After the Woodland Park School District accused a local teachers’ union of trying to foster “hatred of America” among students, both supporters and critics of recent school board policies came out in force during its regular meeting Wednesday evening.
— Read on gazette.com/content/tncms/live/
10/15/2023 Weekly Update
Last Week:
- The board meeting on Wednesday 10/11 drew the Charis students out in force; their sudden interest in school board meetings meant a few dozen people were locked out of the meeting as the room reached capacity. With the preceding week featuring the letter of protest signed by 81 staff members, several community members had reached out to the board to ask that the 10/11 meeting be moved to one of the larger venues used for some board meetings in the past. The board chose not to do so. If you missed the meeting, you can watch it here.
- 33 people signed up to speak during the public comment session; only 15 were given the opportunity to be heard.
- Watch KOAA’s coverage of that meeting.
- The teacher press conference from the previous Thursday, where they read the letter signed by 81 staff members, drew more coverage in the press. Here are some links: 9News, CBS Colorado
- The district released a statement regarding the teachers speaking out, and also sent an email to parents. You can read them here.
- Monday the 9th was the night of competing candidate forums, with the incumbents choose the district one, and the challengers choosing the one put on by the Woodland Park Chamber of Commerce. If you missed the chamber forum, you can view it here. The district has not made available a recording of their forum.
- The community has learned that many high school classes still have not been reviewed for NCAA eligibility.
- The Woodland Park High School students announced more details of their upcoming forum on 10/21 (10:00, in the public library). No word yet on how many of the six candidates will be attending. This is a student-led forum with questions only accepted from students, but it’s open to the public.
- What kind of leader did the board choose for our district? You can watch Ken Witt talk to staff from back in March in this video.
- Logan Davis wrote many articles about our district, and appeared on a new podcast here.
- Read the letters to the editor for the Courier, and also this guest column.
- The board chose people to be on the SAC and DAC committees.
- Woodland Park School District has been in the news a ton lately…here’s a summary of the stories from some of the larger news organizations which have done deeper dives into these stories.
Here’s what’s coming up this week:
- Ballots are being mailed out Monday!
SAC and DAC committees chosen for ’23-24 school year
Last year, the board revamped the SAC/DAC appointment process, giving themselves absolute control over those boards. They’ve made their selections for this current school year – much later than traditionally has been done though (there are reviews the SAC/DAC would typically do before this point that aren’t happening as a result).
In all, 44 people applied! You can see the members selected at the district’s website. The board did pack the committees with people known to be supporters of this board, which does raise the question about how much ‘accountability’ these accountability committees will provide. Additionally, nine of the members chosen did not submit applications to be on one of the committees (Sean Pekron, Mike Demuth, Richard Starling, Samantha Huitt, Julie Lyons, Kristin Montgomery, Grace McKoy, Finn Bryant, Shaina Lampton). It’s not clear why those people were chosen over people who HAD submitted the proper applications.
The First Amendment, The WPSD School Board—and What You Should Know (guest column from the courier)
a guest column, from the October 11, 2023 Courier:
The First Amendment, The WPSD School Board—and What You Should Know
Imagine a local social studies teacher assigns an essay. Why does the first amendment matter right here? In your town, in your high school, in 2023?
You might coach your child that afternoon over your kitchen counter. The first amendment flings open the door for participation in our own government. It means your voice (yes, yours) matters. It allows dissent to those in power. So it’s the backbone, Johnny, of democracy.
Without that amendment, you’d explain, protests and marches could be squashed by officials or current trends. Members of certain groups could be punished.
But how would you tell him about our local school district?
Twice this spring, Woodland Park School District changed their policy, prohibiting employees from speaking about the district to the press or on social media without the superintendent’s permission. Violation meant insubordination; evidence in the form of strategic staff terminations supports this grievous reality.
U.S. District Court Judge Gallagher recently indicated portions of the policy “do have problems,” and proposed mediation between the teacher’s union and the school district.
Both parties agreed. Yet a response from the school district warned that dialing back the policy would embolden “dissident” teachers in an election year.
Hmm. Let’s look closer, Johnny. Wouldn’t those supporting the district be heard, too? What would the district want people not to say?
Would you want to know, Son?
You might explain the employees are taxpayers with rights to articulate their views of this government institution. Some are parents, now with no option to speak on behalf of their kids—despite the board’s purported value of parental rights.
During my own service on the Board of Education, it never occurred to the board to censor employees. Why would we? We can think critically about opinions that we encounter. We can ask for evidence of statements we question.
We conservatives have been focused on teaching the Constitution. And correctly pushing back against what we see as impingements to free speech. How can we specifically support this constitutional right?
The specific policy reasons they must “create and maintain a dignified and professionally responsible image for the school district.” Perhaps our students would ask us about board members who speak freely without any ability for staff to rebut their views, even with facts. And perhaps image-driven motivations should concern us less than created space for truth, integrity, and the value and freedom of every voice.
We must ask our kids, “In a democracy, are only those in powerful positions allowed to speak freely?”
Johnny, when it is stifled, we must ask: for what purpose?
By Carol Greenstreet
Letters to the Editor – October 11, 2023
(from the Courier)
Programs ditched for personal beliefs
Why would the current BoE dismantle effective, school-based mental health programs at a time when depression and anxiety in children is unprecedented? Why refuse to apply for grants effectively denying over a million dollars in help for WP students?
One part of our government said to not take money from “the government”. Others said to “focus on education”. And some, Mick Bates and Cassie Kimbrel, never said anything. These programs were ditched due to “strings” like ensuring care regardless of religion, color, sexual orientation or economic status and assessment of efficacy.
These programs were ditched for personal beliefs.
Now they have implemented Capturing Kids Hearts: teachers instruct students about an attribute to practice every month. An easy program for adults because they never have to address what a child may really be struggling with. Is this meaningful with 30 kids in a class? This program was rigorously evaluated and not effective in actually helping children.
Then the BoE contracted an out-of-town agency, MindSight, to provide mental health services in the school. Most providers are unlicensed students, although supervised, and serve multiple schools. MindSight bills the parents, their insurance and needs paperwork approval from parents. Is this information protected from the BoE or Superintendent? No crisis intervention offered.
You could have caring, screened, highly qualified providers at WPSD again. Their focus could solely be the well-being of children while partnering with parents, not personal agendas. Your kids could have better. Vote.
Patricia A Perry, Woodland Park
Separating opinions and preferences from facts and interpretations
Claims being made by Woodland Park school board incumbents need attention. I’m concerned by how they and their supporters misrepresent data. For example, they manipulated teacher turnover. They didn’t count teacher retirements in turnover data, despite most retirees continuing to teach elsewhere, to look favorable to them.
Student growth is another shell game.
How can anyone know the difference without making it a part-time job? Watch for:
Cherry-picking: Recent guest editorial contributors and incumbent candidates present select data that support their argument while ignoring contradictory evidence. They overgeneralize from narrow data sets, making broad claims from spurious or anecdotal evidence.
Transparency: Without transparency or sharing decision methodologies, we can’t verify anything.
Biased Name-calling: We all interpret information to confirm pre-existing beliefs. This board refuses alternative perspectives as legitimate. They treat opposition as pestilence to distract and conquer, attack parents by name on FaceBook, and call candidates “liberal union hacks.”
We deserve board transparency, consideration of alternative viewpoints and proposals. I haven’t missed a board meeting, feeling gaslighted and ignored monthly. I am pro-public education and school choice. I’ve been concerned and involved since the appointments of Bates and Kimbrell.
Only Keegan, Barkley, and Knott are running honest campaigns that fully disclose the vast local financial and nonfinancial support received, not cherry-picked, hidden, or imbalanced. They are beholden to any no one person or group.
Only www.SupportWPSchools.com agonizes over data, cross-checking and validating everything to ensure no confirmation bias, transparently linking to all sources.
Trina Hoefling, Florissant
Podcast – A Small Colorado Town’s School Board Madness (feat. Logan Davis)
Reporter Logan Davis has written many articles about our school board and town, and now he’s been featured on a podcast in The Get More Smarter Podcast. You can listen to it online here, or on Apple Podcasts.
WPSD in the news – get up to speed on what’s going on
Our little school district has been popping up in the news all over the place for the past couple years. If you’re new to all this though, I wanted to highlight some of the online articles that provide a more in-depth look into what’s going on here:
Continue reading →Superintendent Ken Witt talks to Gateway staff (March, 2023)
This video is from March, 2023, when Ken Witt talked to staff at Gateway Elementary. Just in case you need a reminder of how he treats staff, and what sort of person this current BOE wants leading our district.
KOAA coverage of 10/11/2023 board meeting
Good reporting, with a classic Ken Witt quote at the end…“…those teachers union affiliates bent on fostering a hatred of America in our youth.”
10/11/2023 board meeting hits capacity (again)
In April, we saw Charis students mobilized to pack the board room, shutting out about 100 people from attending. After last Thursday’s teacher protest letter, we all expected this to be a crowded meeting, but weren’t sure if the Charis Factor would come into play. Well, it did. This time, about 40 people were locked out when the meeting hit its 90 person capacity.
Many parents and teachers pleaded with board members the last few days to move tonight’s meeting to the auditorium or middle school commons area, both of which had been used in the past. No luck though…the board did not want a large crowd for their meeting so kept it in the district office.
Before the meeting started, board member Mick Bates did come out briefly and talked with one parent, who was able to get in when someone else inside graciously traded places. The rest of us were left outside, but hey, at least it wasn’t raining this time like it was last April.