The purpose of this blog was to be a positive and proactive venue for improving education in the APS.
That is not possible with leadership that refuses accountability; even as role models for students; and while there is no hope that that situation will ever change.
…it is simply impossible.
The fight for the right of stakeholders to participate meaningfully in the decisions that affect them will continue on Diogenes’six.
They did not write that the APS board of education has adopted a comparitively meaningless and absolutely unenforceable standard of conduct as the standard that they will model before students and staff.
as you might expect,
please read the essays on Diogenes’six.
please read about it on D6, and then please show up at the board meeting to stop it.
At the meeting tonight, the board will vote to lower their standard of conduct; knowing full well that even the lowered standard is completely unenforceable.
In so doing; they will abdicate as the senior role models for 90,000 students and 12,000 employees in the APS.
They will betray their commitment to Character Counts.
They will do it in front of a virtually empty room, and it will not be reported in either the Journal or the Trib.
Read the whole story at Diogenes’six
The board will vote on a motion to approve the draft code of ethics, as the final formal code of ethics for the board.
I am offering a friendly amendment to the motion.
Be it resolved that;
Students are “required” to model and promote the Pillars of Character Counts.
The phrase will be replaced by the following;
Students are “encouraged” to hold themselves accountable to a higher standard of conduct.
Further,
Be it resolved that;
Because stakeholders are not allowed to discuss this motion, it will have to be offered by a board member; and then supported by four of the seven members.
Paula Maes and the Modrall law firm will oppose the amendment. As will Robert Lucero.
It will require the support of four of the remaining five board members; Berna Facio, Delores Griego, Mary Lee Martin, Gordon Rowe, and Marty Esquivel.
1 Make the education and well-being of students the basis for all decision making;
2 Understand that the legal authority of the board is derived from New Mexico Statutes and Administrative Code, which determine the degree of power delegated to the board for local decisions;
3 Speak on behalf of the board only when the board by official action provides authorization to do so; and respect the confidentiality of information that is privileged under applicable law;
4 Establish an open, two-way communication process with students, staff, families and all segments of the community;
5 Become informed of issues brought before the board and participate in discussions and debates, while respecting the rights of other board members to have opinions and ideas that differ;
6 Accept responsibility and accountability for one’s own actions and behaviors;
7 Avoid conflicts of interest or the appearance thereof and refrain from using the board position for personal or partisan gain;
8 Recognize that board members have no legal authority outside board meetings, and that all decisions of the board will be made at public meetings where a quorum of the board is present and only after a thorough review of all the available information;
9 Delegate authority for the administration of the schools to the superintendent and establish a process for accountability of administrators;
10 Support persons best qualified to serve as school staff and make every effort to ascertain that all employees are properly remunerated for services, and that they are dealt with fairly in the performance of their duties;
11 Study educational issues and participate in professional development to enhance individual ability to serve as a board member; and
12 Attend all scheduled board meetings insofar as possible.
This is not a code of ethics.
Consider in particular, rule number 6; Accept responsibility and accountability for one’s own actions and behaviors.
By the board’s own admission, the code is completely unenforceable.
That was the advice given to the the APS school board by editors in a Sunday Journal editorial.
The advice is sound. It is the responsibility of the school board to point the direction, and the responsibility of the new superintendent to figure out how to get there.
Any search for a new superintendent is premature until the board determines a direction for the District. Is it finally time to explore site based management; or will we continue with the old school; the expectation that we can find one person who knows more, has greater insight and greater vision than all of those who spend their days at the educational interface?
The Tribune asked in a poll of its readers; what do you want in a new superintendent?
Perhaps the school board will follow the Tribune’s lead and ask its several thousand experienced and trained educators; what do you need in a new superintendent?
When the APS Board of Education adopts its own Code of Ethics Wednesday night; there will be three codes of conduct in the APS. One applies to students, one applies to administrators (and co-incidently to all other employees), and one which will apply to members of the board of education.
The student standard of conduct is by far the highest of the three standards. They are accountable to a nationally recognized, accepted, and respected code of ethical conduct.
The administrative standard of conduct does not include accountability to any standard of conduct that uses the word ethical. In fact, they are accountable only to the law;the lowest standard of acceptable conduct in a civilized society.
Board members; once they adopt their new code of ethics, will not be accountable nder that code, to any code of ethical conduct; nor in fact even to the law. By their own admission, their code of ethics will be completely unenforceable.
Neither administrators nor board members are accountable under their codes of “ethics’, as role models.
…leadership by example.
please read at Diogenes’six
