Category Archives: News

Theology of arrogance | Guest column

From the 2/21/2024 Courier:

Values guide our lives, both individually and inside a community. Generally, we agree that “strong” values are a good thing and should be promoted. However, defining values is both nebulous and easily misconstrued. We often hear about conservative values, liberal values, Christian values, or secular values. The problem is no one person defines these labels the same. We each have different backgrounds, different life experiences and different families that help us define such terms. I believe that how we express these values is what is important, not how we define them.

I have been thinking about the value of arrogance and how it appears to be displayed in this community. When one person or small group believes they have the right or mandate to dictate how a whole community should look, behave, think and educate, then it becomes a value system of arrogance. And arrogance leads to power and lending to an attempt of dominance by a few. It also can promote the idea that “the means can justify the end”. Name calling and false accusations from the pulpit and on podcasts are only some methods used. In other words, it doesn’t matter how one acts or states their aforementioned values, as any means to get to the end goal is justified. How can this be?

I propose that such a value of arrogance comes from the lack of respect for others. Often this arrogance is given in the name of Christianity, whereby anyone who disagrees is considered evil and therefore must be overtaken and destroyed. One’s politics becomes one’s religion and vice versa. I was raised in a strongly conservative Republican and staunchly Christian home. I spent K-12 in a Christian School and went on to receive a Bachelors in Bible and Religion from an accredited Christian College. In all of those experiences, I was taught the value of diversity both in communities and thought. I was taught that political ideas could differ because that is American democracy, but we are still family. I was taught humility. I was taught “…. if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have no love, I am nothing.” And so now, in Woodland Park, I am considered evil and not worthy of respect and a place at the table because I think differently and have a different life from those who want dominion over this community. Which “Christian” value is this really representing?

Darlene Schmurr-Stewart

Letters to the Editor — Feb. 21, 2024

From the 2/21/2024 Courier:

Discussion is overdue

I write to express my support for the recent discussions within the Woodland Park City Council concerning the allocation of sales tax revenue within the school district. Trust in governmental entities handling tax dollars is a delicate matter, and this discussion is long overdue.

Budgets should reflect realistic expectations, and adherence to them is crucial. The Woodland Park School District revised its fiscal year budget on Feb. 14, after an earlier revision in January. They’ve made significant errors, including overestimation of appropriations, which were reduced from $40,779,649 to $37,513,556. Questionable accounting practices involved charging expenses to old grant accounts without corresponding revenue or budget. The federal COVID relief funds budget, initially at $858,241, mysteriously decreased to $542,157, resulting in an overdrawn account. The recent budget discussion concluded with the admission that further revisions might be necessary, as not all changes could be explained during the board meeting.

Amidst this financial uncertainty, it is disconcerting that the board awarded superintendent Ken Witt a new contract (which included a raise and an annual bonus) without conducting a performance review. Trust is earned, especially when it comes to managing public funds, and the school district has yet to instill confidence in its financial stewardship.

I commend the efforts of the Woodland Park City Council in holding the school district accountable for the responsible allocation of our sales tax money. It is imperative that the community remains vigilant and engaged in ensuring fiscal transparency and accountability within our local institutions.

Matt Gawlowski, Woodland Park

’23-24 enrollment numbers

The CDE published enrollment data for the current ’23-24 school year on their website; Woodland Park RE-2 enrollment is down from 2122 last year to 2015 this year, a -5.04% decrease and loss of 107 students. 554 Woodland Park kids are choosing to go to school outside of this district, up from 473 last year. While most of those kids are opting in to Manitou Springs (173), another big winner was Ken Witt’s ERBOCES, which attracted 96 Woodland Park students (presumably, online school?). Woodland Park also saw more students opting IN to the district from other districts, up from 210 last year to 259 this year. The net loss of the district was 295 students, versus 263 the previous school year.

Federal Covid relief grant sharing in WPSD

Interestingly, in the last fiscal year (ending June 30, 2023), the district made a last-minute transfer of $270,155 of COVID relief funds to Merit Academy. Merit submitted the invoice on 6/30/2023, though it wasn’t processed and paid until August. I can’t find any mention of it in the FY23 budget…you’ll note other passthrough money, like the sales tax revenue, is noted as “Charter school allocation”. It’s not clear why the district didn’t do the same for this federal grant money.

Chief Academic Officer leaves for Elizabeth school district

UPDATE – Kimberly Moore’s resignation letter is dated February 5th, two days after the job opening was supposedly posted. Why it didn’t appear in the board packet for the 2/14 meeting is unclear.

Chief Academic Officer Kimberly Moore is leaving Woodland Park, to take a similar role in the Elizabeth school district. News first broke on February 3rd of her departure, though the rumor mill pegged her for a principal position in Elizabeth. While that position didn’t pan out, the destination proved correct and she’ll be starting there after spring break (according to an email from the Elizabeth superintendent to staff there).

One interesting thing to note is the job posting for her position was just posted a couple days ago (around 2/14), yet it’s dated February 3rd:

One local parent, in attempts to raise visibility to our understaffed SPED program, posts weekly updates on Facebook of the job openings in the district. In her post on Monday February 12th, this position was not listed:

Additionally, Moore’s resignation is not noted in the board packet from the February 14th school board meeting as would be typically done.

It’s unclear why the district would advertise that the position was posted February 3rd, when all evidence suggests this is not the case.

Updates on Intergovernmental Agreement on use of sales tax revenue by the school district

In last Thursday’s city council meeting, the council discussed the intergovernmental agreement (IGA) regarding use of sales tax funds by the Woodland Park school district. You can watch it in the council meeting recording, starting about 1:26:40. They’ve been seeking to update the IGA since it’s been more than five years since it was last updated. Council felt like the district had stonewalled them on this issue, so is offering an ultimatum, where if an agreement on an updated IGA cannot be reached, the council would vote on whether to end the 1.09% sales tax dedicated to the schools.

Since that meeting, the school board has agreed to meet to discuss this issue, and that public meeting is scheduled for 5:00 on February 29th in the city council chambers. It will be live-streamed , but public comment is not planned.

The next city council meeting is scheduled for Thursday February 15th; I suspect they’ll be talking about this more as council had directed the city attorney to draft a resolution or ordinance regarding this, for the event where an agreement could not be reached.

With no public comment in the work session on the 29th, it’s important to get any comments to council ahead of that time. Contact info for the council members can be found on the city’s website.

Letter to the board

A letter sent to the WPSD board recently by a community member:

Dear BOE Directors:

I cannot express the anger and disappointment that I am feeling as a result of the announcement regarding the middle school last Friday. After the turmoil over the past two years, and recent election in which the results were very close, I had hoped that the incumbent directors would be a little more willing to solicit input from, and to listen to, staff, parents, and students. Clearly that was wishful thinking.

Over 30 years ago, the taxpayers of this community approved a bond issue to build a new school so that 6-8 grades would have their own space away from high school students. For 29 years, the Woodland Park Middle School was that space, and then a new school board was elected. The middle school has been a place for 6-8 graders to transition from elementary school and get ready for high school. The middle school grades are unique because of the massive changes that kids go through at this age; they aren’t little kids anymore, and they aren’t teens and young adults. The middle school is a place for these kids to not only learn academics, but to experience greater choice of electives than elementary and start to develop their own interests, to join sports’ teams, academic teams, and Forensics, and to have a safe place in which to grow that belongs to them.

Starting last year, the middle school students started to lose their space. The middle school was being, “under utilized.” There weren’t 30 kids in every classroom. When Merit Academy was given half of the middle school building, the middle school students lost a large part of their space. The middle school staff went on educating middle school students and working to make sure that all students were welcomed into the safe space of the middle school. Then the decision came, despite parental and staff input to the contrary, to move 6th grade out of the middle school that was built, in part, for them. It was stated that the middle school was over-crowded (funny, since a year prior it was, “almost empty”). Parents, staff, community, etc. were told that it was so much better for the 6th grade to be in the elementary schools away from the older middle school students. A BOE director gushed over the, “opportunities,” that Superintendent Witt had created for the 6th grade students at the elementaries. Did you ever consider the opportunities that were stripped from them? In the middle school, 6th grade band students have band five days a week. Art, P.E., Consumer and Family Studies, Choir, STEM classes meet five days a week. They have all academic classes five days a week. In the elementary, they are lucky to have electives two or maybe three days a week. Thanks to the middle school band teacher now having to travel three days a week, 6th grade students get one day of band weekly, which will have a negative impact on the future of the WPSD band program. In the elementary school, science and social studies are not taught every day. 6th grade students no longer are able to join the Forensics team like they have for years, and just when 6th grade students were being added to all middle school sports teams, they get moved out and lose the opportunity.

Now the 7th and 8th graders are losing their entire building. If it wasn’t good for 6th graders to be with the older 7th and 8th graders, how is it good for the 7th and 8th graders to be with juniors and seniors? What considerations have been made regarding this move? The middle school PE program just received equipment to upgrade their fitness room. Where will that new equipment go in the high school building so that the 7th and 8th grade students will be able to utilize it? Will the middle school students really have their own safe space in the high school? Will they still have their beloved teachers and administrators? What about classroom space and storage space? Is there really adequate space in the high school? The high school building has numerous problems due to its age. Will all available space be safe for students? And what about sports programs? At this time, there are 7-8 basketball teams, and depending on numbers, could be as many as 9, practicing and playing games. Middle school practices daily in the middle school gym (with new bleachers that have WP). They play games on Mondays and Wednesdays. High school teams practice in both the North gym and main gym and play games usually on Tuesdays and Thursdays in both gyms. The high school boys and girls, as they have done for decades, already alternate early and late practices. Can you explain how this will work when middle school teams are added in the mix? How are up to 9 teams going to practice and play games in two gyms?! The same goes for the fall with volleyball. The cheer team has to practice after volleyball practices, and in between basketball early and late practices. Baseball has started their preseason practices, and the cheer team now has to shorten their time because the baseball team needs the space. During track season, middle school practices on the middle school track. Will they still be using the middle school track when they are housed in the high school? If so, will the district be bussing them each afternoon to the middle school? What kind of costs will be incurred in order to provide for middle school and high school teams.? Can you explain how this is even fair to WPMS and WPHS students and athletes? Can you explain how it’s ok for Merit to have 10 kids in a class, but when the middle school only had 25 kids in classes, it wasn’t enough?

For the past two plus years, it has appeared that, although the BOE is the board of WPSD, it has done everything in its power to benefit Merit Academy at the expense of WPSD schools, particularly WPMS. Now, please understand that I am all for school choice; I’m in support of having a charter school. But I am not in support of how the BOE has worked to destroy WPMS. Most charter schools are not given a building that is already in use, and then push out the students that are using that building. What has been done is wrong. It is decisions like this, without thought, without staff, parent, student, and community input or support, that continue to create strife. It is also decisions like this that continue to put Merit Academy at odds with WPSD parents, students, and staff; not because of Merit, but because of the actions of the WPSD BOE.

With sadness,

Laurie Gutierrez
Community member, taxpayer, former WPSD student, former WPSD staff member

WP cuts middle school after school academic assistance program

The Woodland Park school board found the money to give superintendent Ken Witt a $15k raise (plus 5% annual raise and up to 15% bonus), and found $328,000 extra to give to their pet project, Merit Academy, but followed up by CUTTING an after school academic assistance program at the middle school. As is typical for the Woodland Park school district, details are scarce…we’ll post an update as we learn more.

UPDATE – another email was sent out as a followup with new information. CORA request has been submitted to see if there’s any paper trail that would shed some light on this. The new email said:

Hello WPMS Families–

Earlier today I sent out a notification concerning the status of our Afterschool Academic Assistance program.  Unfortunately that email went out prematurely, and I did not have all the relevant information.  I apologize for any confusion, distress, or inconvenience that caused.

We are NOT cancelling our Afterschool Academic Assistance offering.  We will continue to offer this to students on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:20pm to 4:20pm.  In the event we need to cancel a particular day due to weather or other unforeseen circumstances, we will communicate that on the day of as needed.

Again, I apologize for any inconvenience this caused our community.

Thank you,

Bill Phalen

The original email:

Middle School (7/8 grades) being moved to High School building

About a year ago, the district made a surprise announcement that sixth grade was being moved out of the middle school building and into the three elementary schools. A teacher walkout and public protest followed, though it didn’t change the ultimate move. Today, the district announced that 7th and 8th grades would be moved out of the Middle School building to the High School, thereby giving the entire Middle School building to the charter school, Merit Academy.

This should come as a surprise to no one. Last August, the board modified their agreement with Merit to give that charter school as much of the middle school building as they said they needed…so the writing was on the wall. Still, like most board decisions, there has been no discussion with the community about any of this and no discussion in any public board meeting.

Naturally, no further details have been offered, no estimated costs have been shared. Taxpayers approved a bond issue in the early 90’s to build the Middle School building for use a middle school; starting this July it’ll be in the possession of a private non-profit corporation running a charter school.

Here’s the email parents received:

Dear WPSD Families, 

We want to provide an important update about facilities planning that will affect WPMS and WPHS.

We are currently discussing how to improve the efficiency of our building usage, specifically the utilization of the middle school and high school. In line with our commitment to providing the best facilities for our students, district administration and WPMS and WPHS leadership are planning a facilities merge, integrating WPMS 7th and 8th graders into WPHS, effective for the 2024-25 school year. No changes will occur during this current semester.

We understand the significance of such decisions and assure you the process is being approached carefully for our students’ educational experience and safety. All finalized decisions will be communicated through official channels, and we remain committed to transparency throughout this planning process.

If you have specific concerns or questions, please contact Aaron Salt, COO, at asalt@wpsdk12.org. 

The district surveyed parents in November of 2022 about the topic of building utilization…here’s the results of the relevant question: