Author Archives: admin

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

3/5/2023 Weekly Update

Last week:

  • A locally produced podcast released their first episode about our school district
  • The big news was that sixth grade would be moved from the Middle School back down to the three elementary schools to make more room for Merit. There were no discussions in board meetings about this, no discussions with teachers or the principals, and no details have been worked out yet.
  • A book-club style meeting was held at the public library to discuss the book banned from the high school classrooms, as well as discuss the larger question of book banning in general.
  • We made public the details of Ken Witt’s contract with the district, including the fact he has a similar contract with nearby ERBOCES (being paid for two full-time jobs).
  • Many schools across the country celebrated Public Schools Week. We did not.
  • We posted some information about Social Emotional Learning (SEL). It’s on the chopping block for next school year.
  • Witt met with staff at four of the five schools this week (he meets with the High School Monday). One staff member summed up the meeting best by saying, “Staff left crying, furious, unheard.”

Here’s what’s coming up this week:

  • Witt meets with the high school staff on Monday
  • Wednesday 3/8 is a regular school board meeting, 6:00 in the district offices conference room.
    • The board will finalize their change to policy GP-5 to narrow the focus of the board to educational interests only. Witt explained to teachers this week that their focus is on academic performance.
    • The board will do a first reading of proposed changes to GP-9, the policy that deals with changing or developing policy.
    • The board will discuss redistricting. It’s not clear why; note that this is an election year.
    • An executive session is scheduled to discuss security arrangements. While that might sound serious, an email we obtained via CORA suggests it’s likely about routine security arrangements in the schools, which by their nature might be more effective if details are not widely known.