Woodland Park School District has gone off the rails.
The new superintendent and school board members think that’s a good thing, as they say those rails — mainstream public educational practices — were not properly educating their children. Many students, teachers and parents have protested the new policies and see this as an extremist right-wing takeover.
— Read on pikespeakbulletin.org/featured/refugees-from-woodland-park-heading-to-manitou-schools/
Monthly Archives: June 2023
Colorado Governor’s Distinguished Improvement Award (Gateway Elementary)
As previously reported here, Gateway Elementary was honored with the Governor’s Distinguished Improvement Award recently! The thing is though, no one in Woodland Park seemed to know about it until I posted it on Facebook. We found reference to it on the CDE’s website, and a couple weeks after making this info public, the district did finally issue a press release about this.
I learned via CORA that Superintendent Ken Witt received two emails from the CDE about this back on April 27th (email 1, email 2). Here’s what Witt received:
Good morning,
On behalf of Commissioner Anthes, I am pleased to invite you to participate in CDE’s School and District Awards Ceremony on Thursday, May 18 from 2:00-4:30 p.m. to recognize the achievements of your district from 2022!
The award designations for 2022 were noted on School Performance Frameworks, and our Competitive Grants and Awards team will be reaching out to you following this email with a list of your award recipients.
We are hoping that you can attend the awards ceremony and reception and look forward to hearing from you. Knowing that it is a very busy time of year, we will also be delivering award banners and certificates to districts who are unable to attend. Attached you will find an invitation with event details including how to RSVP.source
Kindest regards and congratulations,
Rhonda Haniford
Not only was our district a no-show at the awards ceremony, but I’ve heard nothing about any of the promised award banners and certificates. It’s not clear why the board and superintendent are handling this the way they are.
The reason for the crowds at the 5/10 board meeting
The May 10th board meeting, as previously reported on here (and also on NBC), was more than a bit chaotic, with unprecedented turnout and around half the attendees being shut out in the rain. While we knew there was a huge number of Charis Bible College students in attendance, the reason for their sudden interest was unproven. One student told a local TV reporter a board member had told them to appear. We don’t know whether that’s true, but we do know that earlier that day, Charis founder Andrew Wommack, Charis executive director Richard Harris, and WPSD DAC member Aaron Helstrom appeared on a Truth and Liberty Broadcast appealing to their followers to show up at that board meeting. You can watch that in the video clip below.
At the end of this video. Wommack talks about a ‘swatting’ incident; be aware that most of what he says is incorrect (it wasn’t ‘swatting’, it wasn’t a board member, it wasn’t at Walmart, etc). The actual facts of that incident should become apparent after the trial (for the person who made the 911 call) in early July.
Woodland Park School District Celebrates Academic Achievements and Excellence Across Schools
The Woodland Park School District announced achievements by two of its schools.
According to the district, Woodland Park High School earned the Marzano High Reliability Schools Level 1 certification, which recognizes a commitment to establishing a “safe, supportive and collaborative culture” as the foundation for student success.
“By addressing and evaluating day-to-day school operations, WPHS ensures a keen focus on student achievement,” the district said in a press releasse.
The Marzano HRS program uses a research-based five-level hierarchy along with other indicators to transform schools into proactive organizations prioritizing student success.
“By utilizing the HRS framework and indicators, WPHS can achieve sustained, positive, and significant impacts on student achievement,” said the district.
Ther district also said the Class of 2024 at WPHS set an all-time high SAT mean score of 1022, surpassing both state and national averages by 33 and 67 points, respectively.
The Class of ’24’s SAT math mean score of 496 falls just four points short of meeting the Colorado Benchmark for Career and College Readiness (CACR), comparatively, the state mean score falls 16 points lower than the CACR benchmark.
Their Evidence Based Reading and Writing (EBRW) mean score of 525 exceeds the Colorado Benchmark for CACR by 55 points. These achievements underscore WPHS’s commitment to providing a well-rounded education that prepares students for success in all areas.
Only 22% of students met college board benchmark expectations in 2017, while the class of 2024 now boasts 68% meeting EBRW benchmarks and 44% meeting Math benchmarks.
“WPHS has witnessed a significant shift in student outcomes over the years,” the district said. “These percentages surpass state and national averages, showcasing the commitment of teachers and administrators across the district in fostering academic growth and ensuring the success of WPHS students.”
Gateway Elementary wins governor’s award
Gateway Elementary School received the 2022 Governor’s Distinguished Improvement Award, recognizing the school’s progress in meeting and exceeding academic growth expectations, as evaluated by the state’s school performance framework.
Outgoing principal placed on leave, gag order issued
A CORA request has revealed that retiring Gateway Elementary superintendent Ashley Lawson was placed on administrative leave (with pay) on June 8th. While no cause was given, the email did say it was NOT disciplinary action. Her access to email and voicemail was suspended, and her access to ‘district or school grounds’ was restricted to ‘by appointment’. She was also prohibited from contacting any students, parents, or personnel involved with the district, via any ‘medium of communication’. Lots to digest there, but at a minimum…does the district really have the right to prohibit an employee from speaking to people like that?
6/25/2023 Weekly Update
Last Week:
- Investigative journalist Logan Davis published his second article about Woodland Park (if you missed the first, one, click here).
- A school in South Carolina also banned the book “Between the World and Me” from its classrooms.
- There were several good letters to the editor published in the courier, on June 14th, and June 21st.
Here’s what’s coming up this week:
- The next regular board meeting will be in August.
Another school bans “Between the World and Me” from the classroom
Earlier this year, Woodland Park banned/removed the book “Between the World and Me” from the classroom. A school district in Chapin, South Carolina has done the same.
Wood’s lesson plan was a part of preparing for Advanced Placement tests and involved watching two videos about systemic racism, reading Coates’ memoir and doing research with a variety of sources. Then, students were meant to write essays on their understanding of the book and make an argument about whether they agreed with Coates that systemic racism is a problem in the U.S.
Crazy that even healthy discussion and debate of sensitive issues is not allowed in conservative-controlled schools.
You can watch the author’s discussion with MSNBC here (shortly after WP banned the book).
Letters to the Editor – June 21, 2023
Some letters to the editor from the June 21st Courier:
Illingworth explanation inaccurate
David Illingworth’s depiction of the 5/10/23 WPSB meeting was inaccurate and incomplete.
I was one of a handful of teacher/student supporters inside the building. Here’s what really happened. Board supporters were first at the door and let dozens of people to the head of the line. Fox news reported about 100 people from Charis Bible College showed up exhorted by Andrew Wommack and one Charis person interviewed said she received a message from a Board member to attend.
When Mr. Illingworth said there was heavy attendance due to NBC News presence “… and organization by well-known activists whose goal was to swamp the meeting …” he was referring to his supporters organized by Charis and the Board.
Citizens have made numerous written requests to the Board to have the meetings in the auditorium because overflow areas were needed. The Board has not responded. Overflow people were sent to the Commons area therefore could not feasibly attend public comment if chosen. The alternative was to stand in the rain. The meeting ended, the room emptied and the NBC reporter wanted to speak with attendees who had been outside.
As I left I mentioned this to security and the door was slammed shut keeping the people out in the rain longer. They were eventually let in. This is another example of the despicable behavior of this Board and its total disregard for the community. New candidates have stepped forward, Keegan Barkley, Seth Bryant and Mike Knott. Remember to vote in November.
Gail Gerig, Woodland Park
and:
State teachers union does not control WPEA
As former president of the school board, I hope to add historical perspective of what has and has not happened in WPSD.
Local staff living in our community make up our WPEA. For the last decade plus less than 50% of our local staff and teachers enrolled, but WPEA has listened to and represented all staff interests in district conversations. In no way has the teacher’s union “controlled” our district, but they have contributed to the district: Without collaboration and compromise, there would have been walkouts several years ago when their pay was the lowest in the region, going several years without increase. They remain dedicated to their focus on educating our students.
Most of the union members and employees do not fit a radical left-wing progressive stereotype. I know teachers Republican and Christian who are members and non-members. As in any profession, you will find representatives from a diverse perspective–one of the wonders of America!! Let’s stop vilifying our teachers and community—which has led to the loss of many high-quality educators and staff.
Keep it local. Get to know our teachers and staff members, rather than state and the national narratives. Show your dedication to the children of WPSD by building relationships that listen.
Carol Greenstreet, Woodland Park
and:
We all want the same basic things
The divisive/polarization of our community leads to poor solutions. Livable solutions are found near the middle. Folks on extremes won’t like middle-solutions, but middle-solutions are most acceptable to a majority of free society.
We all want the same basic things: living peacefully in our homes, providing for our families, taking care of widows/children/infirmed. We want government to be nonintrusive yet help when essential (like roads, policing, national security), to stay out of our wallets as possible, out of our medicine cabinets, and out of our bedrooms.
We can agree on many things, whichever side you support in the current conflict with WPSD. Everyone wants schools where children and young-adults feel safe and nurtured. Everyone wants the traditional values of true-kindness, hard-work, excellence, factual-honesty, respectful- accountability. We don’t want anyone to be bullied or singled out as too different. These are faith-values, and also human-values.
If the WPSD Board would take time to truly listen to all community members, show the leadership required to find the direction that most could agree with, acknowledging that all parents want what is best for their children, much of the division might be ended.
As the current board members seem to want to make WPSD a test case for fundamentalist-like doctrine directed toward “christian-nationalism” for most schools, seemingly uninterested in middle-ground-solutions, a new, less-radical, less-divisive school board is necessary. We can come together if necessary with proper new leadership be you conservative or liberal in November.
Toni Moore, Libertarian/Republican voter, and Rodney Noel Saunders, Liberal/Democrat voter, Woodland Park
DAVIS: The Specialists: A Woodland Park Investigation
From the outside, the events unfolding over the past year and a half in Woodland Park – where a far-right school board won control in late 2021, and has since pursued an aggressive agenda of banning certain books, demonizing the local teachers’ union, cutting funding for mental health services, skirting open records and public meetings laws, approving a highly controversial charter school without due process, and firing staff and faculty for speaking out against them – seem like an extension of the right-wing’s long standing animosity to the public school system. On closer inspection, though, what’s happening in Woodland Park looks like something new: an evolution of that old fight, where the goal is no longer to shrink and dissolve the public schooling system, but to seize control of the system and use it to train up a new generation of conservative voters.
— Read on coloradotimesrecorder.com/2023/06/davis-the-specialists-a-woodland-park-investigation/54189/
Letters to the Editor – June 14, 2023
Here are a couple letters to the editor from the recent Courier:
Local teachers know and reflect the values of our community
In the May 31 Courier, an article titled “Colorado teachers union adopts anti-capitalist polemic” was included. Our local teachers association, WPEA, has a 40+ year history of working collaboratively with the school board for the betterment of both students and educators, amicably and productively. All our work is focused on local education issues, our local students, and Woodland Park teachers.
When CEA released its resolution regarding capitalism, WPEA members collaborated to release our own statement, May 9th: “Recently, the delegate assembly of the Colorado Education Association released a resolution regarding capitalism. The Woodland Park Education Association, which is made up solely of local teachers and school employees, is governed locally by its own elected board. WPEA does not support the CEA resolution as it does not reflect the values of our members or our local community. We support and benefit from our local economy. Our schools are supported through our local sales tax initiative, which was passed with strong support in 2016, and was the result of a collaborative effort between our school board, teachers, parents, and community. As an association, we are focused on working to create the best possible schools for our students and the educators who work tirelessly to support them.”
I encourage our community to talk directly with Woodland Park teachers to learn about this issue. Students, parents, teachers, and the school board working together, and listening and learning from each other, is the best hope we have for continued growth and success for our students.
Nate Owen, WPHS Teacher and WPEA President (source)
Also, a guest column:
Change happens. At age 16, my friend and I worked as maids at the Wishing Well Motel in Crystola. In the afternoon we would ride our horses up the pass and tie them up at the only place in town to get a soda. We knew everyone’s name and everyone’s story. Needless to say, Woodland Park — and all of Teller County — looks very different today.
Growth and modernization is inevitable. It’s a change I can live with. What breaks my heart is the enormous change in how we treat each other. Senior citizens in Teller County all remember a time when we had no clue about other people’s politics. We based our friendships and actions on shared interests and shared needs. When we engaged in family feuds or fought over local issues back then, it was using our own “inventive venting” often followed by a joint effort at a common solution.
I believe what I see happening in our community today is something new and pernicious and divisive. Today’s feuds are fought in Letters to the Editor, over Facebook pages, on Next Door, and at community board meetings using media-generated phrases coined by conflict entrepreneurs because outrage sells. It feels like we’re creating a climate based on “winners” and “losers”. Tribalization will not only stand in the way of relationships; it will stand in the way of progress.
Surely, I can’t be the only person who is both sad and scared by the polarization that has come to our community.
I can’t be the only person who is tired of seeing the same names and the same name-calling. I can’t be the only person who is frustrated by what appears to be a total lack of desire to work together or to really listen to one another.
I desperately want to believe there is a silent majority of Teller County residents who are disheartened by all the invective. A silent majority who hunger for respectful dialogue rather than diatribes whose only impact is to further polarize us. A silent majority who believe that there is a place for respectful listening and productive compromise. And likely we’re also the exhausted majority — fed up with the craziness and ready for something else.
It’s time for us to stand up and speak out. Let our friends, our neighbors, our community organizations and our leaders know this is not who we want to be. That we demand respectful and concrete dialogue that’s solution-oriented and focused on the uniqueness of our local issues., using personalized and productive conversation rather than language provided by national pundits with their own agenda. Let’s show that we’re out here and let’s work to depolarize Teller County. If we don’t, we will all lose.
A nation divided against itself cannot stand. Neither can a community.
Billie Donegan (source)