Category Archives: News

New charter school coming to Woodland Park?

Mike Miles, the founder of the Third Future network of charter schools in Texas and Colorado, appears to be considering opening another charter school, this one in Woodland Park. On Saturday 1/15, Illingworth and Witt gave him tours of several district buildings – Columbine Elementary, Gateway Elementary, and the Middle School (well, what’s left of it after it was carved up for Merit Academy). Board President Rusterholtz was unaware of this and no announcement was made, and it was only through keen observation by community members that we were even made aware of it.

His two local schools are Coperni 2 and Coperni 3, both in Colorado Springs. Witt helped bring Coperni 2 to that district through his work at ERBOCES (though back then it was called Colorado Digital BOCES).

Woodland Park Student Alliance

There’s a new student-led group formed, the Woodland Park Student Alliance (Instagram). Check them out!

Also, you can read the students’ latest update at their change.org petition.

Director Illingworth views these kids as pawns, being used as part of a phantom union-led campaign. He couldn’t be further from the truth…I know some of those kids, and this is entirely their own effort. I also think any parent of teenagers knows that the stuff these kids are doing is not something any adult could direct…these young adults are free thinkers and should be admired for the strength and courage they’re exhibiting.

How the Koch brothers and other billionaires are staging a take over of our public schools (Boulder Weekly)

School board controversies are nothing new in Colorado, and I believe that by studying what has happened elsewhere in the state, we can gain some insight into where our school board may be heading, and what things to watch out for. That’s where this article in the Boulder Weekly from back in 2015 is helpful. It talks a lot about what happened in Thompson School District, but also Jefferson County and Douglas County. Our school district has one special aspect though…the board is united and has put in place a Superintendent who will join them (or even lead them?) in their reformist goals.

Note the one common element in all of these is Brad Miller (and to a lesser extent, his associate Bryce Carlson). If you didn’t already know, the first thing our board did when elected in 2021 was to hire Brad Miller, and he’s been an active participant ever since.

2022 Year in Review

Happy New Year everyone! It’s been quite a rollercoaster this past year…we thought/hoped the board would settle down once they brought Merit Academy onboard, but that was not to be. They fired Superintendent Neal, fired the SAC/DAC committees (and hand-picked the replacements) just after the new members were trained, and just voted to hire one of the most controversial people in Colorado education, Ken Witt. So we’re realizing it’s time to revitalize this website, and start getting more information out. We expect 2023 to be a busy year.

With that in mind, we’ve written up a quick summary of 2022, the highlights of a too-busy school district in what was once a quiet mountain town. Check it out here.

We’re still here!

Hi everyone! Yes, I know this website sure got quiet fast. Rest assured, we are still as active as ever! Things got so busy with the school and life that maintaining this site has really fallen to the wayside. If you’d like to know everything going on, the best way is to follow the Facebook group called Concerned Parents of Teller County. We’re also posting videos of most of the board meetings, and any TV stories, at our YouTube site.

We had hoped things would settle down after the board fired Superintendent Neal in June. We were on track for a bit of normalcy, with Tina and Del stepping in to be co-superintendents. It seemed as if maybe this website would no longer be needed? But then of course, the board voted to hire Ken Witt. So…yeah, we’re back. We’ll start giving this site more info as I think it’ll help people get up to speed. In the meantime, follow those links above, and consider signing a petition students have set up at change.org.

2022 recall attempt summary

The WPSD Board Recall Committee submitted the recall petitions to the Teller County Clerk on 8/1/22. The signatures have been counted and have come in just under the number needed to continue the recall effort. Though we gained enough signatures to meet the numbers for both Illingworth and Patterson, some signatures were not accepted for a variety of reasons. The primary factors were signers out-of-district, name not found, or the voter’s information did not precisely match the voter registry. These are common reasons why signatures aren’t counted on petitions.

Here are the official numbers:

-The petition for David Rusterholtz did not have enough signatures and was not processed.

-The petition for David Illingworth II received 2709 signatures, 386 signatures were rejected, leaving 2323 signatures of the 2648 required.

-The petition for Suzanne Patterson received 2697 signatures, 409 signatures were rejected, leaving 2288 signatures of the 2644 required.

Understandably, we are disappointed to have fallen just short of the numbers required to move forward with the recall process. However, there are some things that we know for sure:

-The signatures of thousands of voters provide clear evidence that opposition to the Board’s behavior extends far and wide. There are many more people who were unable to sign for a variety of reasons. Many live out of district even though they have children in the school, some are part-time here and are registered to vote in other places, and, unfortunately, many didn’t sign for fear of retribution from the board. That alone says a lot. However, the breadth of support is very clear.

-This was a PHENOMENAL team effort by a group of friends and strangers working together for good, kindness, truth, and decency in our community.

-There is a huge portion of this community who has been and will continue to support our teachers and ALL of the children in this community.

-Our desire and effort to hold the Woodland Park School Board accountable for their actions and to advocate for students, families, and teachers is not diminished. We will continue to seek representation that mirrors the diversity of our community.

-This is the time to be more involved than ever. The new school year just started and we can continue to show support for the teachers and staff. Volunteer in a classroom, write a supportive email to a teacher, learn about what clubs and programs your kids are interested in, ask questions, attend board meetings, get involved in whatever way is best for you.

We are making and will continue to make a difference!!!

Thank you again for your part in this effort!

Erin O’Connell, from the Concerned Parents of Teller County Facebook group

Merit Academy Updates

The district has signed a contract with Merit Academy, and is currently working on a Facilities Usage Agreement (FUA) to give them the space they wanted in the Middle School. The contract was voted on in their 5/19 meeting (link to video); this followed their 5/18 “town hall” meeting (link to video) to take public comment…none of which led to any changes in the contract later adopted. As expected, the board ignored the process laid out in Colorado charter school law and even the district’s own website. They also never did have a clean vote on the MOU that was supposedly the foundation for this action…the preliminary injunction had found the original vote to be in violation of the Open Meetings Law, and the subsequent two ‘re-votes’ to be rubber-stamping which is also not allowed (link).

For the Facilities Usage Agreement (FUA), the board posted the draft Friday evening before Memorial Day weekend, with all public feedback required by Monday evening of that same holiday weekend. Thereby establishing that FUA also stands for, “Fuck U All” and showing that they really didn’t want public feedback. On Wednesday June 1st, the board met to ‘review’ to that feedback (link to video), and promptly instruct the Superintendent to proceed with the FUA with Merit without any changes to what was posted the prior week.

The district’s own financial analysis (link) of Merit was concerning, with their conclusion being:

A compressed analysis window, inconsistent financial reporting, and the lack of
a full-year of Merit Academy’s operational existence make thorough fiscal
analysis for adding a charter school to the Woodland Park School District
difficult. Much of the information included in this summary is based on projected
or estimated data and may be dramatically impacted by a host of variables
including changing economic, demographic and political circumstances. A more
effective analysis will be possible after a fiscal audit by a contracted, external
auditor.

Despite those financial concerns, the board granted Merit a significant portion of the sales tax revenue received by the school, something the law does not require. A more conservative board would have at least tied that sales tax money to specific milestones Merit must achieve, such as a satisfactory financial audit. But then, this board is all about doing what’s best for Merit, not the public schools.

Merit Contract draft finally posted!

The draft contract between WPSD and Merit Academy has finally been posted to the district’s website. You can download the full contract here, or the executive summary here. We’ll have our full analysis posted soon. The board will be taking public input in a meeting on Wednesday May 18th in the High School auditorium. They’ll also be taking questions via an online form that isn’t working at the moment, but when it does, the link is here.

Preliminary Injunction GRANTED!

A preliminary injunction has been granted against the school board regarding the OML (Open Meetings Law)!

“The Defendant shall comply with the OML by clearly, honestly, and forthrightly listing all future Agenda items regarding Merit Academy.”…”The Board is further enjoined from “rubber stamping” any Board decision that does not comply with the notice requirements of the OML.”

-It does NOT negate the MOU with Merit Academy.

-It does NOT prevent the Board from looking at and considering the Merit Contract.

-It does NOT prevent the Board from pursuing the Feasibility study and facility usage.

-It DOES state that they must diligently comply with all Open Meeting Laws. 

-It DOES enforce the rule that they must explicitly state what they will be discussing in a meeting on the Agenda. 

-It DOES support that our case has some legal justification and the judge saw fit to issue this until the time of a trial (based on my complaint/ lawsuit).

Let’s keep fighting for transparency in our school district! This is only the first step in this fight, a final hearing and ruling is yet to come. Please consider supporting this effort via the GoFundMe link above!

You can read the entire ruling here.