After the shitshow that was the 12/21/22 board meeting, this one proved only slightly calmer (link to agenda). Though the police were called to this one when one audience member spoke up and refused to leave. Tensions were high leading up to this…not only was it going to be Witt’s first appearance as the new interim superintended, but he was going to presenting some unknown policy changes (first reading, not a vote). Also, the board was going to take action on a “Social Studies Academic Standard Resolution” to be read by board director Sue Patterson. What resolution, you say? We didn’t know, that’s all the info we had and there had been no discussion leading up to this.

So, prior to the meeting, we reached out to Patterson and Rusterholtz, asking if they could share any information about that resolution. They didn’t reply, but the board secretary did, sending us the name of the standard and a link to it – it’s the American Birthright standard. We turned to Google to educate us further…and wow, did we find a lot! But we’ll write up something different about that. Needless to say, people kinda freaked out that this might be adopted in our district, and attendance at the meeting was high.

– Some great speeches in the public comments! Listen to this, it’s actually pretty short as the board cut the allotted time to 3 minutes per speaker.

– Some minor policy changes proposed, including one making it sound like the agenda wouldn’t have to be written by the superintendent and/or board president (we’ll need to read the exact words on this one).

– Some BIG policy changes proposed by Witt around charter school process. Not sure why they care when they didn’t follow district process with Merit Academy? But what they are proposing now would allow charter schools to apply at any time of year (previously just fall) as long as the superintendent was OK with it. I expect we’ll get a new charter school before the end of the school year.

– As expected, the board voted to adopt the American Birthright standard, which does not align with Colorado standards and was rejected by the Colorado Board of Education last fall. But more on that in the coming days!

Here’s the video: