Author Archives: Matt G

Transportation Costs for ’23-24 school year

Using data from the district’s FY24 adopted budget from June, I put together a simple graphic showing how the board has decided to split transportation costs between Merit Academy and the five traditional public schools. They are not splitting it based upon enrollment as one might expect.

I had previously written about this topic here and here. I think everyone in the district loves and supports the idea of including Merit Academy students in the school bus program. No one debates that. The only debate is whether those Merit Academy students should be paying the same out of their budget that the other kids do. The board feels they should not, as this graphic shows.

7/16/2023 Weekly Update

Last Week:

Here’s what’s coming up this week:

  • Next Saturday, July 22nd, the three candidates challenging the board incumbents this fall are hosting a ‘meet and greet’ and fundraiser in Memorial Park from 12:30-3:30; they’ll be serving up free hot dogs and answering questions. If all three of these individuals get elected, that will leave only two of the current board, Rusterholtz and Patterson, in place and the balance of power will shift.

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

A Woodland Park woman, who was a leading member of the effort to recall members of the Woodland Park Park School District Re-2 board, has been acquitted of all charges by a Teller County jury. Samantha Peck, 42, was previously charged with two counts of attempting to influence a public servant and filing a false police report with the Woodland Park Police Department.
— Read on krdo.com/news/2023/07/14/woodland-park-woman-acquitted-of-all-charges-tied-to-calling-police-on-school-board-members-wife/

DAVIS: American Birthright: A Woodland Park Investigation

For the past month, I have been investigating a concerted effort by national groups to use the Woodland Park School District as the testing ground for a radical new right-wing approach to public schools, where the goal is no longer to strangle the system and cut taxes, but to seize the system and train up conservative voters. While much has been reported about what is happening in WPSD, little has been documented about why it is happening in Woodland Park specifically, or who is ultimately behind it. 

The Woodland Park school board’s first-in-the-nation decision to adopt the American Birthright standards brings us closer to answers for those questions.
— Read on coloradotimesrecorder.com/2023/07/davis-american-birthright-a-woodland-park-investigation/54661/

If you care about public education, go to the polls – The Durango Herald

In the last such elections, in numerous Colorado school districts – e.g., Douglas County, Woodland Park, Colorado Springs, Montezuma-Cortez, Grand Junction and Garfield RE-2 – a group of far-right conservative candidates took over the majorities of those Boards of Education. These individuals sought those positions not because they are committed, genuinely, to improving the quality of public education. Instead, they are part of a political movement, launched in the wake of Glenn Youngkin’s defeat of Terry McAuliffe to become governor of Virginia that demonizes the supposed “indoctrination” of public school students by exposing them to “woke” concepts like equity and inclusion.
— Read on www.durangoherald.com/articles/if-you-care-about-public-education-go-to-the-polls/

Three school board candidates to hold meet and greet | Pikes Peak Courier | gazette.com

Three candidates for the Woodland Park School Board of Directors will be holding a meet and greet on July 22 at Memorial Park.

Candidates Mike Knott, Keegan Barkley, and Seth Bryant will be in attendance, which will be held between 12:30-3:30 p.m. The three will kick off their campaigns for the November election by outlining their stances on the issues facing the district.

Hot dogs will be served.
— Read on gazette.com/content/tncms/live/

‘Refugees’ from Woodland Park heading to Manitou schools –

Woodland Park School District has gone off the rails.

The new superintendent and school board members think that’s a good thing, as they say those rails — mainstream public educational practices — were not properly educating their children. Many students, teachers and parents have protested the new policies and see this as an extremist right-wing takeover.

— Read on pikespeakbulletin.org/featured/refugees-from-woodland-park-heading-to-manitou-schools/

Colorado Governor’s Distinguished Improvement Award (Gateway Elementary)

As previously reported here, Gateway Elementary was honored with the Governor’s Distinguished Improvement Award recently! The thing is though, no one in Woodland Park seemed to know about it until I posted it on Facebook. We found reference to it on the CDE’s website, and a couple weeks after making this info public, the district did finally issue a press release about this.

I learned via CORA that Superintendent Ken Witt received two emails from the CDE about this back on April 27th (email 1, email 2). Here’s what Witt received:

Good morning,


On behalf of Commissioner Anthes, I am pleased to invite you to participate in CDE’s School and District Awards Ceremony on Thursday, May 18 from 2:00-4:30 p.m. to recognize the achievements of your district from 2022!


The award designations for 2022 were noted on School Performance Frameworks, and our Competitive Grants and Awards team will be reaching out to you following this email with a list of your award recipients.


We are hoping that you can attend the awards ceremony and reception and look forward to hearing from you. Knowing that it is a very busy time of year, we will also be delivering award banners and certificates to districts who are unable to attend. Attached you will find an invitation with event details including how to RSVP.


Kindest regards and congratulations,
Rhonda Haniford

source

Not only was our district a no-show at the awards ceremony, but I’ve heard nothing about any of the promised award banners and certificates. It’s not clear why the board and superintendent are handling this the way they are.

DAVIS: The Specialists: A Woodland Park Investigation

From the outside, the events unfolding over the past year and a half in Woodland Park – where a far-right school board won control in late 2021, and has since pursued an aggressive agenda of banning certain books, demonizing the local teachers’ union, cutting funding for mental health services, skirting open records and public meetings laws, approving a highly controversial charter school without due process, and firing staff and faculty for speaking out against them – seem like an extension of the right-wing’s long standing animosity to the public school system. On closer inspection, though, what’s happening in Woodland Park looks like something new: an evolution of that old fight, where the goal is no longer to shrink and dissolve the public schooling system, but to seize control of the system and use it to train up a new generation of conservative voters. 
— Read on coloradotimesrecorder.com/2023/06/davis-the-specialists-a-woodland-park-investigation/54189/

6/18/2023 Weekly Update

Last Week

Here’s what’s coming up this week:

  • The next regular board meeting will be in August. The board met in executive session on 6/14 to discuss security arrangements though, so it wouldn’t be surprising for them to schedule a meeting before the end of the fiscal year to implement a new program, if they reach consensus on one and if it will affect the budget. So we’ll be watching for a last minute meeting scheduled in June.
  • School may be out, but this is a time to dig deeper to check into some things the district is doing. So stay tuned for more.
  • Three people have announced their intention to run for school board against the three incumbents up for reelection. I haven’t heard much since that original article in the Courier, but expect that as the summer goes by, their campaign efforts will ramp up. I’ve looked into these candidates and think they’ll be great board members!