Author Archives: admin

An (unofficial) update on the Middle School partitioning plans

Yesterday, interim superintendent Ken Witt toured the Middle School after school hours with administration staff from both the Middle School and Merit, looking at how the space would be re-divided to give Merit more room. Today, we received this anonymous update:

I have it on good authority that merit is taking over the severe special needs room with their required by law apartment set up. They will also get a staff bathroom, a boys bathroom, conference room(used for students hearing and speech needs, a book room and 4 6th grade classrooms. In order to stay in compliance they will have to rebuild the required by law special needs facilities in a different location. This will be major construction and extremely costly. This board can turn down over a million dollars in grants so im sure we can afford more construction costs. The second year in a row teachers will have to box up and move theor entire classroom. As of now, the enrichment spaces will stay in tact though merit wants access to the ensemble room. In addition they have applied for a contract with chartwells to be able to conduct linch service but they want to share the commons in order to do this. All of these changes are unnecessary, beyond costly and detrimental to the safety and well being of the middle school students. Witt refuses to meet with parents about concerns unless it is documented in writing through email. If you disagree with these decisions then please email him directly!

Some bonus info: academic successes were presented at the dac meeting showing specific test scores and academic measurements in which merit scored below wpms across the board. Considering this regime is academic focused, youd think they would present some results to back up theor interventions. Rather they just shit all over the districts successes while taking away all the amazing people and programs that got the district to where it is. One of the only districts to raise academic success through the pandemic in the region and state. But lets change everything to match a school model that is producing worse results. Ok rant over but this is egregious at best.

anonymous

Merit’s in-person enrollment is currently 289 or 292, depending on which source you listen to, in a space that can handle up to 471 students (but let’s be fair, the actual usable number would be a quite a bit less). How is Witt justifying this change? And why will the district be paying for this? This decreases funding available for our traditional public schools…WHY?

You can email Ken Witt at kwitt@wpsdk12.org.

Witt plans to hire Aaron Salt as COO(rumor or fact?)

There’s been a rumor floating around that seems to be true – so take this for what it is, an confirmed rumor at this point – but it looks like Ken Witt is hiring Aaron Salt into a senior level position in the district. I’ve had more than one source confirm this, though there has been no district announcement yet. It’s not clear if that will be a new COO position, or the the existing vacancy created by Del Garrick’s departure (Executive Director of Business Operations). But let’s ignore the title for a minute…who is Aaron Salt?

Let’s start with his LinkedIn Bio. He labels himself as a consultant who will ‘help you solve employee turnover problems.’ Sadly, that seems applicable to our district (though I don’t think we need a consultant to tell us how to retain employees here).

Salt goes on to describe his focus on what I think we could summarize as restructuring an organization. All this is sounding very business like and potentially even beneficial to any organization. But what motivates him…what is his focus? Let’s look at his volunteer work to gain some insight there.

Salt believes in parent choice, and that “what and how our students are taught” will determine the direction of the company. He was a founding board member for New Summit Charter Academy, and served as board chair until September 2021 (link).

About a year ago, in February of 2022, Salt was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Pikes Peak Library District (PPLD) and is currently the president of that board. He was previously rejected due to not getting two thirds of the vote, but the new city council voted him in 6-3.

Salt told Council last fall, according to The Gazette, that he wanted to remove certain materials from the juvenile and children’s sections that he found objectionable.

https://www.csindy.com/news/council-appoints-two-conservatives-to-ppld-board/article_8c8b7d80-8ea9-11ec-8fbd-b34ca28380b2.html

Days after the vote on Salt, PPLD Chief Librarian and CEO John Spears resigned, and gave this statement to local media:

“The process surrounding how these appointments occurred was extremely contentious and pointed to the changes that are happening in our community such as the recent school board elections.  It is my hope that the values that define a library such as freedom of expression, freedom of thought, and freedom of speech will continue to be honored. I look forward to moving to a community where they are not under threat.”

https://www.csindy.com/news/local/updated-pikes-peak-library-district-chief-resigns/article_e4424658-90de-11ec-8f97-abfd676a0302.html

Also:

Councilor Nancy Henjum called the appointments “concerning” and may undermine the library’s core values of accessibility, inclusivity and First Amendment protections, she said.

https://www.csindy.com/news/local/updated-pikes-peak-library-district-chief-resigns/article_e4424658-90de-11ec-8f97-abfd676a0302.html

In 2021, in a school board election campaign that saw dramatic increases in ‘dark money’ donations, voters elected Salt to the District 20 (D20) school board. That link above mentions that, “Salt is against mandatory masks and vaccines, hiring an equity director, and CRT and other anti-american rhetoric/indoctrination.” In the spring of 2022, Salt attended the evangelical Christian ‘Hold the Line’ event in Colorado Springs. From an article linked to below:

Someone who attended the “Hold The Line” event, who wishes to remain anonymous, provided 13 Investigates with a video of what was said on stage. The video shows Salt being introduced as an Academy School District 20 Board Director before speaking, making it clear who he is in the community.  

In the video, Salt described his time on the D20 board as a fight to represent his own values and asked people to pray for board members trying to hold onto Christian values. 

“This is a spiritual battle,” Salt said. “Make sure that we’re covered in fairness, we go into fight for you and for your children.”

https://krdo.com/news/2022/05/27/d20-board-director-describes-tenure-on-school-board-as-a-spiritual-battle-at-christian-event/

Prior to that event, Salt triggered some complaints about the separation of church and state when he read this quote from Benjamin Franklin in a board meeting:

A Bible and newspaper in every house, a good school in every district – all studied and appreciated as they merit – are the principal support of virtue, morality, and civil liberty

Benjamin Franklin

And naturally…Aaron Salt is connected to Brad Miller, in this case through (at a minimum) their shared time at New Summit Charter Academy.

Lastly, Salt is connected to Charis and Wommack via the Truth and Liberty Coalition which helped back his D20 election campaign.

So there you have it. His start date is not yet known, but at least now you know a little more about Aaron Salt.

Merit Contract Amended to Reduce Their Costs

Ken Witt has amended the district’s contract with Merit, to shift some costs from Merit to the district. Section 8.1(I) used to read:

The District will provide charter liaison services by assigning these duties to an
employee or retaining an independent contractor to act as the liaison between
the District and the School. Such employee or independent contractor shall be
mutually agreed upon by the District and the School. The costs of the liaison
services shall be paid by the District’s authorized charter schools, including the
School, as a purchased service from the District.

(see page 37 of the original contract)

In February of 2023, Witt amended the contract to read:

The District will provide charter liaison services by assigning these duties to an
employee or retaining an independent contractor to act as the liaison between
the District and the School. Such employee or independent contractor shall be
mutually agreed upon by the District and the School.

(source)

Note the change – previously, the cost for this liaison was to be paid by the charter schools. Now, the district will shoulder that cost. A relatively minor change but a quiet one that would have gone unnoticed if not for one of our unrelated CORA requests.

Teacher/Faculty Appreciation Project (WPSA)

Those that work in our schools as educators, office & support staff, librarians, IT specialists, custodians, counselors & student support liaisons, and resource officers are some of the most incredible and outstanding individuals in our community. Schools are a safe, supportive place for students of all backgrounds: we are given the opportunity to grow as scholars through the assistance of our experienced and fantastic teachers, we are given the resources needed to explore the complex realm of graduation and higher education and/or careers, and we are offered the support and guidance through difficult situations from our incredible counselors and resource officers. These teachers and faculty members are here for us.

As students, it is heartbreaking and distressing to see the very people who have educated us, taught us kindness and respect, and instilled in us a love for learning be bombarded with harmful rhetorics and accusations. As our Board of Education continues to ignore the needs of students, we are labeled as pawns of our parents and teachers. Our educators 1st Amendment rights have been violated multiple times, and several of these wonderful humans have been fired or reassigned with no regards to the professionalism or ethics a board should employ. Teachers have been demoralized and strongly undervalued through false narratives and fear-mongering, when they should be regarded as one of the most important groups of people in our nation. 

We do not stand for nor tolerate the defamatory and damaging rhetoric that is spread against our teachers and school faculty. As a result, the Woodland Park Student Alliance is launching a campaign to spread positivity and awareness of just how much teachers and faculty support, enrich, and better the lives of their students and community. It is incredibly important to document and relish the positive impact these professionals have on students, their parents, their coworkers, and their communities. 

More info, and the form to fill out, can be found here.

Learn more about the Woodland Park Student Alliance

3/12/2023 Weekly Update

Last Week:

  • Not yet published on this website as we’re getting more details:
    • Ken Witt fired Logan (IT) and Morgan (payroll) from district staff, saying their positions were no longer needed.
    • With Logan gone, some CORA requests are already overdue (beyond the max of 10 days); the Woodland Parks school district is in noncompliance with Colorado Open Records law.
    • Also Friday, we received confirmation that a senior staff member of the district admin staff submitted their resignation Friday, we believe in connection to those two firings. We’re under the impression not all staff have been informed of this decision yet, so we’re withholding details for now.
  • Episode 2 of the locally produced podcast ‘Voices of Reason’ is out, check it out here.
  • The board had their regular monthly board meeting on the 8th
    • A summary of the meeting can be read here.
    • The board struggled a bit with policy changes…they were going to do a second reading on GP-5 and approve it, but instead chose to revise it further, necessitating a second reading and vote to be held in the next meeting instead. This policy change is to help remove any focus on non-academic details, removing the emphasis on things like counselors and mental health programs.
    • Video of the public comments from the meeting can be viewed here.
  • We provided an update on the Curriculum Review status in the district driven by adoption of the American Birthright standards.
  • Efforts by the Board and Ken Witt to restrict freedom of speech in the district were summarized in this post.
  • We reviewed the numbers behind Witt’s claim that the Middle School is overcrowded and thus the sixth graders need to move out.

Here’s what’s coming up this week:

  • Wednesday will be a meeting for parents and students about the Career Start program. There’s been concern that the district’s rejection of any grant money will impact that, but what we’ve heard suggests this program is safe as it’s state funds, not grants. We’ll find out more Wednesday.
  • No board meeting is scheduled for this week.

Proposed change to policy GP-5

Our board has traditionally ignored and violated their own governing policies, but seems intent now on instead of violating policy, changing it to align with what they’re going to do anyway. The latest policy under examination is GP-5. Proposed changes are to the first sentence of the policy, which currently reads:

Board members must represent the interests of the citizens of the entire school District.

In the last board meeting on 2/8/23, Witt did a first reading of the proposed change, which he suggested should read:

Board members must represent the educational interests of the students and families as first priority, as well as the citizens of the entire school District.

We expected the board to do their second reading, and vote, on this policy change in the 3/8/23 meeting (as stated in the agenda). Instead, David Illingworth offered forth a different proposal for GP-5:

Board members must represent the interests of the citizens of the entire school District, while always recognizing that the district exists solely to educate children and that parents retain a fundamental constitutional right to direct their children’s education.

Anyone reading the posted agenda would have expected a second reading of the policy change proposed by Witt in the last meeting. The fact that no board members appeared surprised (there was zero discussion on it when prompted by President Rusterholtz) by this change of plans does further suggest more discussion is happening outside of the public eye.

This policy change furthers the stated focus of the board to be academics only. The board is intent on cutting all Social Emotional Learning (SEL) programs and denying any grants (and thus calling into question continuance of any programs/classes funded by those grants). It remains to be seen how the board will view art, music, and athletic programs.

Does Woodland Park have a bullying problem?

Do the Woodland Park schools have a bullying problem? Let’s take a look at district policy JICDE, which states in part:

Bullying is the use of coercion or intimidation to obtain control over another person or to cause physical, mental, or emotional harm to another person.  Bullying can occur through written, verbal, or electronically transmitted expressions (i.e., cyberbullying) or by means of a physical act or gesture. 

https://z2.ctspublish.com/casb/browse/woodland-casb/woodland/z20000296

Given that definition, how would you characterize this email, from a manager to his employees?

This is coming from a guy that fired an educator at the Middle School, and eliminated the position of the high school librarian in retaliation for the protest her students organized in December.

Would you consider this bullying? Is our interim superintendent setting a good example for students?

3/8/2023 School Board Meeting Recap

Once again, strong public turnout led to an overflow room being opened up. When will the school board recognize they need to have this meetings in the auditorium instead?

Public speaking this time had a strong religious showing, with much prayer. We are making an impact, and Charis (presumably) is worried.

For GP-5, the board proposed a DIFFERENT change to GP-5 than what they read the first time. So, this is a first reading of the new edit. Previously, minor changes to the first sentence. Now, Illingworth proposes it to read, “board members must represent the interests of the citizens of the entire school district while always recognizing that the district exists solely to educate children and that parents retain a fundamental constitutional right to direct their children’s education.” Setting things up to further eliminate any sort of Social Emotional Learning programs from our district.

GP-9 change – would allow for the vote to happen in the same meeting as the second reading of a proposed policy change. This was a first reading of that change, not a vote.

Redistricting – will not affect the boundaries for what school each student attends. For the April meeting, two redrawing district maps will be presented. Three priorities: roughly equal population in each district. two, well consolidated district boundaries that reflect current geographic clusters. Three, preservation of current director resident districts. Brad Miller will be creating the maps (per Rusterholtz).

Next board meeting is March 22nd! It’s a ‘work session’, so no public comment period.

Video link is below. After they go to executive session, the camera keeps rolling, skip ahead to 1:36 for some additional public comment.

https://youtube.com/live/Dw6bDmxT6yE?feature=shares