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Letters to the Editor – August 9th, 2023

From the August 9th edition of the Pikes Peak Courier:

No longer volunteering against

I’m a working mom to two kids under three. As any parent knows, free time at this stage is hard to come by. But after wrapping up my workday and navigating the nightly ritual of dinner, playtime, and bedtime routines, I take up my other role: campaign volunteer.

For months, I’ve dedicated my cherished free time to the school board campaigns of Keegan Barkley, Mike Knott, and Seth Bryant. I admit that at first I was volunteering against something: against the incumbents’ cronyism and self-interest; against my kids being the guinea pigs in some experiment; against being locked out in the freezing rain at what should have been a public meeting.

But after getting to know these candidates deeply and personally, I find myself volunteering for something:

I’m volunteering for Keegan, whose HR background and keen ability to spot the root of a problem will return the board to respectful disagreement and ethical conflict resolution.

I’m volunteering for Mike, whose honesty and discipline give me confidence that every penny of the district’s resources will be spent with intention and care.

I’m volunteering for Seth, whose thorough understanding of local issues will ensure the board meticulously considers a variety of creative solutions to any given problem.

I’m no longer volunteering against the wrong people for the job. I’m volunteering for three public school parents who I am absolutely convinced are the right people for the job. Please join me in supporting Keegan, Mike, and Seth for the school board this November.

Sarah Voget, Woodland Park

WPSD BOE votes to give entire Middle School building to Merit Academy, and cut fees charged to Merit

The August 9th school board meeting contained a vote on changes to the Contract and the Facilities Usage Agreement with Merit Academy. The board did not read the changes, did not present them in the meeting, and did not make them publicly available prior to the meeting. Nevertheless, the board packet contained very detailed redlines of the proposed changes, as learned via a recent CORA request.

When you look at the actual changes, it becomes pretty obvious why the board hid this information. Their decision to move 6th grade out of the Middle School this past March created quite a stir…and if people realized what the board did for Merit, I suspect there’d be even more of an uproar. Here’s what the new FUA says:

As Merit grows, the new FUA gives them whatever space they need, with no regard for the 7/8th graders currently occupying that portion of the building. They’re currently expanding one grade level per year as each cohort moves up; they might add preschool in the future. The BOE put in place a legal agreement which will squeeze the 7/8th graders out of that building. More importantly though, they have not disclosed any plan for what will happen to the 7/8th grades currently in that building.

Here’s the currently floorpan for this ’23-24 school year:

On the financial side of things, the BOE gave Merit two sweet deals. First, Merit will no longer be asked to share the district facilities costs on a per-pupil basis. Instead, their share will be computed based upon the square footage they are using.

The district has unused building space, but Merit won’t have to help shoulder the cost of that – they get the benefit of using a district building rent-free, but get special treatment compared to the tenants (schools) of the other buildings. Second, their administrative withholding decreases from 5% to 3.5% (this is expected to give Merit about $61k, though final amount depends on pupil count).

Obtained via CORA, you can view the new Facilities Usage Agreement or the new Contract.

Resignation Letter from a Gateway teacher

With the gag order in place (policy KDDA), teachers have rightfully felt afraid to speak up. Every now and then though, we see one of them expressing their frustrating when (sadly) resigning…the latest was Rebecca Johnson, a teacher at Gateway for the last 10 years or so, who resigned last month. She emailed a very well-written and detailed letter as her resignation, and I finally obtained a copy via CORA. Please, read it for yourself to gain some insight into what our teachers have been going through in our district.

8/6/2023 Weekly Update

Last Week:

Here’s what’s coming up this week:

  • School Board meeting Wednesday, August 9th, 6:00PM in the district conference room (link to agenda). We have no reason to expect the board to open up the overflow room or move this to the auditorium like some past meetings have been, so plan on attendance being limited to the first 90 people. The agenda says they’ll be taking action on updates to the Facilities Usage Agreement, and Charter Agreement, with Merit Academy. They have not posted details about what those updates entail.
  • School starts in just over two weeks, and the district has not announced any plans to provide a security presence in our schools. They refused to work with the WPPD on SROs, but will be discussing this topic in executive session this Wednesday so I’m hopeful they’ll put a plan in place before school starts.

More on the ACLU lawsuit against the district

As previously reported here, the ACLU has filed suit against the district on behalf of former employee Logan Ruths, regarding his one year banishment from district property. This story has been covered by NBC, the Colorado Sun, the Colorado Springs Indy, KOAA, and the Gazette (and given that media focus, I suspect I missed some!).

Court papers were served to the district Friday, and also Friday board president Rusterholtz announced he’d like to retract the ban against Ruths. Right now, that action is pending review by board attorney Brad Miller and feedback from the other board members.

Here’s KOAA’s news coverage of this case (see story here):

You can watch the board meeting that promoted this action below, timestamp 16:10 is about where this all started:

You can read the entire court filing here.

Leaked audio shows how Brad Miller is driving change in our town

As this article in the Colorado Times Recorder details, leaked audio of a recent meeting has attorney Brad Miller explaining the actions he’s been driving in Woodland Park, using our Board of Eduction to further his own plans. There’s so much in that article, please read it for yourself! It helps show how Brad Miller is one of the main forces behind all the change happening in our district. We need to take back LOCAL CONTROL of our school board and kick out him and Ken Witt by voting in new board members this fall.

WPSD faces new lawsuit

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.

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:

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/