Category Archives: Weekly Updates

3/25/2023 Weekly Update

Last week:

Here’s what’s coming up this week:

  • With the district on spring break, we expect little public activity.

3/19/2023 Weekly Update

Last week:

Here’s what’s coming up this week:

  • There’s a special board meeting this Wednesday, 6:00 (agenda). No public comment.
  • This week is when schools typically find out what their staffing allowance is for the next year and can start figuring which positions need to be cut, and which need to be filled.

3/12/2023 Weekly Update

Last Week:

  • Not yet published on this website as we’re getting more details:
    • Ken Witt fired Logan (IT) and Morgan (payroll) from district staff, saying their positions were no longer needed.
    • With Logan gone, some CORA requests are already overdue (beyond the max of 10 days); the Woodland Parks school district is in noncompliance with Colorado Open Records law.
    • Also Friday, we received confirmation that a senior staff member of the district admin staff submitted their resignation Friday, we believe in connection to those two firings. We’re under the impression not all staff have been informed of this decision yet, so we’re withholding details for now.
  • Episode 2 of the locally produced podcast ‘Voices of Reason’ is out, check it out here.
  • The board had their regular monthly board meeting on the 8th
    • A summary of the meeting can be read here.
    • The board struggled a bit with policy changes…they were going to do a second reading on GP-5 and approve it, but instead chose to revise it further, necessitating a second reading and vote to be held in the next meeting instead. This policy change is to help remove any focus on non-academic details, removing the emphasis on things like counselors and mental health programs.
    • Video of the public comments from the meeting can be viewed here.
  • We provided an update on the Curriculum Review status in the district driven by adoption of the American Birthright standards.
  • Efforts by the Board and Ken Witt to restrict freedom of speech in the district were summarized in this post.
  • We reviewed the numbers behind Witt’s claim that the Middle School is overcrowded and thus the sixth graders need to move out.

Here’s what’s coming up this week:

  • Wednesday will be a meeting for parents and students about the Career Start program. There’s been concern that the district’s rejection of any grant money will impact that, but what we’ve heard suggests this program is safe as it’s state funds, not grants. We’ll find out more Wednesday.
  • No board meeting is scheduled for this week.

3/5/2023 Weekly Update

Last week:

  • A locally produced podcast released their first episode about our school district
  • The big news was that sixth grade would be moved from the Middle School back down to the three elementary schools to make more room for Merit. There were no discussions in board meetings about this, no discussions with teachers or the principals, and no details have been worked out yet.
  • A book-club style meeting was held at the public library to discuss the book banned from the high school classrooms, as well as discuss the larger question of book banning in general.
  • We made public the details of Ken Witt’s contract with the district, including the fact he has a similar contract with nearby ERBOCES (being paid for two full-time jobs).
  • Many schools across the country celebrated Public Schools Week. We did not.
  • We posted some information about Social Emotional Learning (SEL). It’s on the chopping block for next school year.
  • Witt met with staff at four of the five schools this week (he meets with the High School Monday). One staff member summed up the meeting best by saying, “Staff left crying, furious, unheard.”

Here’s what’s coming up this week:

  • Witt meets with the high school staff on Monday
  • Wednesday 3/8 is a regular school board meeting, 6:00 in the district offices conference room.
    • The board will finalize their change to policy GP-5 to narrow the focus of the board to educational interests only. Witt explained to teachers this week that their focus is on academic performance.
    • The board will do a first reading of proposed changes to GP-9, the policy that deals with changing or developing policy.
    • The board will discuss redistricting. It’s not clear why; note that this is an election year.
    • An executive session is scheduled to discuss security arrangements. While that might sound serious, an email we obtained via CORA suggests it’s likely about routine security arrangements in the schools, which by their nature might be more effective if details are not widely known.

2/26/23 Weekly Update

With the district being on winter break of most of this past week, things were pretty quiet. However, the one piece of news that broke was significant…Tina Cassens is leaving the district after being here 28 years. This is shortly after Del Garrick made a similar announcement a couple weeks ago. The loss of these two well loved and experienced educators is a huge blow to this school district and undoubtedly a sign of more to come.

In other news:

Here’s what’s coming up this week:

  • The next scheduled board meeting is next week, March 8th. It wouldn’t be surprising for them to schedule a work session for this week to further some policy change plans, so be on the lookout for that.

2/19/23 Weekly update

Last week:

Here’s what’s coming up this week:

  • The next scheduled board meeting is Wednesday, March 8th. However, they’ve been on a pretty regular two-week interval for much of the past year, so be on the lookout for them to possibly add a meeting for this Wednesday at 6:00.

2/12/23 Weekly update

As expected, this was a busy week

  • The Courier published a great letter from local resident Carol Greenstreet, read it here.
  • We received CORA results for emails related to Ken Witt’s decision to remove “Between the World and Me” from the curriculum in a high school elective class, read more here.
  • 107 people turned out for a school board meeting on Wednesday
    • We saw many new people speaking out in the public comments section
    • Witt did a first reading of proposed changes to GP-5, to change it to focusing only on the educational interests of students (examples of non-educational interests that would no longer be a priority would be things like bullying, LGBTQ+, pronouns, etc).
    • The board voted to modify the district calendar for next school year (when ready, it will be posted here).
  • The district announced it would halt withholding/processing of union dues from teachers’ paychecks, effective immediately.
  • An astute supporter put together a detailed ‘connecting the dots’ document helping explain the connections between some of the people in this saga.
  • A bill is advancing in the Colorado State Legislature that would provide state-level ethical oversight of local school boards.
  • We received clarification from the Colorado Department of Education on what they are will and able to do if a school district is suspected of not meeting state education standards, such as social studies.
  • Girl Scout cookies are now on sale! 🙂

Here’s what’s going on this coming week

  • Last week, we were expecting to be featured in a couple new media channels…that has been delayed, we’re hoping for this week. Stay tuned here.
  • We do not believe Witt and this board have abandoned plans to expand charter schools in this district after Third Future backed out; we’re watching this issue closely.

2/5/23 Weekly Update

Here’s what happened this past week

  • Third Future Schools submitted a letter stating their intent to apply to open a “partnership charter school” using the Gateway Elementary building. (link1, link2)
  • On Monday, the WPEA (local teachers’ union) held a meeting open to all teachers. A video of this meeting was obtained and promised to be leaked online. (link)
  • More news coverage of the district’s decision to remove the book “Between the World and Me” from the high school elective class “Civil Disobedience”. (link)
  • Colorado Public Radio published an in-depth article about high school teacher Sara Lee. (link)
  • MSNBC covered David Illingworth’s board interview question about the book, “Between the World and Me”, then interviewed its author, Ta-Nehisi Coates. (link)
  • Ken Witt sent an email to staff and parents saying that Third Future Schools has decided not to submit an application after all. (link)

Here’s what’s going on this coming week

  • Regular school board meeting Wednesday, 2/8, in the district offices. (agenda)
  • Look for our district to appear in multiple new media channels this week; we’ll post here when that happens.

January 2023 summary

Here’s what happened in January: