Where is APS Angela Cadwallader and APS Board on STEM? Was their intention to disband APS?

It’s now been 5 months since a new school board was elected which promised change and transparency and yet what is there to show of progress from this new regime? 

The progress is the dismantling of APS a credible threat of APS to loose millions in funding to an alternative Charter System and not a peep from Angela or the board to counter this proposal.

Does Angela and the board support dismantling the APS system and the creation of a charter school? Their silence says yes.

The APS board was elected and promised a mandate of change, transparency and the mission of enhancing APS as the best system possible.

What have they accomplished to date? 

Construction has yet to begin on a new Chaparral Middle School! The promise was progress would happen! Yet nothing more has happened in regard to Chaparral than the past board accomplished.

The public has lost absolute confidence and has no faith in the new APS board including seated board members.

The new board of Craig, Brandy and Shannon have NO faith in their OWN abilities to lead APS to greater success or else they would be vocal in  OPPOSITION to the planned Charter Sacramento School of Engineering and Science

Craig Danekas sat on the founding board, resigned when a conflict of interest investigation emerged and yet, still has committed to “seed funding” of the charter which will pull 156 students and millions of dollars out of a system he was elected to enhance and improve. 

How does one improve a system that has 156 of the brightest kids pulled from it and the funding that follows. 

Danekas should resign from the school board immediately. He does not have the interest of ALL of the students that will remain at heart. He has proven an allegiance to an elite group ignoring the needs of at risk and minority students who won’t have the same opportunity and who will be left behind from the charter school concept. 

Brandy Murphy and Shannon T Wright sit on the APS board yet attend meetings with Maingate United and the Charter School founders keeping them abreast of the progress and ensuring their support. Neither has addressed to the public how loosing 156 students and the millions in funding will be mitigated within APS? They don’t care about the students that will be left behind.

The board president has been silent on the proposed charter school. 

The irony with the Charter concept is former school superintendent Jarrett Perry while as a seated Superintendent was a vocal opponent to any Charter School taking funding from his APS system under HIS watch, but now he sits on the board of a Charter concept and is championing it using the muscle of the Chamber of Commerce. What a great flip flop, do you feel the hypocrisy! 

The new APS school board has FAILED to address the Charter School threat!

The new charter is targeting an August 2025 opening date. It will open long before ground is even broken on Chaparral Middle school at the rate the new board is moving.

So what’s the new board accomplished to date? 

They hired an interim superintendent paying him $140,000 a year all the while placing the seated superintendent on a paid leave at $140,000 a year. They hired a law firm to investigate the old board and superintendent at a fee of $60,000, a parallel investigation is being conducted by the state auditor for free. Another waste of taxpayer money. The new board suspended Maria Bauma as a part of their investigation and is paying her as well as per state law instead of letting her work. They cancelled the Dreamscape contract delaying by another year the implementation of a new a better technology for student learning. 

And, they have allowed a group of elite individuals all of which have pending litigation or initiated investigations into APS to move forward with a credible effort to open a charter school and pull 156 kids and the funding out of the system of which they have the responsibility to manage.

Why is the charter school gaining traction because the new board is failing and has failed to address a plan for enhanced STEM curriculum within its own system.  The new board must lead now and today! 

According to the U.S. Department of Education, “ALL young people should be prepared to think deeply and to think well so that they have the chance to become the innovators, educators, researchers, and leaders who can solve the most pressing challenges facing our nation and our world, both today and tomorrow. But, right now, not enough of our youth have access to quality STEM learning opportunities and too few students see these disciplines as springboards for their careers.”

Introducing curricula and educational programming focusing on science, technology, engineering and mathematics is intended to help better prepare students in these areas of learning and create practical applications for how these lessons apply to the real world should be the #1 priority for the APS board of education WITHIN the system they have responsibility and oversight of.

STEM education is designed to encourage students to pursue these subjects as well as innovation and research in their education and career paths. This focus will help prepare future generations to best handle our world’s biggest problems Alamogordo High School should be offering this curriculum enhancement to ALL students not just a select few at another school outside of the APS programming. 

It’s time Angela, Craig, Brandy and Shannon step up and boldly oppose the Charter School or resign from the APS board! 

It’s time they step up and take the oath of office they pledged to the voters seriously! It’s time they actually do their job in expanding and growing the opportunities for students within the system they were elected to represent.

Or be honest and transparent and admit to the voters their mission is to dismantle and destroy the APS system and replace it with a charter system! 

Which is it? The public demands to know! 

There is a petition circulating that calls on the elected APS school board to expand STEM within Alamogordo High School and to oppose the Charter concept and its plan to offer an elite program to a select few students while the remaining AHS students then are offered a subpar education. How can we as taxpayers allow that to happen? 

Sign the petition and email each school board member that you DEMAND a strong STEM program WITHIN Alamogordo High School open to ALL students, not just a select elite chosen 156.

https://www.change.org/p/halt-the-establishment-of-a-proposed-charter-s…?

School Board email addresses:

https://www.alamogordoschools.org/community/school-board.stml

Now is the time to DEMAND enhanced STEM for ALL students within Alamogordo High School and APS. We demand equal access to ALL students for enhanced STEM opportunities.