Laura Magnuson of Woodland Park has been named Social Worker of the Year by the Colorado Chapter of the National Association of Licensed Clinical Social Workers.
— Read on gazette.com/pikespeakcourier/laura-magnuson-named-social-worker-of-the-year-in-colorado/article_6539df64-fe9c-11ee-bc14-3b689b63a5c4.html
(Former WPSD mental health supervisor who resigned when Ken Witt announced abandoning $1.2 million in grant money)
After seizing control in Woodland Park and also Elizabeth, Brad Miller has set his sights on the western slope community of Montrose, Colorado, as his next target, it seems. He already represents the sole charter school there (Vista), and now a new charter is in the application process, Montrose Classical Academy. A quick peak at their articles of incorporation lists Joshua Miller as the attorney (and the same address as Miller Farmer Law, where he’s an associate attorney).
This is how Brad Miller entered Woodland Park, if you recall. He was the attorney for Merit Academy to help them get started, and once enough control of the school board flipped, he became the attorney for the district and proceeded to influence sweeping changes (here it in his own words here). Now the small town of Montrose is being targeted. Will he succeed?
In August of 2023, the WPSD cut a check to Merit Academy for $270,155 in money from the ESSER III grant the district received from the federal government (this was COVID relief funds). I believe this meets the definition of fraud, as I’ll outline below.
The WPSD budget for the 2022-2023 school year (fiscal year 23, or FY23) – allocated all ESSER money to be spent on the five ‘traditional’ public schools. None was allocated to go to Merit Academy.
Merit FY23 budget didn’t include any ESSER grant money (in fact, there’s only $15,273 in federal money listed)
Money moving from the WPSD to Merit Academy is documented in a monthly ‘flowthrough’ spreadsheet – these monthly spreadsheets never showed any ESSER grant money.
On 1/31/23, Merit headmaster Gwynn Pekron reached out to Del Garrick requesting ESSER grant money; she was told that all money had been allocated for FY23, and that Merit could request money in FY24 if they wished (click here to read the email exchange).
In early June, Merit Academy again reached out to the WPSD about ESSER grant money, requesting money from FY24 (as previously suggested by Del). However, the FY24 budget passed by the board on June 14th showed $858,241 in ESSER grant money, none of which was allocated to go to Merit Academy.
On June 30th, 2023, Merit Academy submitted an invoice to the WPSD requesting $270,155 in ESSER grant money. That invoice was processed and paid in August 2023 (presumably, the delay was due to the district being closed for summer break).
As Merit had not budgeted to receive any ESSER money, they created multiple ledger entries on 6/30/2023 to retroactively justify the expense of the ESSER grant money (click here).
One consequence of this process was that the WPSD started the year with an inflated grant balance, that caught up to the district in January. In January of 2024, middle school parents received an email that an after school academic assistance program was being cut immediately; we were told it was due to a lack of funds to continue the program (funds were quickly reallocated to continue this program). Data obtained from a CORA request showed the ESSER grant fund was already grossly overdrawn, and the budget for that had been slashed from the original $858,241, to now only $523,524 (that difference, $334,717, is greater than the $270,155 that went to Merit in August and is as yet unexplained).
When I asked the board of education about this, director Kimbrell told me, “We were required to include Merit in the allocation of ESSER funds but the prior staff did not include them in the FY22-23 budget even though it was against the law not to.” The CDE’s website does not support the claim that it’s against the law not to include Merit (scroll to the bottom of that link).
So in summary, the board never approved any ESSER grant money to go to Merit Academy, in either year. This substantial sum of money was allocated to be spent on the other schools. Instead of going through the proper channels of including this in a budget (which then allows the public to be aware of how this money is being spent), the district operated outside of board overview and negotiated this directly with Merit Academy. The board approved a budget for FY24 which had inaccurate fund balances as a result. The WPSD deceived the public about where this money was being spent, by not only never including it in any budget, but purposefully publishing a FY24 budget that showed money to be spent in the district that didn’t actually exist (I believe this can best be described as fraud).
There’s another side to this that warrants further investigation. Merit Academy started life as a contract school under ERBOCES, NOT the Woodland Park School District. ERBOCES awarded some ESSER grant money to Merit Academy for the previous fiscal year, FY22 (this is the $10,845.60 number you see in the general ledger screenshot linked above). The question I have is, how did the state and federal governments determine the amount of ESSER grant money to award to the WPSD? If they based this calculation on the number of pupils in the district, it’s clear that Merit Academy was not part of the district at the time of ESSER grant money calculation…did ERBOCES receive extra ESSER grant money that should have been transferred to WPSD when Merit Academy was absorbed into the district in the 2022-2023 school year?
Colorado lawmakers were happy to announce that the state’s education budget stabilization factor, known as the “BS factor,” will be eliminated this year, paving the way for schools to get $10 billion in the 2024-25 school year, an estimated increase of $400 more per student.
— Read on www.coloradopolitics.com/education/colorados-budget-stabilization-factor-to-be-eliminated-paving-the-way-for-fully-funded-education/article_44314dce-ec82-11ee-8548-bb7bf4791f60.html
The Friday before spring break, 18 teachers received notice that their position would not be renewed the following school year…essentially a layoff notice. This was due largely to the school consolidation in the district – combing the middle school and high school, and closing Gateway Elementary altogether. So how were the staffs at each school affected? A CORA requested yielded the actual email sent to staff, and the summary of the number being let go from each school is shown below (names are not being included here for privacy reasons):
After voters rejected change last fall, and with the Colorado Department of Education handicapped by no legal authority to actually provide any oversight, Ken Witt and the WPSD board of education seem to be growing bolder, knowing there’s no real accountability in Colorado.
Recently, in responding to a single CORA request of mine, I believe the WPSD:
Here’s the timeline of events:
3/8 – agenda published for 3/13 regular board meeting
3/8 – board packet emailed to board members
3/8 – CORA req #617 submitted for board packet for 3/13 mtg; district sent confirmation of receipt at 3:54PM 3/12
3/13 – board mtg gets postponed one week due to weather
3/13 – 11:06AM, district sends email that for CORA #617, “These materials are not available under CORA because they are protected under the deliberative process privilege.”
3/13 – 11:32AM, I sent an email reply: “You make a claim of deliberative process privilege; I request that my rights under C.R.S. § 24-72-204(3)(a)(XIII) be respected. Per that section of Colorado law, I request “a sworn statement specifically describing each document withheld, explaining why each such document is privileged, and why disclosure would cause substantial injury to the public interest.” I also request that, per the same cited law, ” the custodian shall apply to the district court for an order permitting him or her to restrict disclosure.”
3/18 – The district sent a sworn statement signed by Superintendent Ken Witt, with these claims: “
3/20 – the postponed 3/13 board mtg is held
3/21 – after several queries about the status of the district court order, I instead receive the results of my original CORA request #617. This exceeded the three day deadline the law requires them to provide a single document in. They never did get the court order as required, they just ran out the clock until it didn’t matter anymore.
Because the packet had been distributed to the board on 3/8 for use in a public meeting, it is not a protected document under 24-72-202(6.5)(c) – therefore it is subject to CORA.
I spoke in the public comment portion in the 3/20 mtg; not having access to the board packet prior to the mtg deprived me of the opportunity & right to provide comment relevant and based on information to be presented in the board meeting (knowing only general topics in the agenda).
The statements by Witt suggests a Sunshine Law violation, by saying there were ‘confidential deliberations’ outside of the public eye, that were the reason to withhold the document.