Tag Archives: Brad Miller

Invisible Hand: The Man Behind Colorado Schools’ Efforts to Ban Trans Athletes

Of the letter’s 80 signatories, 56 of them are current or recent clients of Miller’s firm. The signatories from El Paso County’s District 49, Pueblo’s District 70, Montezuma-Cortez, Elizabeth, and Woodland Park – totaling 19 signers – currently retain Miller’s legal services. Miller also has current or recent professional relationships with the signatories from nine of the ten charter schools on the list, and with Education ReEnvisioned BOCES, accounting for another 37 people

CFOIC brief: Eliminating penalties for ‘cured’ violations ‘eviscerates’ enforcement of open meetings law – Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition

The Colorado Supreme Court is reviewing whether the Court of Appeals in 2023 incorrectly rejected the awarding of attorney fees to plaintiff Erin O’Connell, who successfully challenged the Woodland Park school board — at least initially — over a meeting-notice violation that the board “effectively cured” at a subsequent meeting.
— Read on coloradofoic.org/cfoic-brief-eliminating-penalties-for-cured-violations-eviscerates-enforcement-of-open-meetings-law/

Witt and Miller address the staff – August 22, 2023

On August 22nd, 2023, Ken Witt and Brad Miller addressed the district staff in the annual convocation. Ken Witt talked about updates to benefits, PACE, universal pre-K, their partnership with Mindsight (counseling company), SROs and security, and introduced his administrative staff. At timestamp 14:30 in the audio recording below, he handed it off toe Ariel Elliott, regional director of PACE (Professional Association of Colorado Educators), to discuss that program.

Brad Miller takes the mic at about 25:15. He talked first about policy KDDA (which the district is being sued over). He says the point of it was simple things like if there’s a snow day, they didn’t want misinformation going around about whether school was canceled (note that KDDA was cited when Witt fired a staff member last spring).

The most important part to listen to starts at 35:06, where Miller outlines the district’s new policy for ‘students who want to express or identify their gender differently than what they were born.’ He acknowledges Colorado law on the matter and says they’ll comply (he calls it ‘unavoidable law’), but it won’t be a slam-dunk for kids who fall into this category. Before the school will respect the kids’ wishes, administration will hold a meeting with the parents of that kid because, as Brad Miller put it 37:50 into this audio recording, “it’s the parents’ decision to make” (not the kids?!). I’ve heard too many stories about kids in families where they’re not free to talk about such things…I worry for the mental health and safety of kids that are facing these conversations.

Updates on WPEA vs. WPSD lawsuit

Earlier this month, the Woodland Park Education Association (a local affiliate of the Colorado Education Association…more commonly referred to as ‘the union’ though there are some subtle differences) filed a lawsuit in district court against the Woodland Park school district, alleging violations of teachers’ first amendment rights to free speech and free association, mostly related to district policy KDDA (what some refer to as the ‘gag order’). If you’re not already familiar with this lawsuit, catch up quick by reading the CPR article.

From the KRDO article:

The lawsuit is asking the U.S. District Court of Colorado for several resolutions, including removing the policy that “punishes school-based employees if they speak publicly as private citizens about matters of public concern regarding the school district, declare that no employee who makes statements about their employment as private citizens on matters of public concern can be disciplined, terminated or retaliated against and declare that attempting to compel members to join PACE is unconstitutional and an unlawful use of taxpayer money.”

link

You can read the entire court filing here if interested.

On August 16th, lawyers filed for a preliminary injunction against the district, asking for:

Specifically, WPEA seeks a preliminary injunction as follows:

  1. Enjoin enforcement of current School District policy KDDA.
  2. Revise School District Policy KDDA to the policy language in effect prior to
    February 2023.
  3. Prohibit the School District from forcing employees of the School District to become
    members of PACE.

One interesting detail in that request for preliminary injunction is on the last page…the attorneys this is being served to include of course Brad Miller, but notably, there’s a new attorney listed working on this case for this district. It’s Matt Werner of Alpern Myers Stuart. His website lists his practice areas as:

Defense of Persons Accused of Serious Felonies, Sex Assaults, Domestic Violence and DUI; Juvenile Defense; School Expulsion and Discipline Defense; Complex Civil Litigation and Personal Injury; Administrative Hearings.

Including him in a first amendment lawsuit does not appear to align with his advertised specialties and is a curious move. With the earlier addition of Scott Gessler to handle the appeal on the CORA lawsuit, this makes at least three law firms now working for the Woodland Park school district and board of directors.

Leaked audio shows how Brad Miller is driving change in our town

As this article in the Colorado Times Recorder details, leaked audio of a recent meeting has attorney Brad Miller explaining the actions he’s been driving in Woodland Park, using our Board of Eduction to further his own plans. There’s so much in that article, please read it for yourself! It helps show how Brad Miller is one of the main forces behind all the change happening in our district. We need to take back LOCAL CONTROL of our school board and kick out him and Ken Witt by voting in new board members this fall.

DAVIS: The Specialists: A Woodland Park Investigation

From the outside, the events unfolding over the past year and a half in Woodland Park – where a far-right school board won control in late 2021, and has since pursued an aggressive agenda of banning certain books, demonizing the local teachers’ union, cutting funding for mental health services, skirting open records and public meetings laws, approving a highly controversial charter school without due process, and firing staff and faculty for speaking out against them – seem like an extension of the right-wing’s long standing animosity to the public school system. On closer inspection, though, what’s happening in Woodland Park looks like something new: an evolution of that old fight, where the goal is no longer to shrink and dissolve the public schooling system, but to seize control of the system and use it to train up a new generation of conservative voters. 
— Read on coloradotimesrecorder.com/2023/06/davis-the-specialists-a-woodland-park-investigation/54189/

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…

Who is PACE, and why should we care?

Today, we need to talk about PACE – the Professional Association of Colorado Educators (PACE). PACE is a state chapter of the Association of American Educators (AAE) – an organization which supports school vouchers and is funded in part by the Independence Institute and the Walton Family, Jacquelin Hume, and the Bradley Foundation. These donors, and PACE, are, quite simply, not supporters of traditional public education and are actively working to weaken public education. PACE itself is marketed as an alternative to groups such as the Woodland Park Education Association, the Pikes Peak Education Association, and the Colorado Education Association. Or what the board likes to refer to as ‘the union’.

The National Education Association (NEA), the largest labor union in the United States, and its state affiliates, have accused AAE and its state affiliates of being “pro-voucher” “anti-public education” and “anti-union.”[20][21] The NEA cites as evidence that major contributors to AAE Foundation have also contributed to school choice initiatives, which the NEA labels as “anti-public education” and “anti-union.”[21] The NEA has distributed a “toolkit” advising local members on how to respond to the AAE, including talking points and action plans. The NEA has labeled AAE “the leading anti-NEA organization.”[21] AAE and state affiliates have responded by highlighting that over 90% of their membership are public school teachers and the AAE has never taken a position supporting vouchers.[18][22][23] AAE has supported school choice, although their activities for National School Choice Week primarily involve public charter school teachers, never vouchers.[24] Also, the major funders cited by the NEA as proof of AAE’s agenda, have also given grants, albeit of much smaller value, to public school districts and universities. For example, the Walton Family Foundation donates heavily to public charter schools and groups focused on influencing policy toward school choice, including vouchers, but also granted some money to a few public school districts as well as Teach for America and the United Negro College Fund.[25][18] Counter to these claims to neutrality, organizations such as SourceWatch, citing documents obtained from some of AAE’s funders, continue to describe the association as a right-wing organization contributing to efforts to weaken unions and undermining their political objectives.[26]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_American_Educators

PACE, a Colorado-based organization, was originally incorporated in 2006 with Kim Shugart as the sole member on its Board of Directors. However, after a few years, Shugart seemed to have lost interest in the organization, causing it to fall out of compliance with the Colorado Secretary of State in 2010. In 2022, Shugart rectified this by bringing PACE back into compliance.

Interestingly, the original articles of incorporation made no mention of the parent organization AAE, suggesting that AAE’s involvement with PACE did not begin until 2022. Regardless, PACE’s current principal address is listed as the AAE office in California, and its legal representative in Colorado is attorney Robert Gardner in Colorado Springs. This information is readily available on the Colorado Secretary of State’s website.

While PACE’s website lists its address as 9800 Mount Pyramid Court, Suite 400 in Englewood, Colorado, it is worth noting that this space is currently available for lease as a coworking space. Therefore, it is uncertain whether PACE has a permanent office there. It is important to note that PACE differs from the CEA, which boasts 19 physical offices throughout Colorado.

What do the WPEA/PPEA/CEA offer that PACE doesn’t? Skilled legal protection, real professional development, and lobbyists providing teachers with a strong voice in government advocating for education and educators. Coloradans acting in support of teachers and staff statewide. PACE, on the other hand, has very few employees. The one staff member listed on their website is Ariel Elliott, their Regional Membership Director. The other name we see associated with PACE frequently is Tim Farmer, who at various times in PACE’s blog has been referred to as their Membership Director, Policy Director, Staffer, and Regional Director. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because he currently works with the WPSD attorney Brad Miller as a partner in Miller Farmer Law.

Why does all this matter…why are we talking about PACE? The Woodland Park School District sent an email to teachers on May 1st, outline changes to their benefits for the upcoming school year. One benefit being added is membership in PACE for all school-based staff. We had previously reported about actions the district has taken to attack or weaken the WPEA in the district. such as not withholding union dues and introducing policy prohibiting union leadership from using district computers to contact members..now they’re actively working to replace the WPEA with PACE.

According to PACE’s website, membership costs $19.50 per month, or $234 annually. We counted 296 staff for the ’23-24 school year, so that’s a potential cost to the district of $69,264 – though it’s unclear at this point if staff would be automatically enrolled, and if they’d be allowed to opt-out if that were the case.

So, we have our school district implementing policies to weaken the WPEA, while at the same time promoting an organizing that our district’s attorney has close ties to. Just another day in Woodland Park, Colorado.