Our little school district has been popping up in the news all over the place for the past couple years. If you’re new to all this though, I wanted to highlight some of the online articles that provide a more in-depth look into what’s going on here:
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Superintendent Ken Witt talks to Gateway staff (March, 2023)
This video is from March, 2023, when Ken Witt talked to staff at Gateway Elementary. Just in case you need a reminder of how he treats staff, and what sort of person this current BOE wants leading our district.
10/11/2023 board meeting hits capacity (again)
In April, we saw Charis students mobilized to pack the board room, shutting out about 100 people from attending. After last Thursday’s teacher protest letter, we all expected this to be a crowded meeting, but weren’t sure if the Charis Factor would come into play. Well, it did. This time, about 40 people were locked out when the meeting hit its 90 person capacity.
Many parents and teachers pleaded with board members the last few days to move tonight’s meeting to the auditorium or middle school commons area, both of which had been used in the past. No luck though…the board did not want a large crowd for their meeting so kept it in the district office.
Before the meeting started, board member Mick Bates did come out briefly and talked with one parent, who was able to get in when someone else inside graciously traded places. The rest of us were left outside, but hey, at least it wasn’t raining this time like it was last April.
The Fifth Forum – presented by Woodland Park High School students
What happened to what was going to be our fifth school board candidate forum, the one hosted by Woodland Park High School students? Massive rejection, that’s what. First, their attempts to hold a joint Merit/WPHS forum, where students from both schools would organize and moderate the forum, was quickly rejected by Merit Headmaster Gwynn Pekron. Then, WPHS students’ own administration rejected them, when Ken Witt and Kim Moore shut down this effort.
But Woodland Park Panthers are tough. They don’t just back down.
I’m proud of the students of the Woodland Park High School…they are proceeding with their school board candidate forum, in defiance of the wishes of Ken Witt and the board members that support him. Since their school won’t support them, they’ll be holding their forum at the Woodland Park Public Library on Saturday, October 21st, at 10:00AM. I’m told that invitations have gone out to all six candidates; I do not know how many have replied. But a forum being hosted by the very students our board is responsible for, and hosted in our public library? This seems like our best chance yet to get all six candidates in the same room at the same time.
Status of WPHS NCAA course eligibility
For students planning on playing college sports, taking classes that meet NCAA requirements is super important. A lot of parents have been wondering whether the American Birthright Social Studies standards would impact NCAA eligibility? It’s understood that any course curriculum change requires that class to be re-submitted for review. So where do we stand? The NCAA has a helpful website where you can look up each school and see the status of all classes, and it turns out we have a LOT of classes where the NCAA is holding off approval while they await information from the district. Here’s the list:
I suspect – but really don’t know – that the American Birthright Standard is only responsible for the seven classes in the ‘social science’ section. I also believe that the district might never seek NCAA approval for many classes on this list, so keep in mind the situation probably isn’t as bad as this list makes it seem. Just be sure your kids are choosing classes that meet their needs and paying attention to the NCAA status of each.
In February, the district attempted to reassure parents by saying their goal was to finish this work by registration time in August:
What do we know about the district’s work done so far on this? Unfortunately, not much, apart from the large list of classes pending approval. However, the people at the NCAA are very helpful and told a caller today that district executive assistant Kelley Havin called today to reset their admin password – it seems they couldn’t even access the school information. Which really suggests that they haven’t been working on this! Keeping all this in mind, here’s the email the district sent to parents yesterday about this topic:
That email does little to address the concerns about pending status of classes, and what timeline we’re looking at to resolve all this.
The NCAA has a comment line that they listen to on a daily basis. The number is 317-917-6762.
A tale of two forums
Tonight was the night of the forum battle! The school district scheduled their own school board candidate forum for the same date and time as the already-scheduled candidate forum being hosted by the Chamber of Commerce. We were all curious how it would go down…who did the voters want to hear from the most?
The Chamber’s forum, featuring challengers Seth Bryant, Mike Knott, and Keegan Barkley, drew an impressive crowd, as this picture shows:
The same cannot be said for the forum hosted by the school district, featuring incumbents Mick Bates, Cassie Kimbrell, and David Illingworth:
Meanwhile, our superintendent Ken Witt, who repeatedly talks about prioritizing academic success. The High School was holding their Academic Awards ceremony at the same time. Witt decided to go to the district forum for the incumbents instead of actually prioritizing academic success and celebrating the accomplishments of those high school students.
WPSD speaks out against teachers
Last Thursday, 81 Woodland Park teachers and staff signed a letter expressing their concerns about the current administration and board.
The response from the board and superintendent Ken Witt has been foul. Thursday evening, the district issued this press release:
It continues to disappoint us to see the teachers union prioritize its political views over the needs of students. If the energy they invest in attacking the Woodland Park School District (WPSD) administration and school board was instead turned towards academics, there would not be a need for the board to direct implementation of sound and fundamental educational standards.
This “teacher press conference” appears to be another union tactic to again dredge up issues that have been thoroughly addressed. These union affiliates are engaging in political maneuvering when the focus should be on the education and safety of our students, which they claim to care deeply about. We are equally disappointed but unsurprised to see CBS choose to be a platform for union opposition to the improvement of education in Woodland Park, enthusiastically seeking to assist in the union opposition to our school board.
Yes, this district adopted a traditional framework for civics and social studies – because we had to realign from courses such as “civil disobedience” and statements by the teachers union in Colorado that they disavow Capitalism, the free market which makes this nation the envy of the world, while they quip communist tropes. And yes, we still ensure we meet or exceed Colorado state standards.
Our community is tired of teachers believing they have the authority to determine what is taught. This is the responsibility of the people, through their elected representatives, the board of education. The concept of teacher supremacy over the rights of parents, voters, and even representative democracy must be rejected.
Yes, we declined some money earmarked for mental health services, which are often utilized for gender confusion and sexual identity matters instead of the sort of counseling and character development that our schools ought to pursue. We are returning to pre-COVID norms, focusing on teaching academics rather than loading the system with so many social workers and mental health practitioners that little time is left for learning. We have a counselor in every school and teachers who are trusted adults and watchful for students needing additional support. We also forged a new partnership with Mindsight this year to ensure we have all mental health support needed.
This district aims to design policies that uphold a respectful working and learning environment while fully honoring First Amendment rights. It is important to emphasize that WPSD does not seek to suppress anyone’s First Amendment rights. Nevertheless, it is expected that all district employees conduct themselves professionally and portray the district aims positively when working in their capacity as employees, where they have a role as representatives of WPSD.Ken Witt, Superintendent
We recognize that there continue to be staff members who seek to pursue goals related to unorthodox worldviews that run counter to the values of this community, but we are adamant that the role of the school is to come alongside parents in the education of their children. It is not the role of the school to be endorsing ideologies or undermine the values taught in the home. This administration proudly acknowledges the accomplishments which this small group of union-affiliated individuals decry. Their proposed alternative, a return to sexual politics, anti-capitalism, and hatred for America, is unacceptable to the administration of this school district, our board, and our community.
Woodland Park School District
That’s Ken Witt, accusing our teachers of proposing ” a return to sexual politics, anti-capitalism, and hatred for America”!
Then today, this email was sent to parents:
Dear WPSD Families,
A false narrative is spreading through the Woodland Park community via a campaign of fear-mongering, claiming that the adoption of the American Birthright standard somehow jeopardizes NCAA accreditation of courses and implies that courses are not meeting Colorado Academic standards. This is patently false.
WPSD fully meets or exceeds Colorado Academic standards, and so courses have no real risk of losing NCAA accreditation. All WPSD courses are and will continue to be accredited. The district notes that adding the American Birthright standards has exposed a number of gaps in the previous civics and social studies content and has both resulted in the creation of a new course, World Geography, as well as the addition of the contributions of a large number of significant historical figures that had been overlooked.
The addition of the American Birthright standard to supplement the Colorado Academic standards has improved the depth and breadth of WPSD civics and social studies instruction, to the irritation of those teachers union affiliates bent on fostering a hatred of America in our youth.
Again, accusing teachers of being “bent on fostering a hatred of America in our youth.”
It’s absolutely unreal to hear a superintendent, with no objection from our board, speak about our beloved teachers in this manner.
Please, VOTE for change. Mail-in ballots will be sent out next week.
10/8/2023 Weekly Update
I haven’t published weekly updates for a couple weeks now…because the school district has been pretty quiet, with all the focus on campaigns for the three out of five school board seats up for grabs. Here’s what’s been going on:
Last week(s):
- Here’s an update on the candidate forums. Note that WPHS were refused their request to hold a forum jointly organized and moderated by WPHS and Merit students.
- Here’s a timeline of events related to all these candidate forums.
- Thursday was a big day for teachers and staff in this district, with 81 of them signing a letter and many speaking out to media at an event at the Ute Pass Cultural Center. They’re doing this knowint’ it’s in violation of district policy and could get them fired (like what happened to Mary Ward last March). More covered at KKTV, Colorado Sun, Colorado Public Radio, KRDO, Fox21
- KKTV looked at school security in local districts. In Colorado Springs, they found districts willing to talk about the training their school security receive…in Woodland Park, they were met with silence and an unwieldiness to share any information.
- The Courier published some new letters to the editor (link, link, link)
- Contrary to what our board says, enrollment in our district is on the decline, and did not see any boost as claimed. Read the numbers here. The data for the current school year won’t be official for a few more weeks, but the latest numbers are already lower than original estimates from August.
- Here’s a summary of the fundraising results for all six candidates. Seth Bryant, Mike Knott, and Keegan Barkley are out-raising the incumbents, despite having a significantly smaller average donation size.
- The Colorado Sun featured an opinion piece about our district, written by Diane Carmen.
- Read this guest column from candidate Mike Knott.
Here’s what’s coming up this week:
- Monday, 10/9, is a busy day in town. There are two candidate forums (incumbents at Columbine at 6PM, challengers at the cultural center at 5:30PM), plus the Academic Awards Night at the High School (6PM).
- The last school board meeting before the election is this Wednesday, 10/11, at 6:00PM (read the agenda here). They’ve decided to hold this meeting in the district conference room, which only seats about 90 people. This means that if the 81 staff members who spoke out against this board want to attend this meeting, they won’t all be able to, there won’t be enough space. The only action item in the agenda is for the board to pick the members of the SAC and DAC committees.
Candidate Forums Update
So far, all six candidates have not agreed to appear in the same public forum…and we have more to share on that. First though, on Monday 10/2 the Victory Life Church (founded by a member of the board of Andrew Wommack Ministries, and who also teaches at Charis) held their candidate forum at the High School auditorium, moderated by state senator Baisley (who recently wrote a guest column in the Courier praising the three incumbents). Turnout was sparse, and the questions were focused on talking points we’ve heard plenty about already (especially LGBTQ+ issues). This picture was taken shortly after the event started.
Next up with the forums are the competing forums on 10/9…the one organized by the Chamber of Commerce being held at the Cultural Center, and the one organized by Ken Witt’s administration, being held in the Columbine Gymnasium. The gym, you ask? Why not the auditorium? Because the High School is holding its Academic Awards Night in the auditorium, having secured that venue long before the district decided to create their own forum.
Seth Bryant, Keegan Barkley, and Mike Knott all declined the invite to the district forum. Seth emailed expressing interest in that forum and asking if the date for the Columbine forum could be changed. One of their campaign managers reached out the district on behalf of all three candidates, seeking compromise on choice of moderator (the district’s choice, Peter Hilts, has close ties to Brad Miller and has previously acted as a paid consultant for this board). She suggested four possibilities and a willingness to entertain other ideas, but my CORA request yield zero replies to this offer, apart from acknowledgment of receipt. So, with the district not willing to compromise, and likewise not making any requests to the Chamber of Commerce regarding that forum, we’ll be seeing the three incumbents take the stage at Columbine on Monday (starting at 6:00), while Bryant, Barkley, and Knott attend the forum at the cultural center (starting at 5:30). Meanwhile, parents of students receiving academic awards will not be able to attend either forum, they’ll be at the awards night.
Once we get past these dueling forums, the next question becomes the student-led forums. Plural? Yeah. Merit Academy announced one on 10/17, one for which they were originally going to restrict attendance to Merit families only but have since opened up to all (though questions are still limited to those submitted by Merit families). Woodland Park High School students wanted to organize a similar forum, which would make sense as this school board oversees that school, not Merit Academy. However, the Woodland Park School District refused the request of their high school students to hold such an event. The WPHS students even reached out to Merit Academy seek joint participation, asking Merit students to help organize and moderate a joint event. Headmaster Gwynn Pekron refused that request.
Woodland Park teachers speak out against school board
Teachers and community members (and I believe four press cameras) crowded the Ute Pass Cultural Center this evening to protest the actions taken by the Woodland Park School Board and the Superintendent, Ken Witt. 81 staff members signed a letter of protest, which you can read here (page 1, page 2).
KKTV’s article can be read here, along with video of most of the speaking.
The Colorado Sun wrote a very long article about this, read it here
CPR also wrote a great article about this story, read it here
What the teachers did by speaking out appears to be in direct violation of district policy KDDA, and is similar to what Mary Ward was fired for earlier this year. The district is currently involved in a lawsuit brought against them by the WPEA regarding, among other things, that policy. Staff I spoke to expressed uncertainty and even fear about how Ken Witt and the school board will respond to them speaking out like this.
Full video:
The next board meeting (and last scheduled one before the election) is Wednesday, October 11th, 6:00PM.