New Meeting Time?

[Bitcoin]

Has the meeting been rescheduled?
If so, for when?

[savetheacademy]

We don’t have a new time yet. We know this is frustrating; we’ll keep you posted as soon as we know anything.

[Step up folks]

Does anyone else find the cancellation by Adam a little off, given we all are quite aware that this weekend was a 3 day weekend? Did he forget or was this one more stalling action that seems prevalent by many in positions of power?

[Zina]

You said it, Step Up.

I also find it very annoying indeed that the meeting on Tuesday is “private” and scheduled for a time when most parents will be at work.

[Bitcoin]

If Adam valued parent input he would have simply joined his family in Taos on Saturday afternoon.

[Mala Cidenya]

February 18, 2018

Dear Mr. Honegger and members of the Academy Board,

Thank you for your letter of February 11. We appreciate your efforts to address some of the many issues which have become matters of concern for the community. We’d like to ask for further clarification on one point you made: your statement that “I can assure you that he [Mr. Watson] was given no raise in years when faculty and staff did not receive any raises.”

We are still puzzled by this statement, because we don’t understand how it can be true. Please help us to understand.

Mr. Watson’s salary data for the two-year period in question are below. We have confirmed that they are correct as reported in the IRS Form 990s (screenshots in the attachment to this email). Note that these figures consist only of base compensation and bonuses / incentives, and do not include benefits or retirement.

2008/09

2009/10

2010/11

2-Year Increase

$312,624

$338,425

$350,526

$37,902 (12%)

You say in your letter, “… the assertion that [Mr. Watson] was given raises during years where teachers received none […] is false and is instead an artifact of reporting changes, payday schedules, and, in one case, what we believe is an incorrectly entered figure on one of our annual 990s.” This raises three immediate questions:

First, we have examined the IRS records, and we are aware of no “reporting changes” that would take an actual flat salary over this two-year period and produce the increasing sequence of salaries reported on the Academy’s 990s. Will you kindly point us to the IRS “reporting changes” you refer to?

Second, we know of no “payday schedules” that would distort an actual flat salary and produce the increasing sequence of salaries on the 990s. Since Academy employees are paid biweekly, a shift in payday schedule would at most move two weeks’ salary from one year to the next. It could not produce the sequence of salaries reported in the annual 990s.

Third, you say that “in one case…what we believe is an incorrectly entered figure on one of our annual 990s” caused the problem. Will you kindly tell us which figure that is? We assume that the Academy’s accounting department is preparing an amended Form 990 for the incorrectly reported year. Will you let us know when that amended Form 990 has been sent to the IRS and then make it available to the Academy community for examination?

Trust lies at the heart of a healthy community. We therefore believe that nothing is more important than full transparency regarding Mr. Watson’s compensation for the two years during which he asked Academy employees to take a salary freeze.

Thank you again for your letter of February 11, and we look forward to hearing from you.

Concerned Parents, Employees and Alumni of Albuquerque Academy

[Eyes Open]

I logged in this morning hoping to find an update to the 2/16 meeting scheduled with members of the Board and Mr. Hibbett et al. No surprise that it was postponed yet again. So, what is the plan to compel the Board to explain the current state of the endowment, and share the plan for survival?

The optimist in me says the Board is working behind the scenes to compile the most accurate data so, when they do meet with Mr. Hibbett’s group, they can present a corrected course for stabilizing the endowment in perpetuity.

The realist in me knows certain members of the Board, and Andy Watson, are using this time to rally their support and mute this discussion. There are no plans to give an inch.

In the last few weeks I have heard varied reactions from parents, most are apathetic because they are not on “scholarship”. I am not sure it is well known the tuition for EVERY student is subsidized by the endowment. Otherwise, current tuition would exceed 35K a year.

What next?

[Eyes Open]

Has a new meeting time been offered by the Board? What next?

[SemperFi]

Six trustees held a two-hour meeting with faculty and staff on campus today. Overall, it was a good meeting. There are still many questions to be answered, and some points are still fuzzy (i.e. the “clerical errors” that allegedly account for Mr. Watson’s pay raises during the salary freeze).

But it was a first-ever chance for employees to actually meet the trustees. And they showed that, in general, they understand how serious the finance and leadership issues are. One respected former administrator summed up the meeting by saying, “What we have here is a serious problem of lack of credibility with the board. And it’s now up to the board to restore that credibility.”

Several faculty urged the trustees to schedule a public forum/town hall meeting. Mr. Honegger said he felt it would be a good idea.

So we all hope that they will schedule one for the larger community at a convenient time, soon. If they don’t it will be a serious missed opportunity to answer other questions and fill in some important details.

PS: To the website administrator: can you publish an update about today’s meeting? Your past ones have been really useful. Thanks!

[Author]

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