington and the cherry tree; new development
I am curious about what my readers are curious about. One had linked to a very early post, link. It was entitled and read;George Washington and the cherry tree; new developmentIf you asked a Leader of the APS, did you chop down the cherry tree? If they answered they would say, through their lawyers, “Prove it.”And then they would use a whole bunch of money to keep you from doing that. The money comes from people who think that...
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