Tag Archives: Resignations

Parting words from the wife of a teacher leaving the district

The wife (Sharon) of Nate Owen, WPEA president and fantastic math/science high school teacher, posted this to Facebook today:

Dear WPSD community,

This week, our family begins saying goodbye to the Woodland Park School District. We’ve been part of WPSD for 12 years. A lot of our core memories have been tied to Woodland Park starting with Nate beginning to work for WPSD when our oldest child turned 1. All four of our children learned to walk in the halls of the high school. They had their first trick or treating experiences and Santa visits in this community. This district was our choice for our children’s education, and has seen them through first days of preschool, kindergarten, and middle school. We had looked forward to continuing to experience milestones with our WPSD family, like my husband giving our children their high school diplomas at their WPSD graduations, but this is no longer an option for our family. This community has shown their care through life’s toughest moments. They saw us through children being diagnosed with epilepsy, autism, and Weil-Marchesani Syndrome. The community rallied behind us when we had a kitchen fire and Nate broke his leg. Regardless of what life threw at us, we always knew we were surrounded by a caring community that has offered us support. Our children have grown up with this community as their family. They will always have memories of the high school students who walked them to and from Gateway, the amazing staff who played a part in their education, the high school teachers who welcomed them into their classrooms after school to draw or have a snack, and the high school admin who made sure they felt welcome in the high school. Woodland Park will always hold a special place in our family’s memories.

Sadly, we now need to leave this district due to a school board and superintendent, who appear to not care about the students or staff of the 5 traditional public schools. Their number one priority has been their extreme political agenda that will lead to the destruction of all educational choices. White washing history, discouraging civil discourse, ignoring research on best educational practices, refusing grants due to having “strings attached” and ignoring parent and staff concerns will not lead to a thriving school district. As this board has boasted their “Christian values”, the actions and beliefs of this school board and superintendent do not align with the teachings of Jesus I was taught growing up as a Pastor’s daughter and attending an accredited Christian university in Missouri.

Public schools are meant to meet the needs of all students. This means public schools are required to serve all students regardless of race, religion, political views, sexual orientation, disability, income, gender, etc. To the contrary of the actions of this board and superintendent, it is the job of the public schools to provide a learning environment that is safe, equitable and inclusive for all students. It doesn’t matter how a student differs from a teacher, admin, or school board member. It is expected for all the students to be treated with respect and be provided a fair and appropriate education. It appalled me to hear a board member’s recent statement on using a student’s chosen name. This left me to believe that he feels LGBTQ+ students don’t deserve the same level of respect as other students. Treating a student with respect doesn’t interrupt learning. Instead, it provides the student with a better capability to learn. I can’t have my children attending a school district where majority of the board members and the superintendent are fine with discrimination against any students. We can all hold different beliefs without losing the ability of treating others in a respectful manner.

When my husband and I discussed him taking on the role of WPEA president, I knew the sacrifices our family would need to make to allow him to take this position. I knew the countless hours that Nate would need to commit to this position, the stress, and the risk of retaliation. Being WPEA president in a district in crisis is much different than in a healthy district where the district works with the staff. In the end, I knew Nate needed to take on this position because WPSD is worth fighting for, and we knew he could put the target on his back for all staff, not just WPEA members. Over the last 2 years, I have heard lies told about my husband and his coworkers. If any of the board members and superintendent took the time to actually work with him, they would have seen the man I have come to know and love. He’s a man who thinks of others before himself. He has the students’ best interests at the forefront of his mind because his job is to teach and prepare them for life outside of the school district’s walls. If the board and superintendent would have been willing to work with him, he would have helped them build the much needed bridge between themselves and the staff. Overall, he wanted what is best for all members of this community. Instead of working with my husband to bring peace and strengthen the district, the board and superintendent have been filled with hate and disrespect towards him and the staff of WPSD. They put on blinders to the fact that WPEA is filled with staff who, ultimately, are human, have families, and care about their students’ success.

It pains me to have to say goodbye to the district we have been part of for the last 12 years, but my family needs to go where students and staff will be respected and prioritized. The time has come for us to prioritize our family’s needs over WPSD. As more teachers leave, I ask everyone to give them respect for their decision because the decision to leave is difficult. They don’t want to leave your students in this situation or leave the district they have loved, but they are reaching a point where they cannot stay and continue to be the amazing and effective teachers that you have come to love. The toxicity that is being created by the superintendent and the board will continue to have a negative impact on the teachers even more than it already has. When someone has decided they have reached their limits, we need to respect their decision to leave and show them support.

I want to thank this community for surrounding my family with support during these last 12 years and specifically the past 2 years. Thank you for realizing who my husband truly is and recognizing that he wants this school district to succeed and flourish. I want to thank all of the staff who have helped shape my children into the people they are today, kept them safe, and have become trusted adults in their lives. Thank you, Keegan, for stepping up to try to bring balance to a board who have become consumed by false national narratives and extreme political agendas. We may be leaving the district, but we will continue to advocate for the students and staff of Woodland Park.

Chief Academic Officer leaves for Elizabeth school district

UPDATE – Kimberly Moore’s resignation letter is dated February 5th, two days after the job opening was supposedly posted. Why it didn’t appear in the board packet for the 2/14 meeting is unclear.

Chief Academic Officer Kimberly Moore is leaving Woodland Park, to take a similar role in the Elizabeth school district. News first broke on February 3rd of her departure, though the rumor mill pegged her for a principal position in Elizabeth. While that position didn’t pan out, the destination proved correct and she’ll be starting there after spring break (according to an email from the Elizabeth superintendent to staff there).

One interesting thing to note is the job posting for her position was just posted a couple days ago (around 2/14), yet it’s dated February 3rd:

One local parent, in attempts to raise visibility to our understaffed SPED program, posts weekly updates on Facebook of the job openings in the district. In her post on Monday February 12th, this position was not listed:

Additionally, Moore’s resignation is not noted in the board packet from the February 14th school board meeting as would be typically done.

It’s unclear why the district would advertise that the position was posted February 3rd, when all evidence suggests this is not the case.

Resignation Letter from a Gateway teacher

With the gag order in place (policy KDDA), teachers have rightfully felt afraid to speak up. Every now and then though, we see one of them expressing their frustrating when (sadly) resigning…the latest was Rebecca Johnson, a teacher at Gateway for the last 10 years or so, who resigned last month. She emailed a very well-written and detailed letter as her resignation, and I finally obtained a copy via CORA. Please, read it for yourself to gain some insight into what our teachers have been going through in our district.

Staffing updates for ’23-24 WPSD school year

With 57 current job openings in the district and a hostile administration due to Ken Witt’s leadership, there’s a lot of concern about whether those openings will be filled. We’re learning some things from district insiders that’s worth sharing. This information comes from various sources and does not have direct evidence to back it up, though looking at the job openings as well as resignations to date goes a long way towards substantiating the claims.

  • Both registered nurses are leaving, but there’s only one new job opening posted.
  • The special ed programs are being severely impacted. At Gateway, the mild moderate teacher resigned, autism (PLACE) program K-6 and early childhood teachers resigned, social worker resigned, one special ed early childhood teacher signed, and so there are currently NO special ed teachers for grades K-6 at Gateway. At Columbine, the mild moderate special ed teacher resigned, the affective needs teacher resigned, a school social worker resigned, and there are currently NO special ed teachers left at Columbine. At the middle school, the affective needs teacher left, and they are not planning to hire an affective needs teacher to replace that position, the mild moderate disabilities teacher resigned, a school social worker resigned, and two special ed teachers resigned remain (one significant support needs teacher and one mild moderate needs teacher). No special ed teachers have resigned from WPHS and Summit Elementary, according to sources inside the district.
  • The PLACE Programs and the Affective Needs Program are Center Based Programs. These programs serve students under the Ute Pass BOCES school districts of WPSD, Cripple Creek Victor Schools and Manitou Springs School District and were originally established to help all three districts consolidate specialized services and staff to central locations. These programs were created by YEARS of hard work and VERY dedicated staff. Every single staff member who left sited the current board and superintendent as their reasons for leaving. All special education programs require teachers to be highly qualified in their area of expertise. In a good year, these positions are difficult to fill. As of this past week, there had been no applicants to fill these positions. Public schools are required to provide a Free Appropriate Public Education to all special education students. Special Education students and their parents deserve answers NOW as to how the board and the superintendent in this district plan to solve these very serious problems caused by their words and actions.
  • Due to the massive exodus at Gateway Elementary, both Columbine and Summit are being “requested” to move one of their teachers to Gateway to help fill that gap. We hear rumors of other teachers being forced to change positions in the district, too.
  • The High School is rumored to be shifting the role of counselors in the building…they won’t be hiring mental health professionals as counselors, but will instead focus these roles as ‘academic advisors’ (the state of Colorado doesn’t require counselors to be mental health professionals).

District takes down Facebook post about Teacher Appreciation Bags

There’s a tradition in the schools, at the end of the school year, teachers not returning the next year are given Teacher Appreciation Bags. What’s made this year different is the large number of staff choosing to leave the district, with the reason cited typically being this board and superintendent. The WPHS posted a picture of the teacher appreciation bags to their Facebook page last Thursday, as shown below:

That post has now been taken down from their page. No reason was given, but I suspect it’s because this image helps make clear just how many staff are leaving the district (this picture shows 22 teacher appreciation bags, though some other teachers have already left in the past few months so are not represented here).

Gateway Elementary had an even larger sign of internal trouble, with twenty seven bags:

I’m working to get some exact numbers for how many staff are leaving; please be patient as I want solid documentation to back up the numbers and that takes time. You can expect me to publish a list in the second half of June, though there may be some additions as the summer goes on so the final tally would be August, before the new school year starts.

Parents almost universally loved our teachers here, and it’s a real shame to see so many driven away by this board and superintendent. There is no way this will not disrupt the learning environment this fall…best case scenario is a large number of new teachers that need to be integrated into WPSD; worst case is a potential failure to fill open positions, which I imagine would be addressed by increasing class size or, in the case of high school electives, eliminating those classes altogether.

RN and special education staffing levels

I’ve learned that both of the nurses in our district are leaving at the end of the year, yet there is only one job opening posted. Perhaps the district will post a second opening eventually, but this is concerning, as five schools would be a lot for only one RN to handle. Note that each school DOES have its own full time health aide and it’s expected those will be kept. But having only one RN would be too much, especially when it comes to immunization compliance and health screenings. Again, they may yet post a second position…but this is something parents should watch.

The other bit of news concerns our special education program. Insiders say that those staff levels are being severely decimated by staff leaving the district after this year, with some special education programs losing all staff, reportedly because of this board and superintendent. The question is, will the district be able to attract new employees to fill those positions? We can and must do better than this, especially for these most vulnerable children.

Resignation letter – Laura O’Connell

As reposted on Facebook:

May 7th, 2023
Mr. Witt,
I am writing this letter to inform you of my resignation from the School to Work Alliance Program (SWAP) Coordinator position for Woodland Park School District. My last day will be the final day of my current contract, June 30, 2023. This decision has been reached for a variety of reasons, all directly related to the actions of the current WPSD Board of Education, but the two most recent occurrences in our district finalized my choice to resign.
First, as I read the contract of employment offered to me by Woodland Park School District last week, I was taken aback that it stated, “The District, or its representatives, has explained the School District mission, philosophy, and goals and the Employee has expressed a commitment to work for the District in accordance with such requirements.” Neither the district nor a representative had explained these things to me, so I reached out to Mr. Salt asking for this explanation to take place. After not hearing from him for days, I chose to reflect on the actions of the board in an attempt to understand their mission, philosophy, and goals on my own:
Through this reflection I have determined that their mission, as evidenced by their actions, is to defund traditional public schools, funnel the money into charter schools who do not have to be accountable to the taxpayers, and into the outstretched hands of their wealthy friends, yourself included. I am sure that is upsetting for you to hear. However, as someone who has spent countless years to achieve and continue to increase my knowledge and credentials in an effort to ensure I was able serve young people to the best of my ability, I have no other way to rectify a superintendent, with less credentials than the majority of the WPSD staff, working part time making a full superintendent’s salary. I also believe the Board’s actions have shown a strong mission to devalue the education profession as evidenced through the constant bullying of high-caliber, deeply caring teachers, and administrators, as well as the environment of fear they, and now you, have intentionally curated within the schools. I entered education with the understanding that our children deserve more in terms of funding, not less, and the belief that our educators are a unique gift to our society in that they love, think about, give to, and hope for each and every child as if they were their own. Therefore, I cannot ethically and in good conscience help this board achieve their missions, as shown by their actions.
Upon reflection of the actions of this Board of Education, I also determined that the Board’s philosophy is that lower-level learning will somehow lead to higher levels of achievement, and that education is nothing but a business to profit from, with children being nothing but products. I have reviewed the American Birthright Standards, and as a person who holds a master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction, my expert analysis is that these standards will only lead to the memorization of basic facts, with little chance that knowledge will be retained through higher levels of thinking such as analysis, application, and evaluation of how history can be compared to current events. As for my conclusion that this Board views the education of children as a business, this is derived through statements made by the BOE, and most recently stated by you in a meeting with WPSD educators. I entered education with the understanding
that it is a public service, not a business, with the desired outcome being that each individual and thus society may reach its highest potential. As a result, I cannot ethically and in good conscience commit to helping this BOE lower the bar for learning and turn children into business products.
Lastly, through my reflection of their actions, I determined that the BOE’s goals are to do whatever it takes, including committing what I genuinely believe would be considered crimes if they were fully investigated, to ensure that their personal agendas are realized. In my opinion, these crimes include large sums of money paid to people such as yourself and Mr. Miller for little work, and the possibility that the Board hid that Mr. Illingworth physically trapped Dr. Neal in his office and refused to allow him to leave, resulting in a hefty sum being paid to Dr. Neal. Also, the fact that Mr. Miller can be heard on audio recording telling the Board that they do not have to be transparent with their constituents, and the use of apps that delete communications to circumvent the Open Meetings Laws. It is obvious to me that these heinous behaviors are utilized to achieve an equally immoral goal of ensuring that each student and staff member in our schools thinks, believes, and acts as this Board does. This is also evidenced through the board pushing their religious and political beliefs onto our school community, censoring or limiting access to ideas, beliefs, and perspectives that are different than their own, limiting self-expression, and their apparent attempts to end critical thinking, civic participation, and supports for those students outside what they consider the norm. In my mind if these goals were met, children would either 1) become white supremacist and exhibit cult like behavior, incapable of critical thought, or 2) if not white, straight, Christian, or otherwise willing to go along with the demands of this board, they would learn to hate themselves. With no mental health support to help them overcome the damage done by this type of group thinking that the board wishes to impose on students, the outcomes will be catastrophic for our young people. I entered education with the belief that ALL children contain infinite potential and worth, and therefore, deserve an equitable education that honors their unique identities, personalities, gifts, cultures, and families. I also believe, and have witnessed, that the world is a better place when the next generation is taught to think for themselves and challenge the status quo. Therefore, I cannot ethically or in good conscience commit to helping this BOE achieve their goals.
The second most recent occurrence that has led to my final decision to resign, is the announcement by the district that they would be buying memberships into the Professional Association of Colorado Educators (PACE). Upon being informed of this I immediately reached out to Mrs. Gonzales to ask if I would be able to opt out of this membership, to which I was informed that the district would be paying for the membership regardless. In my opinion, this is contrary to the freedom that this BOE touts as one of their main beliefs. While PACE may claim to be a “non-union” and non-partisan, they are an association just like the Woodland Park Educator’s Association (WPEA). They lobby at the state capital for change, and their parent organization lobbies at the Capitol. Members pay dues to pay for these activities to take place. They are a union. But unlike WPEA, the district is forcing all WPSD staff into membership into this union. A union that lobbies for the defunding of traditional public education under the guise of “school choice,” much like this BOE is currently doing, the end of SEL and a focus on
mental health in schools, and the end of collective bargaining for teachers. These are all beliefs that do not align with my values. As a result, I will not have my name added to PACE’s membership roster, nor monies paid on my behalf to further their political agendas. To be clear, Woodland Park School District, its Board of Education, or any of the district’s representatives do not have my consent to give PACE, or any affiliated individuals or organizations, my personal information, including my name, nor give PACE, or any affiliated individuals or organizations, monies on my behalf. If the PACE memberships will be bought prior to the final date of my contract, and WPSD is inclined to give my information as a current employee, my last day of employment will be the day prior to any such membership being bought.
In closing, I would just like to say that I feel an immense amount of gratitude for my years as an educator in Woodland Park School District. Administrators such as Yvonne Going, Erin Street, Nicole Geniesse, Kevin Burr, and Tina Cassens challenged me to always do what is best for students, to partner with parents every step of the way, to value data over opinion or any personal bias, and to constantly reflect in an effort to be better than I was the day before. My colleagues supported me in my endeavor to be the best educator I could be, because that is what our students deserved, and lifted me up in ways too numerous to count when life threw curveballs. I am grateful for the families I was lucky enough to partner with, who trusted me as a professional with their children and refused to settle for anything other than seeking their children’s highest potential. Last, but definitely not least, I am grateful for my students, who, little did they know, were teaching me far more than is likely I taught them, and who I am a better person for having gotten to know, and for getting a front row seat to watch grow. I hope that my, and other WPSD staffs’, unwavering belief in them will be more prominent than any of the indoctrination and thought-limiting policies and ideas this board forces upon them.
Prior to this Board of Education and its current representatives, Woodland Park School District, was a wonderful place to work, live, and grow. We strived every day to see, hear, and love each and every child, and I watched them bloom in incredible ways as a result. I am thankful for those years and look forward to that work continuing in communities across the state and nation as nearly half of the Panther staff find new homes to do this work without the immoral, criminal, fear-cultivating behavior of this Board of Education and its representatives.
Laura O’Connell