FFRF is strongly urging the board to reject the adoption of American Birthright standards and uphold its duty to provide standards grounded in current scholarship, reflect best practices in social studies education and be inclusive for all student backgrounds and ability levels, as recommended by experts such as the National Council for the Social Studies.
“Public schools have a duty to ensure that instructional materials do not promote a particular religious viewpoint,” FFRF Staff Attorney Chris Line writes.
Social studies standards that falsely teach that Christian history and Christian traditions are inherently American and/or that religion makes up the fabric of ethics and morality (under the guise of secular history and moral philosophy) blatantly promote Christianity and violate the rights of district students and parents.
The district documents all money going to Merit, and all money withheld, in their flowthrough spreadsheets. It’s interesting comparing last year to this year. Here are the two files to open and look at while reading this post:
April 2023 (this is the latest one I have for last fiscal year…scroll towards the end of this link)
You’ll notice changes in the first section, revenue being directed to Merit. They’ve been given portions of more line items than before.
The Buyback Services section is where the largest changes can be found. Money withheld for administrative oversight has decreased from 5% to 0.8%. Buildings/grounds maintenance has decreased by 61%. Overall, Merit is paying $323,883.14 less in buyback services this year than last year. Note however that last year, they were being charged $150,000 for construction/renovation costs. It’s unknown if that amount covered everything done to the Middle School or not. So perhaps a more fair number to use in this comparison would be to say they’re paying $173,883.14 less in buyback services this year.
Also note that Merit is not paying the same proportion of transportation costs as the rest of the schools in the district. As for food service, while they’re participating in that program, there is no written agreement in place and no costs being shared with Merit (that program is mostly but not completely funded by the statewide free lunch program).
Since the insurgent school board was elected in November 2021, the district’s problems have multiplied: legal expenses have increased by more than 900%, with much of that taxpayer money flowing into the pockets of established political operatives; the district is hemorrhaging staff at a rate far above the statewide average for the second school year in a row; and the once-quiet mountain town is now at risk of being swept away by rivers of bad blood flowing from the fights picked and petty vendettas pursued by one board member in particular, whom district parents have described as “unhinged” and “psychologically disturbed.”
— Read on coloradotimesrecorder.com/2023/09/davis-fear-loathing-in-woodland-park/56044/
This school board election campaign is heating up on social media, with collaboration becoming more and more apparent. Take this example from a recent Facebook thread on the Teller County Community Page. Local SAC member Heather Scholz dove into the debate about mask mandates in schools, and posted this screenshot…which happened to catch Katie Illingworth (David Illingworth’s wife) texting her with advice on making this an entirely new message thread instead of just a reply on September 9th:
This has been a recent topic of debate…Dave Illingworth posted this on his campaign page on Facebook:
Given this, it wasn’t surprising to see Dave’s wife Katie step in to help guide this conversation elsewhere on social media.
What appears normal on the surface though, has one serious problem.
In July, Heather Scholz formed an Independent Expenditure (IE) committee called “Teller County for School Choice”, with the stated purpose of:
TO UPHOLD EDUCATIONAL FREEDOM IN TELLER COUNTY’S WOODLAND PARK RE-2 SCHOOL DISTRICT, OUR COMMITTEE ENDORSES SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATES WHO PRIORITIZE SCHOOL CHOICE.
After September 1st, it is illegal for any candidate or candidate commitee for public office to collaborate with an IE. In this Facebook thread, Katie Illingworth attempted to collaborate with Heather Scholz on messaging regarding mask mandates in the district, an issue her husband was promoting in his own Facebook page. Yes, in this case it’s Dave’s wife collaborating and not Dave himself, but the question then becomes, is his wife working on his campaign in any way? As someone who has shown a keen interest in our school district, being one of Merit Academy’s co-founders and later a Merit Academy board member, it is unreasonable to expect she would not be a participant in her own husband’s re-election effort. There’s a chance this level of collaboration *might* be OK…but if it can be influencing any expenditures of that IE (advertising messages, etc), it would definitely not be OK.
As a side note, Heather’s IE is currently delinquent, having not filed their 9/5/2023 report of donations and expenditures. She’s being assessed a penalty of $50 per day for this.
She may perhaps find some success in requesting a waiver of fees…David Illingworth himself has faced fees multiple times for filing his paperwork late (though his requests for waivers were typically denied). Go dig around the Tracer website if you want to learn more (search for either ‘candidate’ and then Illingworth, or choose ‘committee’ and then ‘Teller County for School Choice’.
It took a few CORA requests, but I finally have the preliminary enrollment numbers for our school district, as of the end of August. These are absolutely not final, it’s the count in early October that matters, but it’s a valid data point that shows where we’re starting this year at. I’ll update these numbers once the official October count is complete.
Since this is the first year of universal pre-K in Colorado, I’m excluding those numbers from each years’ comparison. Just focusing on Kindergarten through 12th grade. Also note, I’m using CDE data for previous years (download the ‘membership_grade_by_school’ files). Merit Academy has many students in their homeschool enrichment program, and the CDE counts those as 50% (for funding purposes). So for consistency, I’m applying the same 50% there (for ’23-24, they have 60 students in this program so that counts as 30 in the numbers below; they had 59 the previous year).
In summary, this is yet another year of declining enrollment in our school district, even considering the growth in Merit Academy.
’21-22
’22-23
’23-24
Traditional Public School enrollment
1749
1676
1592
Total District Enrollment*
2036
2007
1986
* – Merit was legally part of ERBOCS in ’21-22, not WPSD, but is being counted as WPSD for comparison here
Here’s the breakdown by school for the same time period. Merit has shown growth, the other schools are decreasing. Note the sharp drop in the Middle School for this year is largely due to moving 6th grade from that school to the three elementary schools.
This school board has consistently voted to boost Merit and ignore our traditional public schools, and these numbers reflect that. We continue to see declining overall district enrollment, too.
If you have concerns about me not including preschool in these numbers, here are the enrollment totals WITH preschool included:
’21-22
’22-23
’23-24
Traditional Public School enrollment
1832
1791
1721
Total District Enrollment*
2119
2122
2085
* – Merit was legally part of ERBOCS in ’21-22, not WPSD, but is being counted as WPSD for comparison here
Lastly, note that per CDE data, in the ’22-23 school year, 473 students in our district opted out, and went to schools in other districts. We don’t know what the numbers are for ’23-24 yet.
We dug up some info on Mindsight, the mental health counseling company the district is partnering with, and wrote about it here.
There are interesting links when you dig into the company Bates and Illingworth are using for (presumably) voter information. They’re one of Truth and Liberty Coalitions ‘influencers’.
School board meeting Wednesday, 6:00, district conference room. Agenda here (livestream link in the agenda). Public comment has been moved to after the ‘actions’ section.
In case you missed it, last spring the district made huge cuts to the mental health services in our schools, refusing to reapply for grants that totaled about $1.2 million and paid for about fifteen jobs in our community. We ended up with some academic advisors in the high school (not licensed counselors), and Witt saying each school would have one counselor in it. Shortly before school started, they sent this email to parents:
WPSD has partnered with Mindsight Health, a mental health support service, to offer professional care and support for our students and in partnership with their families.
Mindsight Health is a skilled team of highly trained mental health professionals passionate about school-based mental health services. Their mission aligns with our commitment to provide the best possible educational experience for our students, recognizing that the mental health of our students plays an important role in academic achievement.
Partnering with Mindsight Health allows us to offer students and families mental health support services within our school systems. WPSD remains dedicated to ensuring parents are actively involved in seeking and receiving mental health support for their children. Mindsight Health professionals will be available to provide individual therapy to district students and can meet with their families to discuss how best to support their student. With this partnership, we aim to empower parents and guardians to engage with their child’s mental health needs, working hand in hand with WPSD and Mindsight Health professionals.
Additionally, we have dedicated space within our high school for Mindsight Health professionals to meet with students upon receiving parent or guardian consent. This private space will ensure the confidentiality of information exchanged between Mindsight Health professionals and the
students and families. Moreover, this service is accessible to WPSD students of district run schools that have a qualified need, with Mindsight Health first working with the family’s insurance to ensure coverage.
What sets Mindsight apart is its dedication to tailoring its services to meet the unique needs of each student. By carefully pairing students with a therapist whose skill set complements their individual needs, Mindsight ensures that every child receives personalized attention and the
most effective support possible.
To learn more about Mindsight and its services, please visit their website at www.joinmindsight.com.
We’ve looked into Mindsight, and they’re a small Colorado Springs based company with questionable experience. They specialize in these in-school mental health services so seem to be just part of the latest trend to privatize our schools. Founded two years ago, they are a very small company, with two people showing up on LinkedIn, and another co-founder not popping up there – and no information about their staff on their website. Despite that small size, they claim to be supporting 18 different schools in this area. I’ve heard rumors from district insiders that the Mindsight reps are not experienced (one said she is starting her course work, but hasn’t had a class yet), and that there are long wait lists (two months), and while I lack proof of those claims, it does seem plausible with the information they’ve made publicly available.
So, the district chose a small Colorado Springs based company to provide mental health services. Are there other companies that they should have considered as well? Absolutely…and one that instantly stands out is Bloom, a local company started by our former Mental Health Supervisor Laura Magnuson. She’s attracted some experienced staff to her business, and it’s located right here in Woodland Park. I was really curious why they chose Mindsight over our local option of Bloom, so I submitted a CORA request for any RFPs (Requests for Proposals) for mental health services…the response was, “”There are no documents responsive to this request.”
What did this no-bid deal with Mindsight involve? Another CORA request dug up the written agreement we have with Mindsight. I’ll include some bullet points below, but you can read the entire document for yourself at this link.
The agreement is for one person (or equivalent total support from multiple people) to support the district.
Mindsight may use interns for these services.
Both verbal and written permission from parents is required before initiating any mental health services.
Mindsight is not a ‘crisis response organization’
Mindsight will have access to student information, schools, and classrooms, as might be expected.
If Medicaid or private insurance are not applicable for a particular student, the district will pay the fees.
Travel expenses will be reimbursed at a rate of $30 per day.
Last but certainly not least – the initial term of the MOU is from August 1, 2022 through July 21,2023 (yeah, they wrote this for the wrong year).
Andrew Wommack wasn’t kidding back in 2021 when he called his followers to “take over” Woodland Park, the mountain town of 8,000 west of Colorado Springs that’s home to his ministry and Charis Bible College.
In their latest campaign expense filings, both David Illingworth and Mick Bates list a $250 expense to Crimson Central Services in Colorado Springs, for “Canvassing Services” (you can find all this info on TRACER). Let’s dig deeper. Here’s a list of all election campaigns that had similar expenses with that company for last month:
Six expenses of the same amount for various school board campaigns in different cities…it seems likely these are for the same purpose. We at first thought this was for door knocking, as that’s the traditional definition. However, those two Canon City BOE candidates list a different purpose for their $250 expenses…one lists ‘software expense’, the other lists ‘voter data’. If you look at the past history of this particular company, they have a very large number of expenses of $1,250 for consulting and data. It seems most likely that Bates and Illingworth are paying Crimson Central Services for voter data, which is a normal thing for a candidate to seek out anyway.
Who is Crimson Central Services?
Crimson Central Services is an LLC filed in Wyoming – a state which allows LLC owners to mask the identity of their owners. But the records on Tracer list business addresses, and 6140 South Gun Club Road, Unit K6-354 in Aurora, a UPS store where I presume the 354 is a mailbox number. So, bit of a dead end there. These days though, their address is listed as 100 East Saint Vrain Stree, unit #105, in Colorado Springs. Who else is at that address? Victor’s Canvassing.
Now, Victor’s Canvassing is not a company I’d expect you to have heard of. However, they identified themselves when handing out this flyer to teachers’ homes:
The return address on that flyer (some were mailed, some delivered in person by Victor’s Canvassing) lists the Freedom Foundation in Washington…a right-wing group known for attacking unions and public education (link1, link2, link3, link4, link5…you get the idea). So, no surprise to see them involved here, and not surprising to see Bates and Illingworth using a similar canvassing company as the Freedom Foundation.
But we’re not quite done digging! Who is behind Victor’s Canvassing? The Chief Operating Officer is Daniel Fenlason:
So, in summary – Bates and Illingworth appear to be using the services of a canvassing company that’s closely linked to the Truth and Liberty Coalition and Andrew Wommack, as well as the Freedom Foundation.
