Union Intimidation in Woodland Park

We are witnessing intimidation of the teacher’s union in Woodland Park, the Woodland Park Education Alliance (WPEA). This started with board director David Illingworth, who wrote (emphasis added is mine):

“If you expect me to play nice with the union, then you don’t know me.”

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This union is openly attempting to organize a coup in our schools using our equipment. They have abused our agreement. Therefore, I expect the board to review that agreement for modification or termination.


Further, they clearly feel emboldened and unchecked by your principals and executives. We will not employ people who seek to undermine and resist the people’s business. The exceptional education of our children is our highest priority, not begging forgiveness from people who have underperformed.

In light of the open warfare launched by the union, with the tacit support of leadership, changes that might have been unnecessary before now become imperative. As our employee, I encourage you to use your best judgment in preparing a list of positions in which a change in personnel would be beneficial to our kids, and would likewise help the union see the wisdom in cooperation rather than conflict.

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Can you please ask the Superintendent to provide us any information he has about WPEA membership and command structure?

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Now, a resident relatively new to this town (with no kids in the schools), Jameson Dion, has obtained video footage of the WPEA’s recent meeting (CORRECTION 2/1 – this meeting was open to all teachers, not just WPEA), and is promising to post it online. He already posted a short segment of the video online as a ‘teaser’ of what’s to come. A screenshot is included below, but please note – the yellow markups are MY doing…Dion posted this unaltered, so you could see the face of the person speaking as well as the names and faces of some of the people joining the Zoom call and shown at the top (and note, he posted an actual video segment, not a still photo).

I’ve never been a huge union proponent…I consider myself more neutral on them as I’ve seen them do very good things in the past, as well as things I did not agree with. But I do believe it is critical for union members to be able to meet in privacy, without fear. This is a basic American right. Unions have played a central, beneficial role in shaping our society and while I like to see oversight, I do not like to see attacks like these.