10/30/2024 Letters to the Editor

From the 10/30/2024 Courier:

2A Retail TaxThe Merit BOE consistently puts in effort for their school and has been promoting the Woodland Park School Coalition. Meanwhile, the WPSD BOE and Ken Witt have been unresponsive. Parents have requested town halls, community meetings, and other forms of communication, yet no answers have been given. There is a lack of transparency around the allocation of the retail tax-how is it distributed? Is it based on enrollment, or is there a formula the district uses? The IGA mentions charters and contract schools but there is no clarity. Witt has only stated that nothing will happen with Gateway this year, but what are the districts plans? Are they considering bringing in more brick and mortar schools under ErBOCES or another management company? Are any of these contract schools online and if so, will our local taxes support students outside of our district?

Why have only the charter school and Charis been vocal in support of the retail tax that would allow for more contract schools? Why aren’t we hearing from parents across WPSD? A table was even set up at the Charis event on 10/18, and Charis students are being given class credit to campaign for 2A. This raises important questions : How many more contract schools can WPSD afford?

The community deserves transparency and clear answers from WPSD BOE and Ken Witt about the impact of these changes.

Jeralee Gonzalez, Woodland Park

A better way | Guest column

From the 10/23/2024 Courier:

In April 2016, I voted along with 1,362 Woodland Park citizens to approve the 1.09% increase in city sales taxes to support our school’s post-secondary preparation courses, innovative school programs, technology, staff salaries, and facility maintenance and improvements. At the time, the school district decided to keep the sales tax revenue in the unrestricted general fund instead of creating a separate fund to monitor the restrictions. That was acceptable when district leaders were trusted to make decisions that benefited all of our schools. In the past few years, however, decisions resulting in losses have deteriorated trust in the school board and superintendent. It was also not anticipated 8 1⁄2 years ago that the person deciding how our community sales tax revenue would be spent, Superintendent Ken Witt, wouldn’t even be a member of our community or county. My own conservative values cause me to question the superintendent’s intentions for our schools and whether they align with fiscally conservative principles and our community’s traditionally conservative values.

Love for our schools is one of our community’s strongest values, although some are implying that a vote to revoke the 1.09% sales tax means the voter doesn’t support our teachers or students. That implication assumes that the school sales tax agreement as it currently stands truly serves our students and teachers in the best possible way. I am an actively involved parent in multiple schools in our district, and I can attest that many of our teachers and students don’t feel the benefits of the sales tax the way they should.

If the sales tax is not being managed by trusted leaders and if it isn’t benefitting teachers and students as intended, is there a better way? Here are ideas of how our community can still support our schools, teachers and students if the current sales tax agreement is revoked.

• Rent out the empty Gateway Elementary building to generate revenue for the school district. In 2022, a Long-Range Facilities Master Plan survey asked what community partnerships our district could explore to help utilize unused space in our school buildings. Some suggestions were an Early Childhood Center or a Community Health Center. The most popular option was a Community College.

• Smaller sales tax for COP payments. The current sales tax revenue pays around $720,000 annually for the Certificate of Participation (COP) lease. A smaller sales tax increase could be voted on to cover just the lease payments, which would also be easier to monitor.

• Revamp the school sales tax. If there’s still support for the 1.09% sales tax for our schools, we could hold a new vote with more precise guidelines on fund allocation. For instance, we could allocate a specific percentage of the revenue for staff bonuses and another percentage for career prep courses.

Ultimately, trust in our school leadership is broken, prompting reevaluation. While the 1.09% sales tax was initially seen as a pathway to enhance our educational system, we must consider whether it still effectively serves its purpose.

Laura Gordon

CFOIC brief: Eliminating penalties for ‘cured’ violations ‘eviscerates’ enforcement of open meetings law – Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition

The Colorado Supreme Court is reviewing whether the Court of Appeals in 2023 incorrectly rejected the awarding of attorney fees to plaintiff Erin O’Connell, who successfully challenged the Woodland Park school board — at least initially — over a meeting-notice violation that the board “effectively cured” at a subsequent meeting.
— Read on coloradofoic.org/cfoic-brief-eliminating-penalties-for-cured-violations-eviscerates-enforcement-of-open-meetings-law/

10/23/2024 Letters to the Editor

From the 10/23/2024 Courier:

Need a tax diet

As a longtime resident of Woodland Park of 31 years, it seems to me all levels of government, City, County, State to include school districts never seem to have enough money. Property taxes have skyrocketed, so has auto and homeowners insurance, (if you can get it).

Look at your receipt when you leave the grocery store, check your utility and cable bill at the taxes and fees added on. Look at your property tax bill, we pay a county, city, RE-2 School tax, along with a Ute Pass Regional Health tax, along with some others. Now they want more.

This went on in California in the 1970s until Proposition 13 was passed. The government used scare tactics to try and fool voters into thinking essential services would disappear. Fortunately it didn’t work. It’s time for Government to go on a tax diet.

Bill Huffor Sr., Woodland Park

A Conflict of Interest—over Your Taxes? | Guest column

From the 10/16/2024 Pikes Peak Courier:

Why would parents and community members caring deeply about our schools ask the city council to return the sales tax question to voters?

Having served on the Board of Education (BOE) in 2016 when this tax was requested of citizens, I was curious. For those I talked with, desperation played a central role. They described a sense of powerlessness with an unresponsive, fiscally irresponsible BOE and superintendent, who favor the district’s charter school, Merit Academy (MA), over the four traditional schools.

Since Mr. Witt’s hiring, not all changes have been negative. Yet peculiar financial happenings warrant taxpayers’ attention.

The board amended its contract with MA to include student transportation. While parents pay the same fee as other schools, MA itself does not share the larger cost of just under $1,000,000—a cost instead paid by funding for the other four schools.

This year, MA was given the middle school building—with a functional capacity of 900 students. Roughly 500 students currently use it. Yet down the street, Columbine sixth graders remain in portable buildings due to space shortage. And a small corner of the high school building confines WPMS.

Witt, of note, is simultaneously employed full-time as the Executive Director of ERBOCES—an alternative-education business and charter school advocate. ERBOCES actually lists MA among its own “Brick and Mortar Schools,” and funded a loan to MA in 2021, expected to be paid off in 2028. (Also of interest, Witt personally donated $1200 to Merit last year—though not the other WPSD schools).

Consider that administrative costs paid by MA to WPSD was $136,190 in 2023—an amount based on tracked hours worked. After Mr. Witt’s arrival this dropped to $31,295 in 2024. Even with increased number of students at MA.

Sadly, since Witt’s WPSD hiring, an all-time high of 554 students chose education options outside WPSD last year—a financial hit, too, at $10,276/pupil. ERBOCES gained 96 of those students (four years ago, it was 17). Early estimates are an additional decline of 172 WPSD students for 2024-2025.

As we observe this man who lives an hour from us—could this be a conflict of interest? Is he truly working for our community’s interests? For all our children? All of our schools?

Further, Mr. Witt’s staff provided our BOE with an unbalanced budget…twice. Passed twice (with egregious errors). His assertion that transportation is fully state-reimbursed failed to account $979,768 of district costs. Yet the BOE rated him 4/4 as excels in “leadership in the fiscal management of the District.”

What will the upcoming audit show? Will the Superintendent allow the auditors to present their findings to the public? What’s the status of the fund balance (i.e. savings) this BOE and superintendent spend at alarming, unsustainable rates?

This district is not listening to all parents in this community. Whether you vote no—to retain the tax— or yes to remove the tax, stay involved. Hold the board accountable for a superintendent who, at best, has divided interests.

Carol Greenstreet

10/16/2024 Letters to the Editor

From the 10/16/2024 Pikes Peak Courier:

Repealing sales tax is vote for a better agreement

It’s sad that I retired here to enjoy nature and peace, but instead must deal with people who live to “other” anyone who believes or advocates differently.

I am an outspoken, proud supporter of public schools, transparency and competency in elected officials. I am particularly critical of Mick Bates, Ken Witt, and Brad Miller, the school board’s very-expensive counsel. Perhaps this is why I’ve received Facebook death threats.

Smart, research-driven and caring friends are also being maligned, even threatened, when they advocate for our public schools. Anonymous cowards have threatened my friends privately and on social media; Fake Facebook profiles disrespect City Council members by name; and, sadly, many only watch Council and board meetings online, out of fear of retaliation.

At the same time the board makes it impossible for highly qualified, independent financial experts to verify district finances by stonewalling Colorado Open Records Act requests. The new CFO is another hire with prior relationships to Brad Miller, which will only continue financial opacity. This school board should stop delegating to Miller and Ken Witt. Mick Bates is either ignorant, being manipulated, or lied to (and believing it).

City Council can better support our students and teachers by ensuring honesty and transparency about where our tax money is really going. Vote to repeal the current tax as it is written now. Don’t be fooled by opponent’s false appeals about harming students and teachers. Your vote to repeal is a vote for a better contract, not a reduction in support.

Trina Hoefling, Woodland Park

Why is sales tax still needed?

The question of the 1.09% city sales tax for schools, Ballot question 2A, will be voted on in November. I believe a healthy school district is indicative of a healthy community. Good school ratings boost the value of homes, and help us feel connected through our common values — what’s best for the community’s children.

Test scores aside, the overall real estate ratings from third party websites of WPSD schools have decreased. 2 public schools have closed. Enrollment is down and we have lost students to other districts. Our part time superintendent’s combined salary is $349,400 (plus benefits and bonuses). Other superintendents in similar districts make $225,000 (Aspen) — $279,000 (Jeffco). The superintendent for Denver, which manages over 200 schools, makes $329,400. I have nothing against Merit Academy and only want the best for those families, but why is our public school superintendent donating $1,200 to them (while not donating to the other four schools) and why did his organization ERBOCES loan them money?

If we have fewer students and facilities to maintain, why is the sales tax needed? The money certainly doesn’t seem to be making its way to our students and teachers. Remember who has really sown division here — the outside influences of a superintendent who doesn’t live in our community, and a whole fleet of law firms who are draining our district dry.

Allison Avery-Wollenhaupt, Woodland Park

Vote YES on 2A

Much about our school district has changed since the tax was implemented in 2016: an entire elementary school (with all related expenses) closed, almost one-third of the traditional public school children left for a different district, a significant number of teachers have opted to teach elsewhere (with fewer kids less teachers are needed) and property valuations in Teller County are at an all-time high, delivering more property tax funds to the school district. The opposition argues the tax is needed to fund our schools, but is the money even being used to support our kids? A part time superintendent making more money than any other superintendent in neighboring districts ($175K) coupled with grossly inflated legal fees year over year, do our teachers and kids even benefit from this tax money? Are there other expenses that could be trimmed if teachers’ jobs and kids’ education is truly in peril?

At the request of many constituents, WP City Council asked for transparency into the district’s finances before the sale tax agreement was renewed. These basic requirements were difficult for the school board president to comprehend. With such controversy surrounding the spending of taxpayer dollars by our school board, transparency goes a long way in our community. The new WPSD CFO has previous ties to the district’s attorney, so clear guidelines are needed moving forward. The tax should be repealed, and the agreement re-written to build in more safeguards requiring further accountability and transparency. This school board has been anything but fiscally conservative.

Elizabeth Douglass, Florissant

Vote on 2A isn’t a forever deal

I appreciate the heartfelt comments about ballot question 2A, repeal of the city’s 1.09% sales tax that goes to the WP School District. There’s concern that students and teachers would be harmed by taking away this money. But, are we dealing with the same conditions as in 2016, when the tax was voted in?

Cuts in state funding to schools had created a real hardship for the district, which the 2016 tax was meant to mitigate. Now, those cuts have been restored by the state and per pupil funding will increase, meaning more income for the district. Also, today there are fewer buildings to be maintained by the district, with the recent closure of Gateway Elementary being one, and there is no question the district has lost many, many experienced teachers already. Enrollment across all the schools is down this year. Factoring in the increase in state funding, this should mean lower costs to the district, should it not?

Voting on 2A is not an all or nothing, forever and ever deal. Repeal in no way constrains the city from writing a new version and putting that to a vote. A rewrite could fold in the improved guardrails in the IGA that was recently signed. It’d be a big improvement to set rules and expectations for accountability and transparency, clearly, and from the start.

Trust but verify, as Ronald Reagan said!

Patricia Hines, Woodland Park

10/9/2024 Letters to the Editor

From the 10/9/2024 Pikes Peak Courier:

Yes on 2A

I have owned a home in this community since 2007 and worked for Woodland Park School district from 2008-2024. I am voting yes on 2A to stop giving extra money to a school district with leadership unable to use it responsibly.

You may be concerned that this would take money away from our kids. Unfortunately, those monies are currently being redirected and misused before benefiting the kids. Responsible practices are not in place to account for any funds due to the shady business practices embedded into central office and operating in the shadows of our school board.

I supported the original initiative. Things have changed. Published budgets from 2022 to 2023 show a central support services increase of 76% — over half a million dollars. The lack of transparency leaves us to wonder what those expenses are. District general administration line item increased 39% — over $400,000 dollars. The superintendent’s part-time contract is obscene, and the law firm is raking in money to lose first-amendment and other cases.

We no longer need the extra sales tax to make up for shortfalls in school funding. Per pupil state funding is now $11,450- which is a 7% increase over last year. Some teachers who stayed received up to a 2% increase. Despite worsening our declining enrollment, our district should be able to pay its bills without handouts.

The city of Woodland Park deserves better. Look at what has happened to what our tax dollars built. Vote YES on 2A.

Anna Hand, Woodland Park

10/2/2024 Letters to the Editor

From the 10/2/2024 Courier:

The first step

I was asked many times as a totally independent mayoral candidate, what I thought about the 1.09% school sales tax. My consistent message; the city made a big mistake by putting the tax on the ballot in 2016 to be paid “forever”.

A majority of City Council got it right by voting to put this question on the November ballot.

Some issues are too important to be decided by only seven members of our community. If a city issue is large enough and impacts all of us, every registered voter should be given the opportunity to vote on that issue.

Now that it’s on the ballot, I’ve been asked many times, “How do you plan to vote”?

In discussions with a couple of voters recently, their position was; I don’t like the current school board, I don’t like anything to do with the American Birthright teachings, I don’t like Christian Nationalism in our schools, I don’t like wasting a tremendous amount of my money on an unqualified, part-time superintendent; however, I don’t want to hurt the teachers or the kids so I’m going to vote to keep the tax.

That vote will be a strong enabler, allowing the school board and the school administration, including Merit Academy, to take the money and do exactly what they have been doing.

Doing exactly what you don’t like.

This is the first and most important step to once again teach the school kids, Real American Values.

Vote YES to repeal the school tax.

Jerry Penland, Woodland Park

Fostering an important conversation

I recently came across a suggestion on a Facebook community page about how our school board and Superintendent Ken Witt can foster trust and collaboration with more of the community. The idea is simple: hosting opportunities for parents, teachers, and community members to meet directly with the board and superintendent to talk about the sales tax and other pressing issues. For some time many people have expressed frustration about a lack of communication, and something like this could be a big step toward healing those rifts.

Imagine the positive affect having involved parents facilitate these meetings – this would not only provide a space for important discussions, but could help bridge any divide between the board and the community. Unfortunately, it seems the author of this thoughtful idea reached out to the board and Mr. Witt about it, but got no response. This lack of engagement is disheartening and reflects poorly on our leadership’s commitment to really listening to everyone. Ignoring voices from the community—especially those who may have different opinions—will not serve the best interests of our students and families. I urge the school board to take this opportunity seriously. By reaching out to all families in WPSD, including critics, they can show their commitment to inclusivity and transparency. Open dialogue is essential for building trust and fostering a supportive educational environment for our children.

Shawn Maddox, Woodland Park

And from the previous week:

Open the books

I can understand the handwringing over this 2A thing. Imagine that. Schools need money. In my own conversations with people around town, it strikes me as odd that the same people who argue that “you can’t throw money at it” are turned around now and arguing the need for public school funding. Whiplash anyone?

I can go either way on this issue. I’ll pay the tax. I won’t pay the tax. I’ll figure it out. Objectively, I just want to do what’s right. Here’s a thought, put the issue to rest right now. Open the books on the PUBLIC school district. Let’s see what’s been going on. What’s the big deal? I’ve been listening to this board and its sycophants for years telling the community that everything’s on the up and up. If you’re above board, what are you so “frustrated” about Mr. Bates? I’m sure no laws have been broken, right? Ask around.

District staff has been smashed by fiscal oversight at all levels ever since Ms. Moore embezzled half a million in 2008. Why shouldn’t the district admin be treated any differently? I’m sure no one in the district office has their fingers in the till. Certainly, we’re not looking at malfeasance like that, right? It only took eight years to regain enough community trust to pass a tax bill benefitting the schools. We don’t need eight years this time, right? There’s nothing to see here. Come on dudes. Open the books. Help me vote no.”

Andrew Pappadakis, Woodland Park