Monthly Archives: August 2023

The war on public education

Great TikTok video that talks about what’s going on with the attack on public education at a national level…and it helps explain many of the actions in the Woodland Park school district:

@electrobrogers

Remember #christopherrufo? The guy that invented the #crt #culturewar #outrage? Back in April 2022, he just spelled out the reason he did it. Erode publictrust. #publiceducation #propaganda #teachersoftiktok #teacher #defendpublicschools #defendpubliclibraries

♬ Stranger Things – Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein

CDE publishes school performance ratings

The Colorado Department of Education has published its school and district performance ratings, here’s how our district fared:

As you can see, all schools ranked as ‘performance plan‘ (the only higher level is ‘distinction plan’), except for Merit Academy which saw its score knocked down one level to ‘improvement plan‘ due to their lower test participation rates. This highlights the issue that while test scores are important, if a significant number of students aren’t taking those tests, it becomes more difficult to truly judge the performance of a school.

(read more at Chalkbeat)

8/27/2023 Weekly Update

Last Week:

Here’s what’s coming up next week:

  • I’m working to get enrollment numbers. Official numbers won’t come out until October, but I think we’re all curious what’s going on with this.

Fostering transparency: Addressing inaccuracies in recent column | Guest column | Pikes Peak Courier | gazette.com

In response to a recent guest column published in the Courier, I was compelled to respond to the baseless accusations that were levied against me and my fellow candidates. While
— Read on https://gazette.com/pikespeakcourier/fostering-transparency-addressing-inaccuracies-in-recent-column-guest-column/article_e76e4bac-436f-11ee-86c9-734000db04e9.html?fbclid=IwAR313HIWVXw4UXe8GgEkKWnkESFLl5Mt_8GHIfI33up6UVJowfa5j4LIWcc_aem_AUhV5cjkEmwTUZZSD-LO0Sie6M0s3avqLchLB0hVprceeymapexZOP-qFDhblooM4rA

WPSD incumbents turn back to school night into campaigning opportunity

The Woodland Park school district back to school night is traditionally a student-focused time, where parents and kids get to meet their teachers and check out the schools before school starts a couple days later. While that was still the schools’ focus, the three school board incumbents – Mick Bates, Cassie Kimbrell, and David Illingworth – took advantage of this opportunity to campaign for re-election this fall. They made the rounds at each of the district schools, working the crowds (the two board members NOT up for re-election were not seen at the schools). The three challenging these incumbents were sighted at the schools where their children attend, but not the others.

Traditionally, the district has declared a Work Session whenever three or more board members gather at a school, as this would potentially be a violation of Open Meetings Law if they discuss district business. No such declaration was made this time though.

When they appeared at Merit the previous Friday, they even met with the two Deans of that school…and Illingworth’s Facebook post made it clear they were there acting as board members in support of Merit. So, it was communicated not as a campaigning event, but as board members meeting with the Denas to show their support (ie, district business). Here’s the post, along with a picture of them posing with the two Deans:

DAVIS: Onward Christian Soldiers – A Woodland Park Investigation

From the pulpit, Wommack preaches a fiery version of Christian nationalism, focused more on society than scripture, advocating for a near-theocratic merging of Christian principles and public institutions. His doctrine is wed to no real theological tradition, presenting as an incomplete reduction of Calvinist reconstructionism, Pentecostal dominionism, and American folk religion. He runs schools, churches, missionary organizations and political nonprofits. Soon, he hopes to run Woodland Park. 
— Read on coloradotimesrecorder.com/2023/08/davis-onward-christian-soldiers-a-woodland-park-investigation/55674/

Witt and Miller address the staff – August 22, 2023

On August 22nd, 2023, Ken Witt and Brad Miller addressed the district staff in the annual convocation. Ken Witt talked about updates to benefits, PACE, universal pre-K, their partnership with Mindsight (counseling company), SROs and security, and introduced his administrative staff. At timestamp 14:30 in the audio recording below, he handed it off toe Ariel Elliott, regional director of PACE (Professional Association of Colorado Educators), to discuss that program.

Brad Miller takes the mic at about 25:15. He talked first about policy KDDA (which the district is being sued over). He says the point of it was simple things like if there’s a snow day, they didn’t want misinformation going around about whether school was canceled (note that KDDA was cited when Witt fired a staff member last spring).

The most important part to listen to starts at 35:06, where Miller outlines the district’s new policy for ‘students who want to express or identify their gender differently than what they were born.’ He acknowledges Colorado law on the matter and says they’ll comply (he calls it ‘unavoidable law’), but it won’t be a slam-dunk for kids who fall into this category. Before the school will respect the kids’ wishes, administration will hold a meeting with the parents of that kid because, as Brad Miller put it 37:50 into this audio recording, “it’s the parents’ decision to make” (not the kids?!). I’ve heard too many stories about kids in families where they’re not free to talk about such things…I worry for the mental health and safety of kids that are facing these conversations.