Tag Archives: meetings

WPSD board meetings

The reason for the crowds at the 5/10 board meeting

The May 10th board meeting, as previously reported on here (and also on NBC), was more than a bit chaotic, with unprecedented turnout and around half the attendees being shut out in the rain. While we knew there was a huge number of Charis Bible College students in attendance, the reason for their sudden interest was unproven. One student told a local TV reporter a board member had told them to appear. We don’t know whether that’s true, but we do know that earlier that day, Charis founder Andrew Wommack, Charis executive director Richard Harris, and WPSD DAC member Aaron Helstrom appeared on a Truth and Liberty Broadcast appealing to their followers to show up at that board meeting. You can watch that in the video clip below.

At the end of this video. Wommack talks about a ‘swatting’ incident; be aware that most of what he says is incorrect (it wasn’t ‘swatting’, it wasn’t a board member, it wasn’t at Walmart, etc). The actual facts of that incident should become apparent after the trial (for the person who made the 911 call) in early July.

Fact check – Letters to the Editor

Board Director David Illingworth II, up for reelection this fall, submitted this letter to the editor in the Courier…let’s do some fact checking:

Many have complained about not enough space at the May 10 Board of Education meeting (in fact my own wife was unable to get in). These complaints are either misinformed or misleading.

First, the overwhelming majority of our meetings are held in that meeting space, and it is exceptionally rare that there is not enough room for everyone. We can’t know when that will happen, but we do know that there was very heavy attendance at this meeting due to the presence of NBC News and the coordination and organizing by well-known local activists whose goal was to swamp the meeting and get on TV. They were there for the cameras and the attention, not the schools or the students.

Second, we cannot change the fire code or the weather. Everyone who could not get into the meeting room was offered the chance to watch the meeting from the WPHS auditorium, rather than stand in the rain. They all declined and decided, of their own free will, to stay outside and shout where the TV cameras just happened to be.

Finally, everyone was able to sign up for public comment, and many of those who addressed the BOE that night were escorted in from outside, so they had the same opportunities as those who had arrived earlier.

Let’s be clear: anyone who stood in the rain did so of their own choice after refusing staff offers to come inside WPHS where it was warm and dry. No one was denied the opportunity for shelter or to publicly address the BOE.

Dave Illingworth, Woodland Park Board of Education

source

I don’t think we can quantify whether it’s ‘exceptionally rare that there is not enough room for everyone’, but the board commonly opened up an overflow area outside of the main conference room for those occurrences. At other times, they held the board meetings in either the high school auditorium, or the middle school commons area, to accommodate larger crowds.

Both the pro-board side, and the anti-board side, encouraged heavy attendance by their respective followers. The board had no reason to expect that a 90 person room would provide sufficient space for everyone, not when all indications were that turnout at this meeting would be extraordinary.

No one was offered a chance to watch the meeting from the auditorium. Towards the end of the public comment portion, I was offered a chance to take shelter in the commons area (not the auditorium), with no promise of any livestream in there.

The NBC TV camera was inside the conference room, not outside as he claims. A local TV reporter had her camera outside.

He claims ‘no one was denied the opportunity for shelter or to publicly address the BOE.’ That second part is false. The BOE cut public comment off at 30 minutes as has been their custom for a while now. Not everyone who signed up to publicly address the BOE was given that opportunity. Further, they were asked to wait outside in the rain to see if their name would be called (the commons area wasn’t opened up as shelter until public comment was almost over).

What about the claims that fire code meant they couldn’t open up the overflow area? We have not found any evidence to support that claim. Yes, the main conference room has a 90 person capacity limit sign posted, and that seems reasonable for that size of a space. However, our inspection of the overflow area revealed no posted capacity signs. A CORA request (#446) requested the fire department documents listing the maximum occupancy for those rooms:

I am requesting the official Fire Department documents listing the maximum occupancy for the WPSD District Office, the Distric Office Large Conference room and the two district office rooms that have traditionally been used to accommodate overflow for the WPSD BOE meetings.

This was met with the district’s response of, “There are no responsive documents to this request.”

Not only did the BOE recruit Charis students to pack the conference room, but they encouraged those students to show up early – an hour ahead of time, the line was already long enough that those showing up after did not get in to the building. As evidenced by audience reactions during the meeting, the room was clearly packed with BOE supporters. The BOE knew there would be a large crowd, did not choose to move the meeting to a larger space, and took steps to actually reduce the number of people that would be allowed to attend the meeting (when compared to previous meetings).

May 10, 2023 BOE meeting recap

The May 10th Woodland Park RE-2 school board meeting was absolutely crazy. With schools earlier being on ‘shelter in place’ status due to a tornado warning (later downgraded to a tornado watch), a record crowd still turned up for this meeting. An hour ahead of the meeting’s 6PM start time, there was already an estimated 90 people in line (doors typically open 30 minutes prior)! I showed up just after 5:00, found some friends, and we very quickly ascertained what was going on. The common thread with the people we saw and talked to was a connection with Charis Bible school. We all gathered in a huge line, waiting in the rain for the doors to open.

But I need to take a step back…why the fuss? We knew that in this meeting, the board would vote to extend Ken Witt’s contract for another year, and change his job title from Interim Superintendent to Superintendent. The crowd was not there for that though…the board had caught wind that NBC Nightly News was sending a camera and crew to cover this meeting. A Fox21 reporter was told that a board member had told the Charis students to come (by the time of the meeting, I’d estimate about 200 people had showed up). That NBC camera crew was joined by cameras and reporters from two local TV stations, KOAA and Fox21 (follow those links for their stories of the evening).

What followed was…unprecedented for this small town.

So, the board knew to expect a crowd. The main conference room, the planned location for this meeting, had a 90 person capacity. In the past, they’d often open up overflow rooms, other conference rooms in the same office, where those people watched the livestream on TV. Larger past meetings have been held in the Middle School commons room, or the High School auditorium (which is the building adjoining the district offices hosting this meeting).

Given the anticipated record crowd, what would you expect the WPSD RE-2 board of education to do? This board chose to handle that crowd by, for the first time ever, reducing capacity and limiting participation to only the 90 people that could fit in the main conference room. Once those people had entered the building, the doors were locked with around a hundred people waiting outside in the rain.

While refusing to open the overflow rooms, move to the adjacent auditorium, or even reschedule the meeting, the board allowed people outside to sign up for public comment, though those people still had to wait outside to see if their names would be called (this board chose to limit public comment to 3 minutes per person which is fine, but only 30 minutes total, so typically a LOT of people do not get a chance to speak). Sometime around the middle of public comment, the board opened the doors to the high school for people who wanted to seek shelter from the rain in there (it’s still not clear why we couldn’t enter one of the vacant other conference rooms in the district office).

The meeting moved into executive session at the end; this is done in private and most of the audience shuffled out. At that point, myself and other parents were able to escape the rain and go inside to await the board’s return from executive session (they need to return to the conference room to officially adjourn the meeting). We had the chance for a brief interaction with board president Rusterholtz after the meeting (the others all fled immediately after the meeting was adjourned, none of them would talk to us).

The board put on a show for the cameras…rants about socialism, capitalism, prayer, guns, etc. They passed a resolution about economic freedom, and of course approved Witt’s contract.

At the 26:55 mark, you can hear Rusterholtz ask Kelly how many people signed up, she said 30 had. 9 were given the chance to speak and be heard.

Chaos ensues as parents and teachers barred from entering superintendent vote | FOX21 News Colorado

FOX21 spoke with multiple members in line from the Charis Bible College who all said they had no relation to the school district but that they were there to support the school board.

“I don’t really care what’s happening very much… I’m really advocating for peace and unity,” said Tanner Wride, a member of the Charis Bible College.

Around 5:30 p.m., chaos ensued when officials with the school board said they would not be letting anyone else in. Hundreds of angry people were left outside in the pouring rain.
— Read on www.fox21news.com/top-stories/chaos-ensues-as-parents-and-teachers-are-barred-from-entering-woodland-park-superintendent-vote/

Woodland Park school board extends term of interim superintendent, reactions divided | KRDO

Wednesday night, the Woodland Park school board voted to extend the contract of controversial superintendent Ken Witt.

Dozens of community members turned out for the meeting, many voicing frustration over the decision, and many having to stand outside the building after the meeting room filled to maximum capacity.
— Read on krdo.com/top-stories/2023/05/10/woodland-park-school-board-extends-term-of-interim-superintendent-reactions-divided/

Illingworth’s latest belittling email to a parent

David Illingworth has a long history of hostile language towards parents and teachers in the district. His latest tirade was directed towards Nate Owen, as much a part of the WP community as anybody. Nate is a popular high school teacher who clearly cares greatly for his students, has taught in the district for eleven years, and has four kids growing up in WP schools (he’s also sponsored Key Club, part of the Kiwanis family service organization, for all those eleven years).

Here’s what David Illingworth emailed Nate:

Nate, you are union president and nothing you say has any credibility with me. You seem to only care about creating division, despair, and a climate of doom amongst teachers and parents for your wealthy union bosses. Don’t even pretend to guilt parents and teachers that focusing schools on academics means abandoning our kids. That’s disgusting.


Parents run this district now, not the union. The schools exist for the kids, not the union and their politicians. Your grandstanding for the cameras does not fool me. You work for the union, not parents and certainly not kids.


DAVID W. ILLINGWORTH II
Director

source

The board had adjourned to executive session in their board meeting earlier in the day; the meeting livestream continued to run. Nate took the opportunity to speak to those still present in the room; you can watch his speech below. Nate forwarded the text of his speech to the board; Illingworth’s email was in reply to that.

Director Illingworth is up for re-election this fall.

4/12/2023 School Board Meeting Recap

If you missed the 4/12/2023 school board meeting, you can watch it here:

Highlights:

  • There was some interesting public comment (including a reference to the ‘rich and powerful teachers unions’, LOL), though only a handful of those who signed up actually got to speak, due to the board limiting public comment to 30 minutes total.
  • The board included an amendment to Merit Academy’s contract in the consent agenda. The public was not informed of the content of this amendment until the district sent an email out on 4/14 stating, “The board also approved the Merit contract amendment to eliminate charter school liaison charges.” This amendment was not discussed nor read in the 4/12 meeting.
  • The board announced a $1500 retention bonus for teachers, and approved a resolution declaring May 8-12 Teacher Appreciation Week. It’s nice to see them mirroring the declaration of the National PTA group.
  • Witt gave a few updates on the transition of sixth grade to elementary schools, though they still haven’t worked out all the details.
  • The board approved a resolution opposing Colorado House bill HB23-1003, School Mental Health Assessment. Interestingly, it is virtually identical to the resolution that D49 in Colorado Springs passed the next day at their board meeting.
  • Interim Superintendent Witt talked briefly about the Academic Achievement report previously shown to the DAC. He didn’t show any slides in this meeting; if you want to view the report you can see it here.
  • The board hired Amy Ryan as CFO, and Bill Phalen was promoted to be the new Middle School principal for next year.
  • There were two professional photographers taking pictures at the meeting, and more than one reporter observed in the room.

Judge orders release of Woodland Park School District surveillance footage to parent – Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition

A judge Wednesday ordered the Woodland Park School District to disclose video surveillance footage showing three school board members talking with a candidate for superintendent after a public meeting last December.

Teller County District Court Judge Scott Sells said he was not persuaded by the school district’s argument that the recordings either aren’t public records as defined by the Colorado Open Records Act or could lawfully be withheld under CORA’s discretionary exception for records revealing “specialized details … of security arrangements or investigations.”
— Read on coloradofoic.org/judge-orders-release-of-woodland-park-school-district-surveillance-footage-to-parent/