KEN WITT RESIGNS

Ken Witt, who is perhaps the least qualified and most disliked superintendent in the state of Colorado, has resigned from his superintendent role in Woodland Park effective 4/15! Here’s the email from the district about this:

Woodland Park, CO – 03/07/2025 — Woodland Park School District (WPSD) announced today the resignation of Ken Witt as superintendent, effective April 15, 2025, to pursue other opportunities. Aaron Salt, Chief Operating Officer of WPSD, will serve as Interim Superintendent after that date.

“Over the past two and a half years, I have been honored to lead an administrative team that has achieved remarkable milestones in advancing education for our students,” Witt stated. “I hold the board in the highest regard for your steadfast dedication and resolve to better education for all students. Your leadership and passion for creating opportunities have been a constant source of inspiration, and I am deeply grateful for the support and trust you have extended to me during my tenure.”

In recounting the achievements of WPSD in the past two and a half years, Witt added that he takes “great pride in what we have accomplished together, including lifting this district to the top 10% district performance in the state, implementing a laser-focus on academic achievement, instilling a tone of respect for our great nation, and purging DEI and gender ideology. Equally important are achievements including prioritizing the safety of our students by securing our schools with armed security personnel, improving utilization of our facilities while reducing their operating costs, and expanding CTE offerings, growing culinary arts and adding construction trades. Each step forward has been a testament to the power of this board’s vision and this administration’s hard work.”

Witt also stated, “I remain a steadfast advocate for the mission and values of the Woodland Park School District, and an unwavering supporter of this board of education. I am confident that the district will continue to thrive under your guidance, and I look forward to witnessing its continued growth and success.”

This is on the heels of some seriously sloppy financial leadership, leading to a late audit filing and lots of controversy with the local city council which was seeking greater transparency into how supplemental sales tax money was being spent.

A teacher’s perspective on the sales tax debate

If you’re following what’s going on in the Woodland Park school district, you already know that the city council is butting heads with the district administration, demanding more transparency into how the sales tax revenue is spent and even threatening to terminate that tax. An anonymous teacher posted this to the Concerned Parents of Teller County Facebook group recently about this topic (this was in response to a previous post by council member Carrol Harvey seeking public input on this):

Dear Carol,

After seeing your post on Facebook I felt the need to write to you in response to your request for input. As a long-time teacher in WPSD and taxpayer, I support the effort of the council to hold the school district accountable for the sales tax money. Of course I never want to see money taken away from our district but I have reasons that I would like to share with you all.

First of all, I see firsthand every day the district’s lack of understanding of how schools should be run. The people in charge don’t have education experience and don’t spend the district money effectively or even fairly. I get extremely frustrated by the ineptitude of the administrators that earn so much money and don’t know what they are doing, and don’t make any effort to improve the public schools. They have already wasted our reserve fund and continue to spend state and local money improperly.

If the sales tax is supposed to go towards technology, why did the 6th graders at Columbine have no internet for the majority of the first semester? Why are there no new chromebooks or laptops being bought to replace outdated ones?

If the sales tax is supposed to go towards facilities, why do roofs still leak? Why do students in one of Columbine’s modulars still not have drinkable water available in their space? Why have there been several days this year when the heat didn’t work and school even had to close?

If the sales tax is supposed to pay for innovative programs, why was money wasted on new curriculum that costs the district a huge amount of money, requires more teacher training, and lowers test scores for the first few years of implementation? Why did we even need this new curriculum when the district recently purchased perfectly good curriculum that is now sitting in boxes?

If the sales tax is supposed to go to teacher salaries why did teachers receive performance-based raises this year which amounted to very little, even if they achieved their performance goals? Especially teachers who have been dedicated to this district for years, who received zero raise for the years they have been here. First year and new to the district teachers received higher percentages, which seems backward. Why have we lost so many experienced teachers to other districts and why is it so hard to find good teachers who want to work here?

I believe that Merit Academy is benefiting most from the sales tax money at the expense of the few remaining public schools. One of the accounting documents I read stated that 17 of 20 of their teachers are paid using sales tax funds. As a taxpayer I didn’t agree to the money being used for a charter school. I don’t have a problem with charter schools, but I believe they should not take an inequitable amount of the funding. Our district obviously favors the charter school over the public schools and has tied the district’s hands from applying for grants to help the ever-growing population of special needs students in our public schools who need more support. Why would they do this unless they want to see the public schools fail and be replaced by more charter schools?

If the district were being run properly and sales tax money was being spent appropriately and responsibly, I would have no problem with continuing the sales tax. I just hate to see my tax dollars being wasted and put in the hands of individuals who have no business being leaders of a public school district and furthering an agenda that I don’t share.

Thank you for your diligence in holding the district accountable and keeping them from wasting any more of our tax money.

I would appreciate this letter remaining anonymous out of concern for repercussions from the district and community members who are trying to recall you because they are afraid to lose the money they need in order to further their agenda.

While the teacher posted this anonymously, their identity as a teacher in the district has been verified by an admin of that Facebook group.

Jack Bay’s resignation letter (former CFO)

We obtained Jack Bay’s resignation letter via CORA, and you can view it here (also screenshots below). It sounds like Ken Witt and Brad Miller wanted to fire Jack and this letter of resignation was an attempt by Jack to avoid that label (the official district position is that Jack Bay did not resign). It does not paint a picture of a well-run district administrative office. We’ll be watching for the district’s audit to finally be released, it’s due this Saturday (after a 60-day extension).

Woodland Park City Council signals school funding cut over transparency concerns

During a council meeting last week, council members were visibly frustrated after they received a one-page summary from WPSD showing the six months of spending. The original summary showed money spent on replacing security cameras, software programs, and salaries for teachers at Summit Elementary School, Woodland Park Middle School, and Gateway Elementary, which closed at the beginning of the 2024-2025 academic year.
— Read on www.koaa.com/advocates-of-accountability/woodland-park-city-council-threatens-to-cut-sales-tax-funds-to-school-district-citing-transparency-concerns

Woodland Park City Council livid about school district report | Pikes Peak Courier | gazette.com

Instead of the detailed accounting concerning the 1% sales tax earmarked for the Woodland Park School District that had been negotiated in the intergovernmental agreement between the two entities, the district sent a one-page summary to meet the required Jan. 31 deadline.

The council was livid.
— Read on gazette.com/pikespeakcourier/city-council-livid-about-school-district-report/article_f6a06d86-e566-11ef-b2cb-0b82fce353cd.html

Woodland Park school board passes resolution to recognize “only two sexes,” mirroring Trump order language

Board member Keegan Barkley cast the only no vote. She said the district is facing myriad issues, from school roof leaks, inadequate heating, water breaks and declining enrollment.

“Why now?” she asked her board colleagues. “There are so many other more important, more pressing issues hitting our school right now. Why is this the most important thing on your mind? …Why do we keep focusing on these nonsense issues instead of focusing on things that are actually going to help our students and our school?”

She said Colorado’s anti-discrimination laws, including the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, require that students have access to restrooms that match their gender identity.

“We would be opening ourselves up to lawsuits,” she said.
— Read on www.cpr.org/2025/01/30/woodland-park-school-board-passes-resolution-to-recognize-only-two-sexes-mirroring-trump-order-language/

What Educators Should Know About the Gender Identity Executive Order and LGBTQI+ Rights | NEA

You should know that the President does not have the authority to rewrite federal civil rights laws through an executive order, Accordingly, the President’s order does not – and cannot – repeal existing laws that make it illegal to discriminate against transgender, intersex or nonbinary people.
— Read on www.nea.org/resource-library/what-educators-should-know-about-gender-identity-executive-order-and-lgbtqi-rights