Hello and welcome to a new school year at Albuquerque Academy! We’re not gone, and we haven’t given up. Neither should you.
After a summer break, we are back and ready to continue working to find ways to Save Albuquerque Academy, and we hope you’ll join us.
First, a comment on the reorganization of the site. Over the summer, we decided to archive the forums from last spring. Comments can no longer be added to them, but they are still available for perusal at this link. Some of the concerns raised in those forums were addressed last year. Many were not, and will furnish additional material for discussion in the coming months.
With that said, we are making a new set of forums available for discussion. We’re doing this because, unfortunately, there is still no avenue for open discourse about the Academy’s problems; many community members have reached out to us saying that they need a place where they feel free to talk, even if it’s virtual and anonymous.
As in the past, an email will be required in order to comment, but it will never be made public or shared with anyone.
Please keep in mind that our purpose here is a constructive one. Personal attacks will not be tolerated, and inappropriate posts will be deleted by the administrators.
This is a good time to review and restate our aims:
– We demand an independent audit of the school’s past and present finances, including their overlap with the finances of High Desert Investment Corporation and those of Tiburon Investments, LLC. We are willing and able to establish a GoFundMe account to take donations from community members to help cover the costs of such an audit.
– We demand that the results of said audit be made public and kept available for perusal by any community member at any time.
– We demand that the Board of Trustees publish its bylaws and charter and make public the process by which new trustees are nominated, vetted and confirmed.
– We demand that the Board of Trustees conduct its meetings in a manner compliant with its own bylaws and charter. We further demand that the dates of Board meetings and the minutes of such meetings be made available to the community.
– We demand the right to form a Faculty and Staff Senate, which will be empowered to nominate and select representatives to observe Board meetings and participate in them as appropriate. We further demand that these representatives be allowed to communicate openly with the faculty and staff, and that they be allowed to bring faculty and staff concerns to the attention of the Board.
– We demand that the Board make public the results of Andrew Watson’s evaluation, now two years in the past. We further demand to know what actions have been taken to remedy any problems uncovered by said evaluation.
– After a full, thorough and public accounting for the Academy’s murky financial past, we demand that a detailed plan for future direction of the school and its resources be created by the Board and shared with the public, including specific goals to be met and a timetable for meeting them.
– And finally, it is sadly necessary that we demand that the school’s Board and administration promise not to retaliate against faculty, staff, alumni, students or community members who speak out on these pressing issues. The deafening silence which continues to muffle the campus is the most disheartening part of our present reality, but it will not change until such guarantees are given in good faith.
I am a proud mom of an AA alum. It is very sad to hear that the faculty and staff were basically interrogated about what they said or did. They are the lifeblood of that school! The CEO, CFO and the board must be held accountable. There is no excuse!
Albuquerque academy students are expressing fear and retaliation. ( please feel free to interview a few of them) America stands for freedom and courage. If anyone ,( leave alone an educational institution that takes care of budding adolescent population ) creates fear in these young minds, if they are unable to be reformative but punitive , it is negligence on our part to sit and watch .
AA does not have a due process for disciplinary actions. The decision making is at the mercy of the deans who are half baked in terms of their experience. They are unfair and carries on investigations with no training. They are arrogant when they speak with kids and parents. There are kids who bring attorneys with them to communicate with the deans. There must be a fair, at the minimum “a due process “ for disciplinary actions both for teachers and students.
Wherever injustice prevails, sooner or later top line growth has to and will suffer. Academy is funded by the community at large one should exercise due deligence in contributing charity dollars to an organization with ruthless leadership.
Thank you for giving us this space and god bless you and your family !! We need brave souls like you to ensure we leave this world a bit more compassionate than when we had arrived.