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The First Amendment, The WPSD School Board—and What You Should Know (guest column from the courier)

a guest column, from the October 11, 2023 Courier:

The First Amendment, The WPSD School Board—and What You Should Know

Imagine a local social studies teacher assigns an essay. Why does the first amendment matter right here? In your town, in your high school, in 2023?

You might coach your child that afternoon over your kitchen counter. The first amendment flings open the door for participation in our own government. It means your voice (yes, yours) matters. It allows dissent to those in power. So it’s the backbone, Johnny, of democracy.

Without that amendment, you’d explain, protests and marches could be squashed by officials or current trends. Members of certain groups could be punished.

But how would you tell him about our local school district?

Twice this spring, Woodland Park School District changed their policy, prohibiting employees from speaking about the district to the press or on social media without the superintendent’s permission. Violation meant insubordination; evidence in the form of strategic staff terminations supports this grievous reality.

U.S. District Court Judge Gallagher recently indicated portions of the policy “do have problems,” and proposed mediation between the teacher’s union and the school district.

Both parties agreed. Yet a response from the school district warned that dialing back the policy would embolden “dissident” teachers in an election year.

Hmm. Let’s look closer, Johnny. Wouldn’t those supporting the district be heard, too? What would the district want people not to say?

Would you want to know, Son?

You might explain the employees are taxpayers with rights to articulate their views of this government institution. Some are parents, now with no option to speak on behalf of their kids—despite the board’s purported value of parental rights.

During my own service on the Board of Education, it never occurred to the board to censor employees. Why would we? We can think critically about opinions that we encounter. We can ask for evidence of statements we question.

We conservatives have been focused on teaching the Constitution. And correctly pushing back against what we see as impingements to free speech. How can we specifically support this constitutional right?

The specific policy reasons they must “create and maintain a dignified and professionally responsible image for the school district.” Perhaps our students would ask us about board members who speak freely without any ability for staff to rebut their views, even with facts. And perhaps image-driven motivations should concern us less than created space for truth, integrity, and the value and freedom of every voice.

We must ask our kids, “In a democracy, are only those in powerful positions allowed to speak freely?”

Johnny, when it is stifled, we must ask: for what purpose?

By Carol Greenstreet

Letters to the Editor – October 11, 2023

(from the Courier)

Programs ditched for personal beliefs

Why would the current BoE dismantle effective, school-based mental health programs at a time when depression and anxiety in children is unprecedented? Why refuse to apply for grants effectively denying over a million dollars in help for WP students?

One part of our government said to not take money from “the government”. Others said to “focus on education”. And some, Mick Bates and Cassie Kimbrel, never said anything. These programs were ditched due to “strings” like ensuring care regardless of religion, color, sexual orientation or economic status and assessment of efficacy.

These programs were ditched for personal beliefs.

Now they have implemented Capturing Kids Hearts: teachers instruct students about an attribute to practice every month. An easy program for adults because they never have to address what a child may really be struggling with. Is this meaningful with 30 kids in a class? This program was rigorously evaluated and not effective in actually helping children.

Then the BoE contracted an out-of-town agency, MindSight, to provide mental health services in the school. Most providers are unlicensed students, although supervised, and serve multiple schools. MindSight bills the parents, their insurance and needs paperwork approval from parents. Is this information protected from the BoE or Superintendent? No crisis intervention offered.

You could have caring, screened, highly qualified providers at WPSD again. Their focus could solely be the well-being of children while partnering with parents, not personal agendas. Your kids could have better. Vote.

Patricia A Perry, Woodland Park

Separating opinions and preferences from facts and interpretations

Claims being made by Woodland Park school board incumbents need attention. I’m concerned by how they and their supporters misrepresent data. For example, they manipulated teacher turnover. They didn’t count teacher retirements in turnover data, despite most retirees continuing to teach elsewhere, to look favorable to them.

Student growth is another shell game.

How can anyone know the difference without making it a part-time job? Watch for:

Cherry-picking: Recent guest editorial contributors and incumbent candidates present select data that support their argument while ignoring contradictory evidence. They overgeneralize from narrow data sets, making broad claims from spurious or anecdotal evidence.

Transparency: Without transparency or sharing decision methodologies, we can’t verify anything.

Biased Name-calling: We all interpret information to confirm pre-existing beliefs. This board refuses alternative perspectives as legitimate. They treat opposition as pestilence to distract and conquer, attack parents by name on FaceBook, and call candidates “liberal union hacks.”

We deserve board transparency, consideration of alternative viewpoints and proposals. I haven’t missed a board meeting, feeling gaslighted and ignored monthly. I am pro-public education and school choice. I’ve been concerned and involved since the appointments of Bates and Kimbrell.

Only Keegan, Barkley, and Knott are running honest campaigns that fully disclose the vast local financial and nonfinancial support received, not cherry-picked, hidden, or imbalanced. They are beholden to any no one person or group.

Only www.SupportWPSchools.com agonizes over data, cross-checking and validating everything to ensure no confirmation bias, transparently linking to all sources.

Trina Hoefling, Florissant

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.


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.

Ken Witt, Superintendent
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.