Last Week:

• There’s a new reporter looking into our district, Logan Davis with the Colorado Times Recorder. You can read his first article here.
• The WPSD class of 2024 took the SAT test this spring, and results are in – they set a new district record, and scored above state average!
• The district hosted a job fair on 6/10; we’re told that four applicants showed up. There are currently 56 openings in the district. The staffing shortage in the district appears quite bleak. We learned more about the staffing levels, especially with regards to special ed programs, via leaks from various insiders; you can read more about that here.
• A CORA request revealed the list of words that, if used in an email to the board or superintendent, will cause your email to be automatically rejected. You can view it here. Free speech has limits with this board.
• Last April, the WPSD board spoke out against a Colorado bill to expand mental health screenings to all students. Their resolution was virtually identical to that from some other Colorado school districts. Now, Moms For Liberty (regarded by some as a hate group) is taking credit for helping to get this resolution passed and is confirming that attorney Brad Miller wrote it. It is not a creation of the WPSD board at all, it looks like we were just being used as pawns.
• The district released its preliminary FY24 budget and will discuss it on 6/14. One thing noticed was only $50k allocated to legal expenses; that’s only enough to last 2-3 months at Brad Miller’s current burn rate. There’s $100k allocated to implementing a ‘Capturing Kids Hearts‘ program in the district, something we’re looking into more as it’s not without controversy and, naturally, has not been discussed in board meetings or with the community at all so far. The district did not publish notice of the budget in the Courier as required by law, so discussing this on 6/14 appears to be illegal.

Here’s what’s coming up this week:

• The next school board meeting is Wednesday, 6/14, 6:00, in the district office conference room. We’ve asked the board and superintendent if they will move the meeting to the auditorium or elsewhere with greater capacity, but have not received any replies. Note that since the budget will be discussed in this meeting, Colorado Law states that any taxpayer in the district is entitled to attend this meeting. It’s not clear if watching via a one-way video conference (livestream) would count as ‘attending’. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines ‘attend’ as ‘to be present at’ or ‘to go to’. The law suggest they would not be allowed to refuse entry to taxpayers like they did in the 5/10 meeting.