A letter sent to the WPSD board recently by a community member:

Dear BOE Directors:

I cannot express the anger and disappointment that I am feeling as a result of the announcement regarding the middle school last Friday. After the turmoil over the past two years, and recent election in which the results were very close, I had hoped that the incumbent directors would be a little more willing to solicit input from, and to listen to, staff, parents, and students. Clearly that was wishful thinking.

Over 30 years ago, the taxpayers of this community approved a bond issue to build a new school so that 6-8 grades would have their own space away from high school students. For 29 years, the Woodland Park Middle School was that space, and then a new school board was elected. The middle school has been a place for 6-8 graders to transition from elementary school and get ready for high school. The middle school grades are unique because of the massive changes that kids go through at this age; they aren’t little kids anymore, and they aren’t teens and young adults. The middle school is a place for these kids to not only learn academics, but to experience greater choice of electives than elementary and start to develop their own interests, to join sports’ teams, academic teams, and Forensics, and to have a safe place in which to grow that belongs to them.

Starting last year, the middle school students started to lose their space. The middle school was being, “under utilized.” There weren’t 30 kids in every classroom. When Merit Academy was given half of the middle school building, the middle school students lost a large part of their space. The middle school staff went on educating middle school students and working to make sure that all students were welcomed into the safe space of the middle school. Then the decision came, despite parental and staff input to the contrary, to move 6th grade out of the middle school that was built, in part, for them. It was stated that the middle school was over-crowded (funny, since a year prior it was, “almost empty”). Parents, staff, community, etc. were told that it was so much better for the 6th grade to be in the elementary schools away from the older middle school students. A BOE director gushed over the, “opportunities,” that Superintendent Witt had created for the 6th grade students at the elementaries. Did you ever consider the opportunities that were stripped from them? In the middle school, 6th grade band students have band five days a week. Art, P.E., Consumer and Family Studies, Choir, STEM classes meet five days a week. They have all academic classes five days a week. In the elementary, they are lucky to have electives two or maybe three days a week. Thanks to the middle school band teacher now having to travel three days a week, 6th grade students get one day of band weekly, which will have a negative impact on the future of the WPSD band program. In the elementary school, science and social studies are not taught every day. 6th grade students no longer are able to join the Forensics team like they have for years, and just when 6th grade students were being added to all middle school sports teams, they get moved out and lose the opportunity.

Now the 7th and 8th graders are losing their entire building. If it wasn’t good for 6th graders to be with the older 7th and 8th graders, how is it good for the 7th and 8th graders to be with juniors and seniors? What considerations have been made regarding this move? The middle school PE program just received equipment to upgrade their fitness room. Where will that new equipment go in the high school building so that the 7th and 8th grade students will be able to utilize it? Will the middle school students really have their own safe space in the high school? Will they still have their beloved teachers and administrators? What about classroom space and storage space? Is there really adequate space in the high school? The high school building has numerous problems due to its age. Will all available space be safe for students? And what about sports programs? At this time, there are 7-8 basketball teams, and depending on numbers, could be as many as 9, practicing and playing games. Middle school practices daily in the middle school gym (with new bleachers that have WP). They play games on Mondays and Wednesdays. High school teams practice in both the North gym and main gym and play games usually on Tuesdays and Thursdays in both gyms. The high school boys and girls, as they have done for decades, already alternate early and late practices. Can you explain how this will work when middle school teams are added in the mix? How are up to 9 teams going to practice and play games in two gyms?! The same goes for the fall with volleyball. The cheer team has to practice after volleyball practices, and in between basketball early and late practices. Baseball has started their preseason practices, and the cheer team now has to shorten their time because the baseball team needs the space. During track season, middle school practices on the middle school track. Will they still be using the middle school track when they are housed in the high school? If so, will the district be bussing them each afternoon to the middle school? What kind of costs will be incurred in order to provide for middle school and high school teams.? Can you explain how this is even fair to WPMS and WPHS students and athletes? Can you explain how it’s ok for Merit to have 10 kids in a class, but when the middle school only had 25 kids in classes, it wasn’t enough?

For the past two plus years, it has appeared that, although the BOE is the board of WPSD, it has done everything in its power to benefit Merit Academy at the expense of WPSD schools, particularly WPMS. Now, please understand that I am all for school choice; I’m in support of having a charter school. But I am not in support of how the BOE has worked to destroy WPMS. Most charter schools are not given a building that is already in use, and then push out the students that are using that building. What has been done is wrong. It is decisions like this, without thought, without staff, parent, student, and community input or support, that continue to create strife. It is also decisions like this that continue to put Merit Academy at odds with WPSD parents, students, and staff; not because of Merit, but because of the actions of the WPSD BOE.

With sadness,

Laurie Gutierrez
Community member, taxpayer, former WPSD student, former WPSD staff member