The HS principal’s update, from the latest Panther Nation newsletter:
It’s always exciting to see the calendar change from July to August. That means it’s just about time to welcome back the next set of students to our school. We’re so ready for the classes of 2024, 2025, 2026 and 2027 to join the annals of Panther History!
WPHS has recently enjoyed an incredible five year run of consistent improvement in student achievement. Unprecedented growth and achievement data with in the SAT and PSAT have put our school squarely in the conversation as one of the best choices a student can make in the Pike’s Peak Region.
Our staff and students have worked hard and challenged themselves to improve each and every year. We value the Productive Struggle that comes with being a Panther student. We’re proud of where that intentional growth mindset has landed us. We love watching parents and caregivers enjoy the journey too. The magic of learning happens right there – when the challenge is appropriately tough and never easy.
We’re pleased to announce that WPHS was recently recognized as a High Reliability School by Robert Marzano and Associates. This five year journey is one that our staff and school are proud to achieve. The school will soon be awarded a certificate of achievement as a Level One Certified School in January at the HRS National Summit. Stretching ourselves and pushing the environment forward have been a part of the journey. And it’s one we plan on continuing.
Great to have everyone back! Can’t wait to see you all next week.
CMAS test scores for the last school year have been published, here’s how our district fared. Highlighted cells are the scores statewide. Overall, we did better than the state average on English, worse on math. Participation rate at Merit and the Middle School was noticeably lower than the high school and other elementary schools, though still higher than statewide average.
Consistently, these bans target materials written by and about people of color or LGBTQ+ individuals, and even though a 2022 poll found that 70% of parents oppose them, they are continuing at a rapid rate.
Now the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is trying to fight back. It recently launched the Banned Book Program, granting free nationwide access to books restricted in schools or libraries.
— Read on www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/18/us-teens-banned-books-schools
This email was sent out to parents earlier this morning:
Dear WPSD Families,
We want to update you on an important aspect of our ongoing commitment to ensure the safety and security of our students and staff members.
In line with our unwavering dedication to maintain a secure learning environment, the Board of Education and District Administration have diligently reviewed and updated our safety protocols. As a result, we are announcing a significant step to enhance the safety measures within our school district.
After careful consideration and consultation with law enforcement professionals, we have integrated trained and certified armed security personnel into our safety and security plan. These dedicated professionals must have completed rigorous training programs from law enforcement or other specialized training, ensuring they possess the necessary expertise to respond effectively to potential security situations.
It is important to emphasize that these security personnel are highly trained professionals dedicated to upholding the highest safety and security standards. Their presence will complement the efforts of our existing security measures and will be an additional resource to ensure a rapid and coordinated response to any potential threats. Please know our students’ and staff members’ safety remains a paramount concern.
We understand that the introduction of armed security personnel may prompt questions or concerns. We share your commitment to providing a safe educational environment for our students. This decision is part of a comprehensive strategy that aligns with our overarching goal of maintaining a safe learning environment for students and staff.
Thank you for your continued support as we work together to provide the safest possible environment for our students and staff members. We remain committed to ensuring our school district remains a safe place to learn.
For questions, please contact Aaron Salt, COO, at asalt@wpsdk12.org.
On the surface this might seem OK, but there’s a significant open question about the training and backgrounds of these personnel. Have they been trained to deal with a school full of children? Have they been trained to know when *not* to shoot, or has their training been focused merely on eliminating a target (such as military training might focus on)?
When asked for details, the district replied with:
Thanks for your email and your interest in security in Woodland Park. The security personnel will be highly qualified district employees hired specifically for security detail. We have an experienced military trainer to conduct vetting and hiring. We do not announce specific training, as that’s protected information due to security concerns, but the training does involve law enforcement experts.
The district has refused to work with the city police chief on any level of SROs for our buildings. It appears that was due to this other plan they’ve been working on since spring.
As previously reported here, the ACLU has filed suit against the district on behalf of former employee Logan Ruths, regarding his one year banishment from district property. This story has been covered by NBC, the Colorado Sun, the Colorado Springs Indy, KOAA, and the Gazette (and given that media focus, I suspect I missed some!).
Court papers were served to the district Friday, and also Friday board president Rusterholtz announced he’d like to retract the ban against Ruths. Right now, that action is pending review by board attorney Brad Miller and feedback from the other board members.
Here’s KOAA’s news coverage of this case (see story here):
You can watch the board meeting that promoted this action below, timestamp 16:10 is about where this all started:
A new lawsuit was filed against the Woodland Park School District earlier this week in district court (Civil Action No. 19-3634). It’s essentially a First Amendment / Freedom of Religion lawsuit, brought by a parent in the district (Jessica Pool), against superintendent Ken Witt and Columbine Principal Ginger Slocum. You can read the full filing here. As always, it’s best to reserve judgement until the facts come out in court and a jury decides on this case.
Many community members have been concerned about the effect this board and superintendent might have on the staff in the district…we all asked, how many would leave after this past school year? And would the district be able to replace them (as it turns out, it’s having a hard time of that part, with 16 teacher positions still unfilled at this moment). I wanted to get the facts out on this topic, but found it surprisingly difficult to get a concrete number. So let me explain the data I’m about to present.
At first, myself and others tracked resignations via word of mouth, but I quickly realized that was unreliable data. So, the data here depends almost exclusively on the meeting minutes from board meetings going back to December (those meeting minutes include staff resignations, retirements, and new hires). The only exception is some resignations announced since the last board meeting in June. Staff hired anytime in 2023 have not been included in these calculations.
The other side of it, and an unexpected complication, was determining exactly how many people actually work in the district. For that we scraped data from the district website at the end of February, and combined it with a more comprehensive data set that was obtained towards the end of the school year. That last data set quickly proved to be too broad, including some people no longer with the district, and some known substitute teachers.
Bottom line is, this data is 99% accurate but may have an error or two. If the district publishes their own data, I’ll readily post an update to these numbers. Also, there may yet be further resignations before the new school year starts, so final numbers will be posted in late August. Lastly, I thought it useful to show two bits of data…the percent of teachers leaving the school at the end of last year, as well as the overall percent of staff (including teachers) leaving.
That said, how have the board and superintendent’s actions impacted staffing levels in our district? I found it most useful to break this down on a school by school basis. As you can see, a Summit and Columbine have weathered this storm well. Gateway is absolutely devastated…the school that received the Governor’s Distinguished Improvement Award this past spring is effectively an all-new school this year. The middle school and high school also each lost a very large percentage.
Of course, the question on everyone’s mind is, is this normal?
Insiders tell me it’s far from normal, but I do like data, so I dove into the data the CDE makes readily available and came up with a chart. It shows turnover is typically around 15-19%, and there was a weird spike in the COVID years – I don’t know what to make of that, except that those years were full of abnormalities across this country in societal trends (and with remote learning that year, I suspect many of the district positions were cut? I’m not certain). With the COVID year uncertainty, I instead compare this past year with the years previous, which shows the fears of a teacher exodus were well founded (last year was showing a small uptick, but nothing compared to this year).
To interpret that data – when it says ’23-24 compared with ’22-23, what that means is how many teachers or staff in the ’22-23 school year did not return for the ’23-24 school year.
Once the school year starts, we’ll have a final tally and I’ll update this then.
To protect teacher privacy, I will not be releasing my spreadsheet summary of the data as it includes all staff names, but I will share it with any legitimate reporters who are interested. You can reach me using the contact form on this website.
In their June board meeting, the board and Witt promised teachers 5% raise starting with their July paychecks. Teachers in the room were surprised at that, and I asked them later why. They explained how the payroll system works for teachers, and that they wouldn’t expect to see any raise until their September paycheck. So when their July paycheck arrived unchanged, they weren’t surprised to see no increase.
Superintendent Ken Witt, CFO Amy Ryan, and the Woodland Park Board of Education directors owe the teachers an apology.
Please vote out the three board incumbents up for re-election this fall.
It’s no secret that Charis Bible “college” is working to take over school boards (as well as local government like city councils) statewide. They have a class devoted to exactly this (here’s the video from the 2022 Citizens Academy as well if you’re curious). A school board candidate training academy was held there this past spring (and a similar event in 2021). And of course, Wommack urged his followers to ‘take over Woodland Park‘. Charis has a separate business identity, Truth and Liberty Coalition, which as a 501c(4) non-profit is able to engage in political activity (the line between that organization and Charis is vague at best).
Don’t forget, too, that current board director Sue Patterson is a Charis grad herself:
Most recently, Truth and Liberty Coalition Executive Director Richard Harris (whose LinkedIn bio lists him as the “Coordinator, Practical Government School at Charis Bible College Colorado”) sent this mass email, encouraging their followers to run for school board statewide:
Voters in Woodland Park have the opportunity to push back against this, by voting out the three incumbents this fall. Sue Patterson is not up for re-election so would remain on the board, but at least her influence would be reduced.
