Educators Sound Off

Our educators are being mistreated by APS and the APS’s superintendent, Winston Brooks.  We all entrust our educators to mentor, care and educate our children and grandchildren.  Hiring Brooks was a bad move in the first place and retaining him is an even bigger mistake on the behalf of APS.  Brooks and APS have established a pattern of abuse against our educators.  Let’s see; when you treat someone bad they; A) try to please the burro Brooks? And B) become discontent and start to push back?  What kind of ignoramuses runs APS?  It appears Brooks and APS believe in the imperialistic mentality.  

It is common knowledge Books came from Wichita, Kansas.  Although, Albuquerque has plenty of local talent; APS gave the job to a guy from Wichita, how does this truly benefit Albuquerque?  When Dorothy’s (Brooks) contract ends, he will pack up and take his money and pension and head back to Kansas.  And Albuquerque, well, let’s just say we get left holding the dirty end of the stick. Dorothy’s salary including his benefits package totals $273,000.   Hiring Brooks is a form of out-sourcing and the Elitist Berry is guilty of the same offense against Albuquerque.  The question is why?  Why does APS give a job worth $273,000 to a guy from Wichita and not a citizen of Albuquerque?  Why not invest in our own people? By proxy this is an investment in Albuquerque’s future.  Hire local and they will stay here, live here, SPEND here and invest here.

 

Here is how one of our Eyes describes Brooks and his actions: 

You can add Winston Brooks to your list of imperialist's running Albuquerque. He is ruling like an abusive spouse. We have only received a 2% raise in 8 years. He has his administrators tearing down the egos of the employees. At personnel reviews they are telling 90% of employees that they are substandard. An abuser always keeps 10% as the "model" employee so that they may feel much more superior and do whatever they are asked to keep the abuser happy. They are not focusing on anything that the employee has done right- just what they do wrong. They are telling everyone if you don't like it get another job. They are running higher paid employees out with flimsy reasoning.

Now to top the cake they have moved our pay from 26 pay checks in one year next year to 27 paychecks in one year and 2 weeks- this will mean about $60-$100 a paycheck for people who are already living very close to the edge. Prior to making this declaration they asked the teachers for feedback on different new pay options- the teachers chose 24 paychecks as it would be the least painful. Brooks turned around and choose the most painful of all the choices. Their reasoning was that to do 24 was too confusing for payroll- apparently APS payroll is done by a guy with an abacus- in a dark corner of the ivory towers. On top of all this- they really haven't shared this with a majority of educators. Did they just think it would be ok for them to find out when their first check came in next August? There is just a general disregard for the educators. 

It's time for the workers to make some noise.

We agree completely with this Eye. It is time for the educators to make their voices known and heard.  Brooks and APS must STOP abusing the hard working employees.  The educator is the backbone of the school.  Our future Mayor, Paul Heh, has made it clear: education is one of his top priorities.  Heh knows our educational system in Albuquerque is dismal, at best, and is in need of repair.  And the problem is not our educators.  We need to stop the abuse of our educators and allow them to do the job they were hired to do.  Stopping the abuse will be an enormous step towards repairing our educational system.  The mayor can make several corrections peripherally and place stringent pressure on APS to rectify the abuse and start repairing APS. 

There are thousands of educators in APS. This is equivalent to a HUGE VOTING BLOCK!  If the educators unite and they all vote; they could easily determine who our next mayor will be.

IF YOU WANT THINGS TO CHANGE FOR THE BETTER; VOTE PAUL HEH MAYOR AND WATCH THINGS IMPROVE IMMEDIATELY.