Letters to the Editor – June 14, 2023

Here are a couple letters to the editor from the recent Courier:

Local teachers know and reflect the values of our community

In the May 31 Courier, an article titled “Colorado teachers union adopts anti-capitalist polemic” was included. Our local teachers association, WPEA, has a 40+ year history of working collaboratively with the school board for the betterment of both students and educators, amicably and productively. All our work is focused on local education issues, our local students, and Woodland Park teachers.

When CEA released its resolution regarding capitalism, WPEA members collaborated to release our own statement, May 9th: “Recently, the delegate assembly of the Colorado Education Association released a resolution regarding capitalism. The Woodland Park Education Association, which is made up solely of local teachers and school employees, is governed locally by its own elected board. WPEA does not support the CEA resolution as it does not reflect the values of our members or our local community. We support and benefit from our local economy. Our schools are supported through our local sales tax initiative, which was passed with strong support in 2016, and was the result of a collaborative effort between our school board, teachers, parents, and community. As an association, we are focused on working to create the best possible schools for our students and the educators who work tirelessly to support them.”

I encourage our community to talk directly with Woodland Park teachers to learn about this issue. Students, parents, teachers, and the school board working together, and listening and learning from each other, is the best hope we have for continued growth and success for our students.

Nate Owen, WPHS Teacher and WPEA President (source)

Also, a guest column:

Change happens. At age 16, my friend and I worked as maids at the Wishing Well Motel in Crystola. In the afternoon we would ride our horses up the pass and tie them up at the only place in town to get a soda. We knew everyone’s name and everyone’s story. Needless to say, Woodland Park — and all of Teller County — looks very different today.

Growth and modernization is inevitable. It’s a change I can live with. What breaks my heart is the enormous change in how we treat each other. Senior citizens in Teller County all remember a time when we had no clue about other people’s politics. We based our friendships and actions on shared interests and shared needs. When we engaged in family feuds or fought over local issues back then, it was using our own “inventive venting” often followed by a joint effort at a common solution.

I believe what I see happening in our community today is something new and pernicious and divisive. Today’s feuds are fought in Letters to the Editor, over Facebook pages, on Next Door, and at community board meetings using media-generated phrases coined by conflict entrepreneurs because outrage sells. It feels like we’re creating a climate based on “winners” and “losers”. Tribalization will not only stand in the way of relationships; it will stand in the way of progress.

Surely, I can’t be the only person who is both sad and scared by the polarization that has come to our community.

I can’t be the only person who is tired of seeing the same names and the same name-calling. I can’t be the only person who is frustrated by what appears to be a total lack of desire to work together or to really listen to one another.

I desperately want to believe there is a silent majority of Teller County residents who are disheartened by all the invective. A silent majority who hunger for respectful dialogue rather than diatribes whose only impact is to further polarize us. A silent majority who believe that there is a place for respectful listening and productive compromise. And likely we’re also the exhausted majority — fed up with the craziness and ready for something else.

It’s time for us to stand up and speak out. Let our friends, our neighbors, our community organizations and our leaders know this is not who we want to be. That we demand respectful and concrete dialogue that’s solution-oriented and focused on the uniqueness of our local issues., using personalized and productive conversation rather than language provided by national pundits with their own agenda. Let’s show that we’re out here and let’s work to depolarize Teller County. If we don’t, we will all lose.

A nation divided against itself cannot stand. Neither can a community.

Billie Donegan (source)

6/18/2023 Weekly Update

Last Week

Here’s what’s coming up this week:

  • The next regular board meeting will be in August. The board met in executive session on 6/14 to discuss security arrangements though, so it wouldn’t be surprising for them to schedule a meeting before the end of the fiscal year to implement a new program, if they reach consensus on one and if it will affect the budget. So we’ll be watching for a last minute meeting scheduled in June.
  • School may be out, but this is a time to dig deeper to check into some things the district is doing. So stay tuned for more.
  • Three people have announced their intention to run for school board against the three incumbents up for reelection. I haven’t heard much since that original article in the Courier, but expect that as the summer goes by, their campaign efforts will ramp up. I’ve looked into these candidates and think they’ll be great board members!

Moms For Liberty in Woodland Park?

In the last board meeting, one of the public comments, by a gentleman named Drew, mentioned the threat that some extremist groups can present to school boards. Moms For Liberty is one such national group that was recently labeled as ‘extremist’ by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The question whether Moms For Liberty has any influence in Woodland Park could perhaps be put to rest by this tweet from Woodland Park school board director Cassie Kimbrell:

Darcy Schoening is the chair of Moms for Liberty down in Colorado Springs:

Gateway Elementary wins Colorado Governor’s Distinguished Improvement Award

I stumbled upon a bit of a surprise today…the CDE’s website shows Gateway Elementary received the Governor’s Distinguished Improvement Award for 2022! Congratulations, Gateway! Great job! The press release from the CDE came out on May 18, 2023, and can be read here. As I understand it, this award is given out in the spring for test scores from the previous year (hence it’s listed as 2022).

What’s puzzling is why I find zero mention of this on the district’s website. Here’s their press release section as of today:

Best guess, is that with the press release in May, the district probably found out much sooner than that…I’ll submit a CORA request to try to learn more and will update this post with what I find. We know they’ve been trying to downplay Gateway and even tried handing it off to be operated by a charter school business earlier in 2023. It’d be hard to convince the community to hand off Gateway like that if it was known to be recognized by the Governor for its accomplishments.

Open Meetings Law case in Denver mirrors WPSD

There’s an ongoing court case in Douglas County, alleging the board violating open meetings laws by discussing the firing of their superintendent in private one on one discussions. This had previous been a gray area of Open Meetings Law…seeming to violate the spirit of the law while not actually being prevented by the law. This latest case though might be setting legal precedent in this area, as a Judge is ruling one on one discussions is a violating, saying “Circumventing the statute by a series of private one-on-one meetings at which public business is discussed and/or decisions reached is a violation of the purpose of the statute, not just its spirit.”

Interim Superintendent Ken Witt even admitted that he has one on one and one on two meetings with board members, though there’s never been any doubt prior that this is what the board was doing. Maybe the best documented case was their total lack of deliberation when deciding upon a new board member to replace a vacant seat.

With the law still not black and white in this matter, it doesn’t mean we can expect any change in WPSD’s board behavior. But hopefully it’ll lead to clarification of the law and improved government transparency statewide.

Politics and education clash as Texas district sees teachers leave

As school districts grapple with teacher shortages, NBC News’ Antonia Hylton takes us to a Texas town where frustrations over banned books, restrictions on race and identity lessons have contributed to a 40 percent increase in staff resignations and retirements.
— Read on www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/politics-and-education-clash-as-texas-district-sees-teachers-leave-182508101519

The turmoil in WPSD is happening elsewhere, too. Watch this story about events in a Texas school district.

6/11/2023 Weekly Update

Last Week:

Here’s what’s coming up this week:

  • The next school board meeting is Wednesday, 6/14, 6:00, in the district office conference room. We’ve asked the board and superintendent if they will move the meeting to the auditorium or elsewhere with greater capacity, but have not received any replies. Note that since the budget will be discussed in this meeting, Colorado Law states that any taxpayer in the district is entitled to attend this meeting. It’s not clear if watching via a one-way video conference (livestream) would count as ‘attending’. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines ‘attend’ as ‘to be present at’ or ‘to go to’. The law suggest they would not be allowed to refuse entry to taxpayers like they did in the 5/10 meeting.

WPHS class of 2024 sets all-time high SAT score for district

The SAT scores are in, and the WPHS class of 2024 has set a new district record! They achieved a mean score of 1022, which is 33 points higher than the state average and 67 points higher than the national average. This is the fifth year in a row of improved test scores and a testament to the improvements put in place by previous board and administrative teams. With the administrative team mostly changed for next year (district-level admin staff is mostly new, MS and one elementary principals are new), and the mass exodus of high teachers leaving the district this year (plus the adoption of the ‘low level learning’ in the American Birthright standard for social studies), it’s unclear how this upward trend in test scores will be affected.

You can read the email that Principal Burr sent to staff below:

I am pleased to report to you that WPHS SAT scores have been shared with the school, and the class of 2024 continued the school’s remarkable trend of substantial increases in Cohort Scores (year over year).  As well, the WPHS Class of 2024 set an all time high SAT mean score of 1022. 

The 1022 score is 33 points higher than the state average and 67 points higher than the national average. For the fifth year in a row, each class cohort continued to improve (year over year) in comparative data.  Cohort growth is a hallmark of school improvement.  And each cohort continues to exceed previous cohort accomplishments as WPHS sets new achievement benchmarks each year.

Most remarkable of all, the  Class of ’24 SAT Math mean score is just 4 points shy of meeting the Colorado Benchmark for Career and College Readiness.  Comparatively, the State Mean is 16 points lower than the CACR Math benchmark and the WPHS Class of 2019 was 24 points lower than the CACR Math benchmark. 

The Class of ’24 has an Evidence Based Reading and Writing mean score of 525 (which is 55 points higher than the Colorado Benchmark for CACR).

Five years ago, we embarked on a journey to embed the philosophy of Standards Based Learning and Grading.  With the help of Marzano Resources,  the school improvement skill-set within the HS Admin Team and Tina Cassens, the school staff made a commitment to improve post-secondary opportunities for our students.   Substantially enhanced curriculum standards, the use of the Summit Platform (and now, Illustrative Math), and increased Rigor / Academic Expectations all have paid remarkable dividends for WP students.  

Where once, just 22% of our students were meeting Career and College Readiness expectations (2017), the class of 2024 now has 68% of its students meeting EBRW and 44% meeting Math CACR benchmarks (comparatively – state percentages = 59% meeting EBRW CACR and 35% meeting Math — national percentages = 51% meeting EBRW and 29% meeting Math).    Looking ahead, the class of 2026 is currently on pace for 77% to meet the EBRW benchmark and 54% to meet the Math benchmark. 

We are eager to share this outstanding news with our WP Community.  Teachers and administrators across the district have worked hard and contributed much to this incredible outcome.  Celebrating our success is a fundamental tenet of the High Reliability School framework.  We look forward to seeing the reaction of our stakeholders.

Kevin Burr,  Principal

Woodland Park High School

Moms For Liberty Claiming Credit For School Districts Opting-Out of State-Funded Student Mental Health Services

According to a May 15 Facebook post from Darcy Schoening in the “Moms For Liberty — El Paso County” Facebook group, the author is “The infamous attorney Brad Miller, who’s been working hard around the state to urge conservative boards to adopt common sense policies such as the Parental Bill of Rights, a HB23-1003 opt out, and a resolution to oppose the anti-capitalist teachers unions.”
— Read on coloradotimesrecorder.com/2023/06/moms-for-liberty-claiming-credit-for-school-districts-opting-out-of-state-funded-student-mental-health-services/54024/

Brad Miller has been running the show in Woodland Park since day one…