Author Archives: admin

WPSD policy changes affecting staff

The district has made updates to a couple policies impacting staff. They’ve been publicizing these updates on their website.

First up is policy GBEBA – STAFF DRESS CODE. This policy has been changed to state that, “Hair coloration must be natural hues.” It’s not clear how a teacher’s hair color impacts a student’s learning environment, though it might make students more comfortable with expressing their inner self…a dangerous thing as far as this board is concerned.

The other policy recently updated is GBEB – STAFF CONDUCT (read previous version here). The district has added this new section:

It is a breach of conduct for an employee to use District or school equipment (including without limitation, computers and District email accounts) to communicate or correspond on behalf of any organization other than the District, including to recruit or schedule meetings for another organization. It shall additionally be a breach of conduct for an employee to use District facilities for any non-District related activities or on behalf of any other organizations unless such use is approved in accordance with Policy KF.

link to source

This seems to be an effort to prevent the local teacher’s union (WPEA) from using district equipment to email teachers and organize meetings. It doesn’t appear to prevent teachers from receiving emails from the WPEA at their district accounts.

The district also updated policy GBK-R1 – GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE. The new policy (link) greatly weakens any recourse teachers have via this policy. There is no longer any arbitration period; there is no longer a grievance committee, the board gets to choose whether or not to review a grievance, and there are no group grievances. Compare that new policy with the previous policy here.

4/20/2023 City Council public comments

Last Thursday, ten public school supporters spoke up in the public comment period of the Woodland Park, Colorado city council meeting. They did a fantastic job of explaining many of the community’s concerns about this school board and interim superintendent. Check out the video below:

Religion in School Boards

The separation of church and state is a legal concept that’s been around for a long time. Based on the First Amendment, the idea is that government should do nothing to favor any one religion over another. That would extend to even the idea of religion, as some people do not believe in a Higher Power or Supreme Being. A 2021 Pew Research study found that only 19% believe the government should stop enforcing the separation of shurch and state.

What does our school board think of this concept? Board member Mick Bates said this about it in January:

This separation of church and state has been around a long time but, it’s backwards. It was intended to keep the state out of religion, not religion out of the state. And that has been convoluted over the years, over the many years.

Timestamp 11:00 in this video

Board President David Rusterholtz has been accused of crossing this line several times. In the January 11, 2023 board meeting, he even took to the podium during the public speaking portion to offer prayer (video link, timestamp 28:00).

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has sent two complaint letters to the district outlining other examples of what they view as a violation of separation of church and state. The first letter, from November, addressed the board opening an October meeting with a prayer; you can read the letter here or watch the incident in question here (about 3:55 into the video).

The second complaint letter is in regards to a March 9th email Rusterholtz sent to other board members, where he said:

Good afternoon everyone. I see we are being requested information about the
American lie Fairplay and other books. I’d like to let you know that my heart goes
out to so many of these people. Many of them have completely rejected Jesus in
any way other than a historical figure I would like everyone to know that Jesus
came because he loved the world so much!


Sin has separated us from God, and our hurts our habits, and our hangups often
times get in the way of us returning to him.

Jesus died on the cross for each one of us, if we would receive him as our savior,
we can spend eternity in paradise with him.


He loved us so much that he came and died on the cross to pay the penalty for our
sins if we will only receive his free gift of salvation.


I would invite anyone who reads this letter to give me a call if they would like to
receive Jesus as their savior and start a new life with him.


Ask yourself this question if I were to die today, where will I spend eternity….
with a loving and gracious God, in paradise, or for eternity, separated from him in
hell.


I would like to ask you, to receive him as your savior today, I look forward to
hearing from you. Also, if you would like to join me in church, I go to Impact
Christian church on 67 north of Woodland Park. Services start at 9 AM and 1030.
Let me know and I will meet you at the door.

source

The letters from FFRF (letter1, letter2) are worth reading as they dive into the legal justification behind their complaint and the idea of separation of church and state.

The truth about enrollment numbers

Our board has liked to tout the ~16% jump in enrollment this school year, presenting it as a sign they’re doing the right thing. While it’s an encouraging sign for sure, what they’re not mentioning is the number of students LOST when Merit Academy opened under the direction of ERBOCES. Meaning, the Woodland Park RE-2 school district is not experiencing large growth…it’s a shell game. We’ll need to see how the next couple years pan out to really determine if we’re on the right track.

Enrollment numbers, from the CDE (direct link to XLS):

  • 2018-2019: 2380
  • 2019-2020: 2284
  • 2020-2021: 2055
  • 2021-2022: 1832 (Merit’s first year)
  • 2021-2022: 2119 – if you include the 287 Merit students
  • 2022-2023: 2122

So, it’s clear that in 2020-2021, parents were opting out of the district, and Merit was a choice that brought them back. But the board has failed, so far, to attract new people to the district (well, three technically).

4/9/2023 Weekly Update

Last Week:

Here’s what’s coming up this week:

  • The board has a scheduled their regular board meeting for this Wednesday, 6:00, in the district offices. Read the agenda here. Updates will be provided on redistricting, academic achievement, and the middle school reconfiguration.

Turning Point USA

As this email shows, board director Sue Patterson is trying to start a student club at our high school (yeah, the sort of thing that’s supposed to be started by actual students), a branch of the national organization Turning Point USA. It’s a pretty extreme-right political movement working to indoctrinate kids in the new version of ‘conservative’ political ideals. Oddly, they refer to themselves as a ‘grassroots‘ effort, though NBC reported they brought in around $55 million in revenue in fiscal year 2020.

4/2/2023 Weekly Update

Last week:

Here’s what’s coming up this week:

  • Ken Witt and David Illingworth will be presenting at the City Council meeting Thursday, April 6th (agenda) at 7:00 (in the city council chambers, near Memorial Park). Presumably, this is with regards to how sales tax money is being spent – before Covid, these presentations were more regular.
  • Public comment is open at this Thursday’s meeting. It’s a city council meeting, not school board meeting, so comment should be kept relevant to the matters the council has some control over, such as the sales tax money directed to the school.
  • The next regularly scheduled board meeting is April 12th.