Category Archives: News

Book Banning has begun in Woodland Park schools

High School parent Bridget Curran has a child in the ‘Civil Disobedience’ class in the high school. The BOE gave the teacher an ultimatum, remove the reading of the book “Between the World and Me” or the class would be eliminated completely. The teacher refused, the class is gone. We’ve submitted a CORA request for emails related to this.

posted 1/24/2023 to the Concerned Parents of Teller County Facebook group

In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?

Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.

Amazon

Hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading,” a bold and personal literary exploration of America’s racial history by “the most important essayist in a generation and a writer who changed the national political conversation about race” (Rolling Stone)

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF OPRAH’S “BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH” 

Fiscal Recklessness in Woodland Park

Most of these board members are relatively new to town. Us that have been here a long time remember days not so long ago, when the Middle School roof was leaking. Trash cans were placed in classrooms to catch the drips. The district had no money for a new roof. I recall sitting in on a presentation by Superintendent Bowman at the time…he outlined the expenses on staff, district-wide, at a very detailed level. He convinced me the district was operating as lean as it could be…and yet…there was still no money for a new roof. In the spring of 2016, voters surprisingly stepped up to help! We passed a 1.09% sales tax coupled with a property tax reduction! This has made a huge difference to our schools, and yes, the Middle School got their new roof. 🙂

This current school board has been completely reckless with spending and an insult to taxpayers who deserve more from our elected officials. Let’s look at some examples.

The board spent around $100k of district money to bring Merit Academy into the district. The feasibility study for the middle school cost our district $51,596.53. Caplan and Ernest, lawyers brought on solely for closing the deal with Merit, cost us $32,268.50. Brad Miller incurred some uncertain amount of legal fees until he stepped away from the deal at the end (his legal fees for the first five months of 2022 were about $66k and he was very involved with this beginning in January). The board was not required to give Merit any of the sales tax revenue…they could have withheld enough of that sales tax revenue to reimburse the district for expenses incurred bringing in Merit.

Miller’s legal advice to the board led to them violating Open Meetings Law in January, leading to a preliminary injunction and subsequent legal fees incurred by defending themselves in court. The exact cost is unknown, as Miller did not invoice separately for this court case and he redacts details from the invoices we request through CORA.

In June, Illingworth called for a special board meeting, where they decided to remove Superintendent Neal from the district. Having no cause for doing so, it cost the district $275k to break his contract (plus whatever legal fees were incurred by Miller for this).

Having put in place two very competent co-superintendents, Del Garrick and Tina Cassens, the board then proceeded to hire a new temporary interim superintendent, Ken Witt. Which on the surface is not necessarily financially bad, this board found a way to really screw taxpayers over on this one. They’re paying Witt an annual rate of $155k, plus a $500 car allowance and $100 cell phone allowance. The contract makes it very difficult to remove Witt, as doing so would require 120 day notice or comparable financial compensation! To top it all off, Witt is allowed to keep working at ERBOCES, where is also being paid $155k, gets a $500 car allowance, and a cell phone provided to him. Taxpayers are paying Witt more than $310k to work two fulltime jobs. You can read Witt’s contract with Woodland Park here, or read his ERBOCES contract here (that contract has been extended). Our district alone is paying a full time salary to someone that’s barely working here part time.

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.