Tag Archives: board

WPSD school board

Parents stand up for middle school staff

Thursday morning, around 80-100 parents, students, and concerned citizens showed their support for staff at the Middle School by lining the sidewalk as teachers arrived for a scheduled meeting with interim superintendent Ken Witt. This comes a day after nearly two dozen middle school staff members called in sick in protest of Witt’s decision to move the sixth grade classes back to the district elementary schools. This was NOT a decision the board had discussed with the public, though surveys in November did ask this question…with the answer (on page 5) clearly showing the public did NOT support the idea of splitting sixth grade off from the middle school like this. This was not a decision made in collaboration with staff at any of the schools, and elementary school staff has expressed uncertainty about how to fit the extra kids in place. There are also unanswered questions about less opportunity for sixth graders with this move, especially band and forensics.

Wednesday, in response to the staff’s sick day, Witt sent this following email threatening action if this were done again:

The teachers appreciated this show of public supported, though ultimately the day ended on a sour note as Witt fired one middle school staff member for alleged interactions with media, as explained (without much detail) in this letter below:

So, what’s next? Well, when the middle school was partitioned last spring, a feasibility study showed Merit being given a bit more than half the space when viewing student capacity…theoretical capacity of 471 students, vs. the Middle School’s theoretical capacity of 432 students. With 331 students enrolled this year, Merit did not seem to need more space. The middle school, at 391 students, was full but not quite capacity. So how does this change make sense? Especially since it will leave the Middle School at around 270 students (based on current 6-7th grade enrollment).

This screenshot shows the division of the school between Merit (top) and the Middle School (bottom):

Witt said this change was being made to provide more space for Merit…and looking at this map, it’s not clear what will change to accomplish that, easily. What we actually expect to happen next is 7-8 grades to be moved to the high school, and the entire Middle School building to be given to Merit.

And therein lies one of the biggest complaints about this school board…they are not up front about their plans. They are not telling the whole story here, there are blanks yet to be filled in, as their story about moving sixth grade to the elementary school buildings just doesn’t add up on its own.

House committee approves bill to add school and special districts to ethics commission oversight | Subscriber Content | gazette.com

A bill is advancing at the state level that would put school boards under the oversight of the state ethics commission! This is exciting news for, I think, both sides in our town, as both sides have accused board members of unethical behavior yet had no recourse as complaints have gone unanswered. It’ll be interesting to see if this succeeds in becoming a law.

House committee approves bill to add school and special districts to ethics commission oversight | Subscriber Content | gazette.com
— Read on gazette.com/colorado_politics/house-committee-approves-bill-to-add-school-and-special-districts-to-ethics-commission-oversight/article_661613be-78ed-505d-b5dd-16d743f59946.amp.html

2/8/2023 School Board Meeting

The public comments in the 2/8 meeting were really inspiring and worth watching…you can view this segment below. Lots of new voices at this meeting and some great speeches, word really is spreading.

In the meeting itself, Witt proposed a change to GP-5, to change from:

Board must represent the interests of the citizens of the entire school District

To:

Board must represent the educational interests of the students and their families as first priority, as well as the citizens of the entire school District

This change is expected to come into play with any decisions regarding social issues with students (LGBTQ+, etc) – we expect less tolerance for anything like that (especially after Illingworth’s questions in the 1/25 meeting!). We have CORA requests open to learn more about what discussions may be going on behind the scenes. This was a FIRST READING of this policy, so has not yet been enacted. Be sure to email board members if you have concerns about this (see the district contact info page).

The board also voted to modify the district calendar for next year…I expect they’ll publish that soon.

Here’s the entire meeting:

Book Banning has begun in Woodland Park schools

High School parent Bridget Curran has a child in the ‘Civil Disobedience’ class in the high school. The BOE gave the teacher an ultimatum, remove the reading of the book “Between the World and Me” or the class would be eliminated completely. The teacher refused, the class is gone. We’ve submitted a CORA request for emails related to this.

posted 1/24/2023 to the Concerned Parents of Teller County Facebook group

In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?

Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.

Amazon

Hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading,” a bold and personal literary exploration of America’s racial history by “the most important essayist in a generation and a writer who changed the national political conversation about race” (Rolling Stone)

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF OPRAH’S “BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH” 

Fiscal Recklessness in Woodland Park

Most of these board members are relatively new to town. Us that have been here a long time remember days not so long ago, when the Middle School roof was leaking. Trash cans were placed in classrooms to catch the drips. The district had no money for a new roof. I recall sitting in on a presentation by Superintendent Bowman at the time…he outlined the expenses on staff, district-wide, at a very detailed level. He convinced me the district was operating as lean as it could be…and yet…there was still no money for a new roof. In the spring of 2016, voters surprisingly stepped up to help! We passed a 1.09% sales tax coupled with a property tax reduction! This has made a huge difference to our schools, and yes, the Middle School got their new roof. 🙂

This current school board has been completely reckless with spending and an insult to taxpayers who deserve more from our elected officials. Let’s look at some examples.

The board spent around $100k of district money to bring Merit Academy into the district. The feasibility study for the middle school cost our district $51,596.53. Caplan and Ernest, lawyers brought on solely for closing the deal with Merit, cost us $32,268.50. Brad Miller incurred some uncertain amount of legal fees until he stepped away from the deal at the end (his legal fees for the first five months of 2022 were about $66k and he was very involved with this beginning in January). The board was not required to give Merit any of the sales tax revenue…they could have withheld enough of that sales tax revenue to reimburse the district for expenses incurred bringing in Merit.

Miller’s legal advice to the board led to them violating Open Meetings Law in January, leading to a preliminary injunction and subsequent legal fees incurred by defending themselves in court. The exact cost is unknown, as Miller did not invoice separately for this court case and he redacts details from the invoices we request through CORA.

In June, Illingworth called for a special board meeting, where they decided to remove Superintendent Neal from the district. Having no cause for doing so, it cost the district $275k to break his contract (plus whatever legal fees were incurred by Miller for this).

Having put in place two very competent co-superintendents, Del Garrick and Tina Cassens, the board then proceeded to hire a new temporary interim superintendent, Ken Witt. Which on the surface is not necessarily financially bad, this board found a way to really screw taxpayers over on this one. They’re paying Witt an annual rate of $155k, plus a $500 car allowance and $100 cell phone allowance. The contract makes it very difficult to remove Witt, as doing so would require 120 day notice or comparable financial compensation! To top it all off, Witt is allowed to keep working at ERBOCES, where is also being paid $155k, gets a $500 car allowance, and a cell phone provided to him. Taxpayers are paying Witt more than $310k to work two fulltime jobs. You can read Witt’s contract with Woodland Park here, or read his ERBOCES contract here (that contract has been extended). Our district alone is paying a full time salary to someone that’s barely working here part time.

Merit Academy Updates

The district has signed a contract with Merit Academy, and is currently working on a Facilities Usage Agreement (FUA) to give them the space they wanted in the Middle School. The contract was voted on in their 5/19 meeting (link to video); this followed their 5/18 “town hall” meeting (link to video) to take public comment…none of which led to any changes in the contract later adopted. As expected, the board ignored the process laid out in Colorado charter school law and even the district’s own website. They also never did have a clean vote on the MOU that was supposedly the foundation for this action…the preliminary injunction had found the original vote to be in violation of the Open Meetings Law, and the subsequent two ‘re-votes’ to be rubber-stamping which is also not allowed (link).

For the Facilities Usage Agreement (FUA), the board posted the draft Friday evening before Memorial Day weekend, with all public feedback required by Monday evening of that same holiday weekend. Thereby establishing that FUA also stands for, “Fuck U All” and showing that they really didn’t want public feedback. On Wednesday June 1st, the board met to ‘review’ to that feedback (link to video), and promptly instruct the Superintendent to proceed with the FUA with Merit without any changes to what was posted the prior week.

The district’s own financial analysis (link) of Merit was concerning, with their conclusion being:

A compressed analysis window, inconsistent financial reporting, and the lack of
a full-year of Merit Academy’s operational existence make thorough fiscal
analysis for adding a charter school to the Woodland Park School District
difficult. Much of the information included in this summary is based on projected
or estimated data and may be dramatically impacted by a host of variables
including changing economic, demographic and political circumstances. A more
effective analysis will be possible after a fiscal audit by a contracted, external
auditor.

Despite those financial concerns, the board granted Merit a significant portion of the sales tax revenue received by the school, something the law does not require. A more conservative board would have at least tied that sales tax money to specific milestones Merit must achieve, such as a satisfactory financial audit. But then, this board is all about doing what’s best for Merit, not the public schools.

Board posts final Merit contract and schedules vote

In a giant ‘fuck you’ to the taxpayers of this district awaiting a chance to voice their opinions on the Merit Academy contract in tonight’s special board meeting created for that purpose, the school board has gone ahead and posted a FINAL version of the Merit contract to the district website and scheduled a meeting for tomorrow at 6:00 (agenda) to vote to approve it (they also posted an approval resolution which they’ll be voting on). They have no intention of listening to public feedback nor making any changes to their contract based upon that feedback. This is all a circus show (maybe ‘shitshow’ would be a better description).

It’s worth showing up at tonight’s school board meeting, 6:00 (agenda) in the auditorium, and let the board know what you think about this corrupt, unethical process.

Both meetings will be livestreamed and the link for that is in the agendas.