The state’s second-highest court Thursday affirmed a judge’s order to disclose video surveillance footage showing three Woodland Park school board members talking with a candidate for superintendent after a public meeting in December 2022.
— Read on coloradofoic.org/court-of-appeals-affirms-judges-order-requiring-release-of-woodland-park-school-district-security-footage/
Tag Archives: OML
Open Meetings Law case in Denver mirrors WPSD
There’s an ongoing court case in Douglas County, alleging the board violating open meetings laws by discussing the firing of their superintendent in private one on one discussions. This had previous been a gray area of Open Meetings Law…seeming to violate the spirit of the law while not actually being prevented by the law. This latest case though might be setting legal precedent in this area, as a Judge is ruling one on one discussions is a violating, saying “Circumventing the statute by a series of private one-on-one meetings at which public business is discussed and/or decisions reached is a violation of the purpose of the statute, not just its spirit.”
Interim Superintendent Ken Witt even admitted that he has one on one and one on two meetings with board members, though there’s never been any doubt prior that this is what the board was doing. Maybe the best documented case was their total lack of deliberation when deciding upon a new board member to replace a vacant seat.
With the law still not black and white in this matter, it doesn’t mean we can expect any change in WPSD’s board behavior. But hopefully it’ll lead to clarification of the law and improved government transparency statewide.
Colorado schools keeping secrets from parents and kids | Education | denvergazette.com
In the midst of a nationwide push by parents for more say over what’s going on in their schools, Colorado school districts are going the opposite direction, doubling down on secret meetings and backdoor deals and stonewalling urgent requests for information from the very people they are supposed to serve.
— Read on denvergazette.com/content/tncms/live/
School Board ordered to disclose surveillance video | Pikes Peak Courier | gazette.com
The Woodland Park School District was ordered last week to disclose video surveillance of a discussion among three school board members with Ken Witt, a candidate at the time for superintendent.
— Read on https://gazette.com/pikespeakcourier/school-board-ordered-to-disclose-surveillance-video/article_15c1fbfc-cb52-11ed-ab87-d33ccbd788f5.html
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/
Judge orders Woodland Park school board to comply with Colorado’s open meetings law by listing agenda items ‘clearly, honestly and forthrightly’
Read the article here:
Woodland Park School Board President says district broke no laws, but could’ve been more ‘transparent’
Read more at KRDO’s website.