School situation spiraling out of control | Guest column

From the 6/5/24 Courier, written by Susie Graf:

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.

Congratulations WPHS class of 2024!

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).

City Council debates sales tax

In the 5/16 council meeting, city council talked about sales tax, and Ken Witt and Mick Bates gave a short presentation and answered some questions (you can watch it here). The debate seems to be over whether or not City Council should trust the Woodland Park School District to spend the sales tax money in the manner agreed upon. Witt provided pie charts but little actual detail, something council members Geer and Baldwin both pointed out.

Here are some actions by the district and superintendent to consider when asking whether they can be trusted to spend sales tax money as agreed upon:

  • The district provides transportation services to Merit Academy without making them pay a proportionate share of the overall cost – and when public comment has brought this to light last year, Witt provided misleading answers.
  • The district spent about $100,000 to charter Merit Academy…money they could have asked that school to reimburse but instead had the other schools pay via their funds.
  • The district provides food service to Merit Academy at no cost to that school.
  • The board paid a $275,000 separation agreement to our previous superintendent, Dr. Mathew Neal (this was recorded in the FY’23 general ledger as “July 2022 Supplemental Payroll” with no comments added about who it was for).
  • The district redirected $270,155 of federal grant money without public notice nor board approval – the board had voted to spend this money on the five ‘traditional’ public schools, but it was instead sent to Merit Academy in secret.
  • The board voted to renew Ken Witt’s contract, giving him a raise and potential bonus in the process, without ever performing any job review.
  • In the 5/16/2024 city council meeting, Ken Witt appears to have lied to council, saying sales tax money was being used for ‘innovation’ by paying for the Capturing Kids Hearts program, when the facts show that program is funded by different sources.
  • District CFO Amy Ryan has barely lasted a year…a job posting shows she’s leaving the district already.

Ken Witt and the Woodland Park School District have not earned our trust with our sales tax money.

Capturing Kids Hearts – what does it cost?

UPDATE 5/30 – I’ve received updated general ledger information which shows three additional charges in this current fiscal year FY’24, bringing the total to $53,700 paid out of ESSER grant money, and $97,050 paid out of general fund 10 reserves (carryover from last year as per the specific budget resolution). No change to the conclusions in what I wrote below – Ken Witt lied to council about sales tax money being used for this.

For the current school year, the district implemented the Capturing Kids Hearts program, a social-emotional learning tool. People following this matter closely might be curious where the money is coming from, as in Ken Witt’s presentation to City Council on 5/16, he highlighted this as how sales tax money is spent on ‘innovation’ in the current fiscal year (’23-24 school year):

Another slide from his presentation showed the district was spending $80,000 on this innovation aspect in FY24 (when asked about the ‘other’, he said there currently are no examples of that nor have there ever been):

Just to be perfectly clear, his presentation to council was solely on how sales tax money is being spent by the district. So $80k on this Capturing Kids Hearts program could probably be considered an OK expense for that ‘innovative programing’ category of sales tax money expenses.

Except it wasn’t.

Sales tax money goes directly into the General Fund, which is fund 10. So when reviewing expenses, based on Ken Witt’s statement one would expect all Capturing Kids Hearts expenses to be charged to that fund. When reviewing the general ledger though (my data is only current as of 4/11, it’s possible new charges have been added), we see that $5,610 was spent on food service (for training events, presumably):

Then, $8,000 was spent from the general fund on software. That’s it for charges which could be tied to sales tax money. But that’s not the extent of charges related to this program. The bulk of the cost of Capturing Kids Hearts this year, $53,700 was paid for with ESSER grant money (aka, Federal Covid Relief funds). NOT sales tax money. Note fund ’22’ below (designated purpose grants), and grant number 4414 (the specific grant):

In other words, Ken Witt was not being truthful when he told City Council the district was spending $80k of sales tax money this year on innovation programs, of which only Captured Kids Hearts was named.

So for the current FY’24, where Witt says we’re spending $80,000 in sales tax money on Capturing Kids Hearts, at most we’ve only spent $13,610 – the rest came from a federal grant. But even that $13,610 is called into question when you look at the specific budget resolution passed for FY’24. This resolution authorizes expenditure of fund balances for specific purposes – or to word it differently, spending our reserve fund. The specific budget resolution for the current fiscal year, FY’24, authorizes spending $100,000 from our reserve fund – NOT sales tax – on Capturing Kids Hearts:

I mentioned my general ledger data is only current as of 4/11/2024 – new charges may have been added since. If that’s the case, and more than $13,610 has been spent, just keep in mind that the board authorized $100,000 of reserve funds to be spent on this program, so the district would have to exceed $100,000 in charges, to fund 10, in the current fiscal year for Ken Witt to be make the argument that the district is using any sales tax money on that program for this year.

If you’d like to view the invoices for details on the money paid to Capturing Kids Hearts, you can view them here (provided via CORA).

Looking at the previous fiscal year, FY’23 (school year ’22-23), we see when the district first paid Capturing Kids Hearts for the program, a $108,500 charge in June. This was charged to fund 10, the general fund, so it could be argued that the district used sales tax money in the previous fiscal year to pay for Capturing Kids Hearts.

So, the facts do not support Ken Witt’s claim that the district is spending sales tax money on Capturing Kids Hearts in the current fiscal year.

Colo. justices reject school co-ops’ ‘extraterritoriality’ | Courts | coloradopolitics.com

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Monday that cooperative associations of school boards lack the power to open facilities outside their boundaries in school districts that do not consent to the placement.
— Read on www.coloradopolitics.com/courts/colorado-justices-agree-school-district-coops-cannot-locate-facilities-outside-borders/article_b3bb1a60-16d2-11ef-96c5-cfbd562121bc.html

This ruling rejects the method Ken Witt and Brad Miller used to start up Merit Academy under ERBOCES instead of encouraging Merit to update and resubmit their application to WPSD.