Author Archives: Matt G

The religious influence in school board elections

This fall, the Woodland Park RE-2 school district will vote on three new board directors, potentially shifting the balance of power of the current five-strong board. As we enter this season, it’s important to remember the influence religion had last time. Check out this article from Religion Dispatches. Andrew Wommack, with his Truth and Liberty Coalition and bible school Charis were at the center of this then…and we can expect even more this year. Pay attention, it’s going to get messy.

What had been, until recently, sleepy school board races across the state and the country, this year became political hot potatoes. The Colorado media generally cast these contests as battles between conservative groups and teachers unions, and that the results were mixed. But lost in this framing was the quiet electoral pilot project of the Truth and Liberty Coalition, the other arms of Wommack’s political and educational empire—and their out-of-state partner, the Texas-based Wallbuilders organization. 

Judge orders release of Woodland Park School District surveillance footage to parent – Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition

A judge Wednesday ordered the Woodland Park School District to disclose video surveillance footage showing three school board members talking with a candidate for superintendent after a public meeting last December.

Teller County District Court Judge Scott Sells said he was not persuaded by the school district’s argument that the recordings either aren’t public records as defined by the Colorado Open Records Act or could lawfully be withheld under CORA’s discretionary exception for records revealing “specialized details … of security arrangements or investigations.”
— Read on coloradofoic.org/judge-orders-release-of-woodland-park-school-district-surveillance-footage-to-parent/

Woodland Park School District expands bus route for Merit Academy students | KRDO

Woodland Park School District (WPSD) is now offering students at Merit Academy the same district school bus transportation offered to all other WPSD schools. 
— Read on krdo.com/top-stories/2023/03/21/woodland-park-school-district-expands-bus-route-for-merit-academy-students/

We’ve submitted a CORA request to learn to what extent Merit will be paying for this service.

The WPSD exodus begins

We’ve feared what impact this board, and especially interim superintendent Ken Witt, would have on staff in the Woodland Park School District RE-2. Last year, we saw the beginnings of that…and this year, we need to call this what it is: a mass exodus of instructional talent leaving this district.

Having a student in the High School here I’m a bit biased and focused on that school, so forgive me that, but let’s talk about that High School. Normally, staff turnover would be no more than 5%. We’re in mid March, and already, turnover is at 25% (where will we end up by summer?). The overwhelming majority of those leaving mention the board and interim superintendent are creating an untenable circumstance for them to continue. It is possible that seven different AP courses are affected by these resignations…replacement teachers for those are not straightforward and will require extra training ($$ for the AP side of things, and the college MA degrees that would yield concurrent and dual credit for students).

How will the district attract qualified teachers to fill these open positions? How many teachers will want to accept a position in a school district that is, by anyone’s measure, chaotic and unsettled (to put it mildly)? The board states that one of their core beliefs is, “Developing professional educators that engage and inspire students through positive ethical leadership.” They are not developing professional educators…they are driving them out.

This school board and superintendent have massively failed at their most important task, managing the public schools to foster a safe, stable place of learning for our students.

Baby We Were Born for War: To Dominionist Christian Groups, No Election is Too Small — and Colorado is Just the Beginning | Religion Dispatches

What had been, until recently, sleepy school board races across the state and the country, this year became political hot potatoes. The Colorado media generally cast these contests as battles between conservative groups and teachers unions, and that the results were mixed. But lost in this framing was the quiet electoral pilot project of the Truth and Liberty Coalition, the other arms of Wommack’s political and educational empire—and their out-of-state partner, the Texas-based Wallbuilders organization. 
— Read on religiondispatches.org/baby-we-were-born-for-war-to-dominionist-christian-group-no-election-is-too-small-and-colorado-is-just-the-beginning/

Liberals push back on Republican activism in school board elections

“There’s going to be more book bans, there’s going to be a broader pushback and they’re going to demonize LGBTQ-plus kids more than they already have,” Cousins said. “It’s an absolute right-wing radicalization of public education, and their mission is to make public education fail.”
— Read on www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/democrats-republicans-school-board-elections-parents-rcna52698

Here in Colorado, this right-wing effort is led by graduates of the Leadership Program of the Rockies like Brad Miller, Ted Mische, Bob Schaffer, Curt Grina, and Ken Witt.

WPSD Student Mental Health – 12/21 presentation

In December of 2021, Laura Magnuson (WPSD Mental Health Supervisor) and Josh DeSmidt (Restorative Practices Coordinator) gave a presentation to the board titled, “WPSD Student Mental Health.” While it’s a little more than a year old at this point, this report did a fantastic job of outlining some of the grants that the district receives, and exactly how that grant money is spent. There’s been a lot of talk lately about interim superintendent Witt’s policy of rejecting any grant money (due to ‘strings attached’), but I think most of us don’t really understand how that grant money is used. This presentation goes a long ways towards explaining that. As you read it, keep in mind that Witt is declining every grant…the positions and programs outline here will not be funded through grant money and are expected to be cut at the end of this ’22-23 school year.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rDts0w-zbfLH2YAgBoKr-frr7dEfR0Sb/view?usp=share_link

Witt’s latest – firing staff, and violating CORA

Ken Witt’s latest efforts to destroy the Woodland Park school district include firing two people last Friday (Logan in IT, and Morgan in payroll), and watching on the sidelines as the district is in violation of the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA). Specifically, on that last point, the district is not complying with the mandatory three day response period for single-document inquiries, or up to 10 days for others. They’re violating both. Much of the their delays have been due to the board choosing to have Brad Miller’s office review all CORA results for redactions. Miller drags his feet, results get delayed, and the board doesn’t care.

The district is even facing a new lawsuit alleging violation of CORA, refusing to turn over records from December.

Despite having a backlog of overdue CORA requests, Witt decided that the position of the person responsible for managing this process (Logan) was unnecessary, and eliminated that position. No word yet on who will be taking up this role…but the sort of transparency provided by laws such as CORA has never been a priority for this board.

Is the Middle School overcrowded? A look at the numbers.

When discussing his decision to move sixth grade out of the Middle School, Ken Witt has consistently referred to overcrowding in that school. So let’s visit that point, and see what the facts say about space in the Middle School.

Last year, the board used a study from Cooperative Strategies to justify partitioning the Middle School into two schools, making room for Merit Academy. According to that report, the Merit Academy side of the school has capacity for 471 students, while the Middle School side has capacity for 432 students. These numbers do not take into account present or potential future modular buildings on the north side of the school build (Merit’s side).

The Colorado Department of Education (CDE) has data available on their website for attendance in all schools in the state. Merit Academy has 331 students, of which only 292 are onsite (the rest are homeschool enrichment); the Middle School has 391. The data shows Merit is at only 70% capacity; the Middle School is at 91% capacity (which is a bit below the 94% capacity the board predicted it would be at when it made the decision to split the building for Merit). The data does not show overcrowding at present.

Enrollment numbers for the ’23-24 school year are unknown, so nothing to base any decisions upon. However, we’ll look at what we know. Merit shows 27-41 students per grade. They are new to high school, and really only have a 9th grade this year. Assuming all their kids ‘bubble up’ into higher grades, they’d potentially be adding around 40 kids. Maybe they’d flush out some of the other grades closer to that 41 number. I consistently read that 90% facility usage is a nice target to shoot for, so let’s assume that (and ignore that our board wanted to put the Middle School at 94% capacity). Merit has a capacity of 423 students at 90% capacity, or an increase of 131 students (not counting the homeschool enrichment enrollment) – an increase of 45%! Perhaps they’ll hit that number, we just don’t know at this point.

I know the board is applauding Merit for ‘growth’ in the school district, but as page 17 of this presentation shows, 293 district students chose to go to ERBOCES (which Merit Academy was a part of at that time) in the ’21-22 school year – part an increase of 352 students opting out of the district compared to the previous school year. It’s clear, Merit pulled students from the district when they opened, then brought them ‘back’ into the district once the district absorbed Merit. This was not some radical growth in the district, it was just shuffling kids around, and to assume that Merit can now find 131 new students? Perhaps they’ll draw some from the Public Schools, but considering they’ve already been around for two years now, I question how many there left to get that haven’t already made that switch.

How does enrollment look for the Middle School? If we assume all current fifth graders move on to the Middle School, that’s 113 students being added, while 121 eighth graders leave for the High School. This bumps Middle School capacity down to 89%.

Actual attendance numbers for next year are unknown. What IS known is that the ‘overcrowding’ argument is based on very ambitious recruitment goals for Merit Academy; whether they’ll succeed is a bit question. If they needed more capacity, they do have existing modular structures on the north side, with space to add more. Perhaps they’ll need more space in the Middle School in the future, but for the ’23-24 school year, the data does not support any radical changes to the makeup of that building.

What this analysis is lacking – firsthand reports, that boots on the ground perspective that only the staff at the school can provide. Given the hostility Witt has shown towards them, I felt it best to not approach staff with questions and to just lay out the facts here instead. I also realize this doesn’t not take into account things like classroom size or number of rooms per grade, though when it comes to analyzing Merit, since they have control over those factors (they can limit enrollment, unlike the Middle School) I felt it OK to leave that part out.