Feasibility Study Presentation

The Feasibility Study Presentation to be shown at tonight’s board work session can be downloaded here.

Points of note:

  • Most public school rooms would be at 100% capacity. One classroom would have 1 empty seat. One ‘yoga’ room is at 0%.
  • Merit space would be at 66% capacity. So, the board would be giving Merit room to grow, but no room for the Middle School to grow.
  • Construction and other costs to make this happen would be in the $112-229k range. Additional capital expenditures are identified for the next two years; I think we’ll need to see the Merit contract to determine if they’re required to pay for any of this.
  • Some uncertainties are noted, such as whether moving and storage costs would be shared.

School Board meetings today

Today is a busy day for the school board. After last week’s fiasco regarding the Feasibility Study (let’s discuss it! Oh wait, we don’t want the public know about it, let’s remove it from the agenda!), they’ll be finally be giving the public a peek at it in tonight’s work session, scheduled to start at 6:00PM in the district offices (agenda link, livestream link). After the discussion about the feasibility study, they’ll go into a closed door executive session to chat with their lawyers about how to push this Merit contract though and set statewide precedent that will upend the traditional charter school approval process (or at the very least, lead to more expensive legal bills for our district).

First though, the board is scheduled to tour Columbine Elementary at noon (agenda). Why would they do this now, when they’re in the midst of contract dealings with Merit? And coincidentally, just reviewed (in private) the feasibility study on Merit being given space in the middle school? I suspect they’re reconsidering the middle school plan and considering giving Merit to Columbine, but we should learn more tonight.

Note too that we’re not guaranteed to see the original feasibility study…tonight is just a presentation about it. We may or may not get to view the document given to both the board and Merit last week.

Preliminary Injunction GRANTED!

A preliminary injunction has been granted against the school board regarding the OML (Open Meetings Law)!

“The Defendant shall comply with the OML by clearly, honestly, and forthrightly listing all future Agenda items regarding Merit Academy.”…”The Board is further enjoined from “rubber stamping” any Board decision that does not comply with the notice requirements of the OML.”

-It does NOT negate the MOU with Merit Academy.

-It does NOT prevent the Board from looking at and considering the Merit Contract.

-It does NOT prevent the Board from pursuing the Feasibility study and facility usage.

-It DOES state that they must diligently comply with all Open Meeting Laws. 

-It DOES enforce the rule that they must explicitly state what they will be discussing in a meeting on the Agenda. 

-It DOES support that our case has some legal justification and the judge saw fit to issue this until the time of a trial (based on my complaint/ lawsuit).

Let’s keep fighting for transparency in our school district! This is only the first step in this fight, a final hearing and ruling is yet to come. Please consider supporting this effort via the GoFundMe link above!

You can read the entire ruling here.

Feasibility Study blocked from public view

In the April 27 school board work session, the board agenda had the following item: “Feasibility Study Presentation by Executive Director of Technology & Operations Miles Tuttle” (source). This information was to be presented to the public in that work session. Instead, the school board decided to keep it secret and hidden from public view. Considering the financial ramifications of a potential contract with Merit Academy, this is unacceptable to the taxpayers of this community. CORA requests for this information are pending. This post will be updated with a video recording of the meeting shortly.

Dr. Neal responds to comments from Wommack

Superintendent Neal is having to play damage control with comments made by local cult leader Andrew Wommack, who does have quite the following in this town with his bible study school (sorry dude, it’s not a real college). The Pike Peak Courier covers it well in this article.

I call on our school board to issue a resolution condemning the remarks made by Wommack. Rusterholtz is already quoted in that article opposing those statements…but those words are weak, we need a formal resolution from the board to send the proper message to our students and community.

Bye Bye Brovetto

The Gazette has more info on controversial board member Gary Brovetto announcing his desire to resign from the board. You can read the article here. It’ll be discussed and approved (we assume) in a special board meeting being held Wednesday (agenda).

He wrote that he “can no longer continue in this highly stressful hostile environment to be effective as a board member.” It’s not clear if it’s referring to the hostility of David Illingworth as evidenced in the 4/13 board meeting, or the pissed off community members (the latter, I presume).

Considering how Illingworth is absolutely driving the board at the moment with his obsession with Merit Academy it does leave little to no room for issues that Brovetto had previously expressed interest in.

Regarding Racism – by Joseph Marney

Local parent Joseph Marney has written a response to Mr. Rusterholtz’s comments regarding what is being taught in our schools in the Maverick Observer to various media outlets; it’s too long to paste here but you can read the PDF at this link.

My favorite quote from this:

My children are strong. They are curious. They are vibrant and compassionate. They have already outgrown the small-minded prejudice that keeps you living in fear. Their world is big. You will not change them. They will change you.

Gary Brovetto submits resignation letter

This letter went out this afternoon:

“Greetings, Staff of the Woodland Park School District, 

We want to make you aware that yesterday afternoon, Director Gary Brovetto delivered his letter of resignation to the District office as it is his wish to resign from the Board of Education effective immediately. We wanted to take a moment as a leadership team to thank Mr. Brovetto for his efforts in leading on the WPSD board, hours of dedicated time, and his specific support of our exchange students over the years.

As we look ahead, Mr. Brovetto’s resignation will be presented to the Board of Education in a special meeting on the 20th of April. Following this meeting, a Resolution to Declare the Vacancy will need to be approved by the Board, which is anticipated in the coming weeks. 

Please continue to check back on the homepage of WPSD for any updates to this message. 

Sincerely, 

Dr. Mathew Neal     
Woodland Park Superintendent of Schools “

The board will be meeting April 20th to discuss this, along with presumably the Merit Contract in executive session (link to agenda).