Author Archives: admin

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.

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:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/live/MaENcf_9rGI?feature=share

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:

Here’s what’s coming up this week:

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.

Woodland park woman acquitted of all charges tied to calling police on school board member’s wife

During the school board recall effort last August, one of the recall organizers, Samantha Peck, was gathering petition signatures in the Safeway parking lot when she called 911 over concerns about a possible drunk person about to leave the store. That person was board member David Illingworth’s wife, and when police arrived, they did not detect any signs of alcohol or other concerns with that woman. After investigating further, Peck was arrested and charged with two counts of attempting to influence a public servant and filing a false police report with the Woodland Park Police Department.

Peck finally had her day in court last week, where a jury quickly found her not guilty on all three counts. The story linked to above contains video of board member David Illingworth being interviewed by police and contains further analysis of that, it’s worth reading and watching the video for yourself.

Peck later posted this to the Concerned Parents of Teller County Facebook group:

We live in a country with problems, just like the rest of the world. Our systems need work. However, our process still has the ability to provide justice if you are strong and patient enough. 12 everyday citizens heard all facts of this case and decided in mere minutes not only am I innocent on all charges, but they took the time to talk with both parties to tell them this was the grossest abuse of power they have ever seen. That says it all. I could write pages sharing with you each and every detail of this case. But, I would rather focus my efforts on using this to help our community move forward. This case has proven that David Illingworth is willing to use his position for personal and political gain, even if it is unethical. I hope that isn’t what this community wants as a quality in our representatives. Please, vote this November. Spend time learning about the candidates. Make a difference for students whether you are a parent of a school age child or not. Leave politics out and vote based off of character. I’m proud because our country has prioritized the ideology that ALL children have a right to access education. Let’s protect a foundation of true values. Please vote.

In honor of my tribe I will include a few highlights that will live with me forever:

-Mr. Lane proving Officer Humphrey lied and forcing him to admit it

-The prosecution’s own witness testifying Humphrey lied about what she said

-The strength of Rachel and Jill to tolerate the prosecution trying to attack them. Yet these brave women never faltered and got to share the truth

-After the prosecution tried to attack me for my facebook post returning to Mr. Lane (arguably the great human I have ever met) and having him say to me your post was good, you ARE like those people you wrote about

-Mr. Lane casually reminding the jury Katie Illingworth wasn’t honest

-The jury’s faces when Humphrey had to admit he taped the conversation when David Illingworth tells him how to falsly charging me, but didn’t record my conversation with him showing just how innocent I am

-The jury almost falling out of their seats when Mr. Lane asked Humphrey what did the witnesses say when you interviewed them, and Humphrey had to say he never did and never has interviewed the witnesses

-The prosecution cross examining a war hero and offering to call him COL and his response: just call me Lee❤️

And now that I type those moments I realize just how bad corruption is in Woodland Park…help end it. Get involved, write letters, ask questions, but above all, VOTE.

It’s nice to finally have this all behind us. The past year has seen several references to this incident, with people jumping to conclusions rather than waiting for the facts to come out in court. For example, Andrew Wommack, in May, described this incident as ‘swatting’ (he got the facts wrong but this is the incident he was talking about at time stamp 2:00 of this video). In June’s board meeting, one of the public comment speakers likewise talked about this ‘swatting’ incident. The verdict is clear and Peck’s innocence has been established; I hope those individuals apologize to her.

District Legal expenses

The current board has greatly expanded the use of outside legal counsel, compared to previous boards. Here’s the data:

  • In the ’19-20 fiscal year, the district spent $15,608.48 on legal expenses (link).
  • In the ’20-21 fiscal year, the district spent $63,532.14 on legal expenses (link). This was the year the district reviewed the charter school application from Merit Academy.
  • In the ’21-22 fiscal year, 7 months of which were under this current board, the district replaced legal counsel with Brad Miller’s office and spent $145,872.56 on legal expenses (link1, link2).
  • In the ’22-23 fiscal year, the district spent $171,250.21 on legal expenses (link1, link2).

What is the board spending our money on? It’s hard to say, they’re pretty secretive as the attorney invoices get heavily redacted. Here’s one from April of last year. What sort of information is being hidden from us? A bit of insight can be gained by looking at the invoice from May of last year, which is the only one received in unreacted form. That will show you the sort of information the district is choosing to keep secret. Judge for yourself if it’s appropriate. One thing you’ll note is soon after Miller came on, the board started using lawyers to redact CORA requests, something done by district employees previously. That’s just a small portion of overall legal fees, but does raise the question of why the board felt necessary to include lawyers in all of those documentation reviews.

7/9/2023 Weekly Update

Last Week:

  • The three candidates challenging the board incumbents in this November’s election have scheduled a meet-and-greet in Memorial Park for July 22nd...more info here. It should be a good opportunity to talk to them one on one.
  • Woodland Park’s old fashioned Fourth of July celebration in Memorial Park saw the board incumbents drift further into making school boards partisan, with their appearance at the Teller County Republican’s booth. Keegan, Knott, and Bryant were seen walking around the part talking to people, sticking to a more traditional non-partisan school board philosophy.
  • In their July 6th meeting, the Woodland Park city council recognized Gateway’s accomplishment of earning the Governor’s Distinguished Improvement Award. A few public speakers spoke up about that as well as the High Schools’ recent SAT score success, and pointed out how this board’s actions have led to the resignation of large numbers of the teachers partly responsible for these accomplishments.

This coming week should be a quiet one, with no scheduled board meetings for July and the district on a four-day work week for the summer.