The charter school concept is flawed…while innovation should be encouraged, we need to keep the money and control in the hands of taxpayers and voters, not corporations. Magnet schools offer one way of doing this.
If you’ve been following this blog, you’ll know I’ve been hounding the board and Witt about transportation cost sharing for over a year now (read part 1, part 2, and part 3 if you need to get up to speed on this). I believe it’s unfair to not ask Merit Academy to pay a proportionate share of this cost, and when I’ve confronted the board, I’m met with either silence or denial and spin.
I first pointed this out to Witt and the board in May of 2023 both in public comment at a board meeting and via email, but did not receive any constructive feedback. In my email, I said,
“parent fees, mentioned to be $50 per child, only cover approximately 1.3% of the total cost, and this is expected to rise slightly next year. The state contributes around 15% towards the total cost, leaving the remaining burden to be shouldered by the General Fund of the five traditional public schools. Astonishingly, Merit Academy has not been asked to share this cost, which is undeniably unfair.”
In the May 10 board meeting where I talked about this in public comment, the board broke with their own rules and replied to the concerns I had raised, and Witt said,
“…every student and every family in Woodland Park pays the same amount to ride those busses…”…which totally ignored my point about where the bulk of the money for this service was coming from.
We saw this topic come up again in the 6/12/2024 board meeting, when Witt gave the budget presentation to the board (our CFO’s last day was in the weeks prior to this). When talking about transportation, Witt said, “…our transportation costs are fully covered by state reimbursement”, and went on to explain that the transportation fund was for transportation to and from the school, and all activity, extracurricular, and sports transportation costs were covered by fees and the general fund.
The thing is, he’s wrong. As I had pointed out to him back in 2023, the state only provides a small portion of the actual cost of transporting students to and from the school. He’s stuck to his story this whole time, but in the past year, I’d learned much more about school finance and was able to challenge him after the meeting, via email. I was able to point to actual expenses recorded in our General Ledger which showed how some of the monthly charges for transportation were charged to the transportation fund, but the majority was being charged to the General Fund. Further, I was able to show the worksheet used for calculation of the state reimbursement the previous year, which further shows how the state reimburses only a small amount of the actual cost. Faced with these facts, he finally admitted he was wrong, saying “So, simply stated, approximately one third of the to and from school transportation was covered by the state-provided funds (accounted in Fund 25), and two-thirds were not covered by the state-provided funds (accounted in Fund 10). I apologize for the error.” (I think the one-third is high but it’s in the ballpark so no need to dwell on that).
Why does this matter? As enrollment in Merit Academy grows and enrollment in the public schools declines, the per-pupil cost of daily transportation services is increasing, while total revenue into that General Fund decreases (due to declining enrollment). This reduces the money available for teacher salaries, by hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s just another way that Witt and this board are providing preferential treatment to Merit Academy, and sabotaging the other public schools.
Ken Witt and the Woodland Park school board will be voting tonight on whether to require all seniors to pass a citizenship test in order to graduate. You can read the excerpt from the board packet below. This follows the same call to action by Moms for Liberty. While on the surface it seems like a fine idea, imposing this requirement starting next spring seems rushed and it’s not clear whether seniors will be properly taught the necessary questions in such a limited time when many probably aren’t even scheduled to take any civics or history classes next year.
I come from a family of teachers and am a long-time volunteer and supporter of our district. It saddens me to see what has happened here, and how the situation is spiraling out of control. It is overwhelming and frightening.
In Woodland Park, teachers were always treated with respect and dignity and not called anarchists, socialists and enemies. These are our friends who we see in the grocery store and who sit next to us in church. They helped us raise our children, and that is not an attribute that can be quantified. People from out of state who don’t have children in our schools, or any school, are directing this diatribe toward our teachers. We should have the integrity and bravery to stand up to these people. Teachers are people even willing to give their life for your child.
In the 80’s, Parents, community members and leaders worked together to pass a bond issue for a new school using the middle school structure. Middle school kids were for years shuffled from one building to another as we had no place to put them. It took several tries to pass a bond, but we got the new building designed specifically for the middle school population. Classes were held in pods with students moving within those groups which allowed for cross discipline teaching and collaboration. The building itself and the principal received national attention. The current teachers there were accustomed to almost daily meetings to discuss characteristics needed to meet the educational and developmental needs of young adolescents at that age. We don’t know if this may take place in the new surroundings which are not designed to accommodate this age group.
The decision to close a building or give one away is not to be taken lightly, and there is a process to be followed. It is not to be announced on a Friday afternoon in an email to parents. These decisions should be discussed over time among all stakeholders, most notably residents who paid for the buildings, the parents, the faculty and staff and the administration. No one person should be making these decisions and then announcing them casually. A school is more than a building. It a place of love and laughter where growth and development take place daily in a very purposeful manner. Kids feel safe in their schools and with their teachers whom they love. You cannot take the emotional attachment away from the school building or the teachers.
Our children are our most important possessions. As an educational professional for over 50 years, and as a parent, I can tell you that those people who treat your children with kindness and respect and who encourage them in their educational and personal growth are the ones you can never thank enough and who you will always admire and yes, love. We need to support our wonderful teachers here in Woodland Park and not be hoodwinked by this Board of Education which is giving our district away.
Ken Witt is responding to the city council’s quest for fiscal responsibility and oversight by threatening to cut teacher salaries if council cuts or eliminates that sales tax revenue. Read his email to staff for yourself below.
WPHS seniors celebrated the end of their public school journey last Saturday! A beautiful sunny day greeted them, and even the heavy wind didn’t cause many issues apart from a few flying hats and band music sheets. Honored staff Chris Becker, Kelly Schmidt, and Nate Owen joined keynote speakers Bill Brown and Michelle Eastman up at the stage, and honored students Dawson Tisdall and Lillian Urban spoke. The symphonic band, and madrigal singers, provided musical entertainment.
With the class motto being, “I’ve had enough nonsense, I’m going home” (from Alice in Wonderland), it seemed quite fitting that many students stood and turned their back on Ken Witt when it was his turn to speak (the picture below is from that part).
