A new lawsuit was filed against the Woodland Park School District earlier this week in district court (Civil Action No. 19-3634). It’s essentially a First Amendment / Freedom of Religion lawsuit, brought by a parent in the district (Jessica Pool), against superintendent Ken Witt and Columbine Principal Ginger Slocum. You can read the full filing here. As always, it’s best to reserve judgement until the facts come out in court and a jury decides on this case.
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Letters to the Editor – August 2, 2023
From the 8/2/2023 Courier:
Spirited, partisan debate is nothing new in our country. Nor are constructive differences of opinion about issues, policies, values, and election outcomes. But I want to join those Teller County voices that are brokenhearted by how our conversations on social media platforms like Facebook pages and NextDoor, our comments in public meetings, and even when we confront each other in stores or the park, now sound like we are demonizing and dehumanizing anyone who thinks differently than we do. The tone of dialogue is tinged with sarcasm and snarkiness with a dash of “holier than thou.” Whatever happened to love your neighbor as yourself?
I absolutely love this town, and I cannot accept that we are moving toward becoming a divided, combative, and self-destructive community. It has to stop! Let’s work to reverse this trend. Let’s call on our Teller County leaders, our neighbors, and ourselves to transform our attitudes and our debate. We don’t need to agree with each other or compromise our own deeply held beliefs. But we do need to reclaim our ability to have constructive and civil conversations, and maybe even find common ground in our shared humanity.
We’re witnessing a real-time, rapidly widening fracture in Woodland Park. Each one of us either contributes to the problem or can become a part of holding Teller County together.
Becky Darrow, Woodland Park
Thank you for your exquisite piece of journalism entitled “Woodland Park Woman’s Acquittal Brings Vindication.” The article demonstrates the power of what Edmund Burke called the fourth estate to bring truth to the people. We in Teller County are truly blessed to still have a real local newspaper.
Ed Biersmith, Divide
Couldn’t help but notice David Illingsworth had one hour and fifteen minutes of “… had no involvement of any kind with the police investigation, charging decision or prosecution of the case …” advising the arresting police officer how to escalate a misdemeanor charge to a felony. Really? No involvement? For one hour fifteen minutes?
John Capaci
I was greatly disappointed to read that the Woodland Park Police Department would allow themselves to be influenced by a prominent public official on whether to bring charges against someone reporting a possible crime. What happened to “If you see something, say something?” Does this mean if I call the police to report suspicious activity, that I could be charged with felony false reporting if it turns out to be nothing? This series of events shows a disgraceful lack of credibility for the Police Department. I am a 30-year resident and am thoroughly disgusted.
Leslie St. Onge, Woodland Park
7/30/2023 Weekly Update
Last Week:
- If you’re wondering how many teachers and staff decided not to return after the ’22-23 school year, check out this summary.
- CORA requests have shed some light on the topic of SROs in schools. The district says there are no officers available…emails from the police chief seem to suggest otherwise. We’re expecting the board to reach a deal with Sheriff Mikesell’s private security company for this instead.
- The board promised teachers a 5% raise in July…it didn’t materialize…but getting this news out on social media prompted the district to at least send an email to all staff clarifying this.
- Colorado Times Recorder Logan Davis published a fascinating piece digging into the money behind the American Birthright standard (Woodland Park was the first in the nation to adopt this).
- Truth and Liberty Coalition is continuing its efforts to recruit people to run for school boards across the state. We also posted a video where Sue Patterson confirms she is a Charis grad.
Here’s what’s coming up this week:
- Two and a half weeks until teachers need to report for the school year…and the district is facing a teacher shortage. How will they address this? Perhaps we’ll learn more at the next board meeting, week after this one on Wednesday August 9th.
- The three candidates challenging the incumbents in this November’s election set up a new website shortcut with links to each of their individual websites…this will make it easier for you to share with other people. http://www.wpsdkids1st.com/
What’s going on with SROs in WPSD?
What’s going on with School Resource Officers (SROs) in Woodland Park schools? These have typically been Woodland Park police officers, providing a partial security presence at our schools. Last year, there were two SROs (I believe the school only paid for one, the cost of the other was on the city)…and by spring, both of those were no longer working as SROs in the district. With the board and superintendent eliminating the large mental health support program in our school district, parents have been justifiably concerned about the safety of our kids. David Illingworth and Ken Witt have repeatedly said that the city and sheriff are both unable to provide officers. CORA requests are casting doubt on this statement, as you’ll see below.
The question has been, what is the district’s plan for providing security to our students? Illingworth hinted at a plan in the works using private security in the April City Council meeting, and mentioned (time stamp 12:32 in this video) that the WPPD and Sheriff don’t have enough personnel to provide a full time officer in each of the six school (this is true). The board met in executive session with Sheriff Mikesell in the May 10th meeting to discuss security. The Sheriff does have his own private security company, so it’s been suspected the district would leverage that to help keep our kids safe – but no mention of this appeared in the budget in June.
What CORA requests have revealed is, reassuringly, the board DOES appear to have a plan in the works to have one security guard in each school (there is no indication that any plan has been finalized). There aren’t enough law enforcement officers in this small community to serve those roles (assuming one person per building), and it’s not clear at this point whether those roles will be entirely private security, or whether they’ll be a mix of private security and law enforcement officers. It’s also not clear what cost this will carry.
Dig deeper though and you see friction between our police department and Ken Witt. It seems to have started with the issue of plugging the ‘gap’ in SROs to close out the school year (though perhaps started earlier this year when the chief rejected the district’s request for police presence at all board meetings). On May 3rd, WP Police Chief Deisler offered officers on overtime three days a week to work as SROs, but the district didn’t take him up on that offer. Witt went on to spread incorrect information about that situation to a community member who had emailed him about their concerns (email link is below):
We were very disappointed when Chief Chris Deisler informed the school district this year that the WP PD no longer has the manpower to provide SROs given their law enforcement demands and limited personnel in Woodland Park.
Ken Witt, July 11, 2023
Chief Deisler replied to Witt:
Shortly after the announcement that Ofc. DeJesus was coming back to Patrol, I announced an internal lateral transfer “intent to apply” process for the now-vacant SRO position at WPHS since the final security plan for school safety and security had not been finalized for school year 23-24. Not one eligible police officer applied for this assignment. You can also see that in order to continue to support the school, I offered a city-paid overtime detail for three officers a week to be present at the campus to help get through end of the year at no cost to the District. No one at the school ever finalized this process with me.
WPPD Police Chief Deisler, July 12, 2023
If you read the entirety of the email exchange (obtained via CORA and can be read here), it’s pretty clear that Chief Deisler tried working with the district on this matter but the district did not engage him. Worse though, Ken Witt, in my opinion at least, has portrayed our local police department as uncooperative and unable to help, which is not the impression I get when I read the email from the Police Chief – quite the opposite, Chief Deisler actually seemed eager to help. It’s unknown why the district made the decisions they did about this.
While it’s reassuring that the board is still working on a security plan (Chief Deisler and Sheriff Mikesell appear to be collaborating on it), I hope that plan includes our local law enforcement officers, not just private security.
I encourage all community members to read the entirety of the email exchange for themselves.
District HR department emails teachers about the 5% raise
As previously reported here, teachers didn’t see the 5% increase in their July paychecks the board had promised back in June. The HR department has now sent out this email clarifying what the teachers themselves already suspected. We’re saddened to see teachers not get what they were promised.
Promised 5% raise for teachers fails to materialize
In their June board meeting, the board and Witt promised teachers 5% raise starting with their July paychecks. Teachers in the room were surprised at that, and I asked them later why. They explained how the payroll system works for teachers, and that they wouldn’t expect to see any raise until their September paycheck. So when their July paycheck arrived unchanged, they weren’t surprised to see no increase.
Superintendent Ken Witt, CFO Amy Ryan, and the Woodland Park Board of Education directors owe the teachers an apology.
Please vote out the three board incumbents up for re-election this fall.
Charis and Truth and Liberty Coalition continues efforts to take over school boards statewide
It’s no secret that Charis Bible “college” is working to take over school boards (as well as local government like city councils) statewide. They have a class devoted to exactly this (here’s the video from the 2022 Citizens Academy as well if you’re curious). A school board candidate training academy was held there this past spring (and a similar event in 2021). And of course, Wommack urged his followers to ‘take over Woodland Park‘. Charis has a separate business identity, Truth and Liberty Coalition, which as a 501c(4) non-profit is able to engage in political activity (the line between that organization and Charis is vague at best).
Don’t forget, too, that current board director Sue Patterson is a Charis grad herself:
Most recently, Truth and Liberty Coalition Executive Director Richard Harris (whose LinkedIn bio lists him as the “Coordinator, Practical Government School at Charis Bible College Colorado”) sent this mass email, encouraging their followers to run for school board statewide:
Voters in Woodland Park have the opportunity to push back against this, by voting out the three incumbents this fall. Sue Patterson is not up for re-election so would remain on the board, but at least her influence would be reduced.
7/23/2023 Weekly Update
Last Week:
- The three candidates challenging this board in this fall’s election had a meet and greet event in Memorial Park Saturday.
- The Gazette published an article about Samantha Peck’s recent success in court.
- We published details of the district’s deal with Scott Gessler’s attorney office to represent the district in its appeal in the CORA video case.
- 9th graders did great on their PSAT test last spring, and we published the results here (the district has not released this yet, we obtained it via CORA).
- Here’s a new infographic showing how this board is dividing up transportation costs between Merit Academy and the five traditional public schools.
Here’s what’s coming up this week:
- The district currently has 14 open teacher positions posted on its website. Parents are growing concerned about what impact this may have on their kids; it’s an issue we’re all following closely.
- The Junior Woodland Players have been working hard on their production of The Little Mermaid; shows are this Friday (7:00PM), Saturday (7:00PM), and Sunday (1:00PM) in Dickson Auditorium (high school).
School board campaigns kick into high gear with hot dog event in the park
The three challengers – Seth Bryan, Keegan Barkley, and Mike Knott – held a fundraiser event in Memorial Part Saturday, with free hot dogs and an opportunity to talk to them each one on one. Somewhere around 200 people showed up and the hot dogs from the Woodland Butcher Block were amazing!
District hires Gessler Blue to appeal CORA lawsuit
As a followup to my earlier post about District Legal Expenses, it has come to light that in March, the district hired law firm Gessler Blue LLC, and as the contract states, this is for the express purpose of appealing the CORA case where the court ordered the district to release surveillance video (which was leaked to NBC here). Principal Partner Scott Gessler bills his time at $425/hr (other lower staff billable rates are mentioned in the contract). Gessler is a former Colorado Secretary of State, was an attorney on Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign, and was also the target of an ethics investigation which ended up costing the state over $515,000 in legal fees (Gessler was found guilty).
Thanks to the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA), you can read his contract with our district here.