After giving Ken Witt a 10% raise this year and a guaranteed 5% minimum raise in following years, the Woodland Park School District announced they were “proud” to announce pay raises for educators ranging from 2-3.4%, with an average pay increase of 2.5%. Read the press release here. This means teacher pay will start at $43,000, which is an improvement but still the lowest in the area:
WPSD has also implemented a performance-based pay scale, a controversial plan that Ken Witt first tried when he was on the school board in Jefferson County many years ago (before getting recalled from that position). This new pay scale gives inexperienced teachers a higher raise than experienced ones, and it’s not clear how they’ll fairly judge each teacher’s performance given the huge variables out of their control. Here’s how the district describes the plan:
Interestingly, the school board never discussed this performance-based pay plan in any public meeting.
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.
My name is Ben Honeycutt. I became a teacher because I was driven to be someone who could be there every day for my students. I taught at Woodland Park Middle School (WPMS) for five years.
— Read on benhoneycutt.com/journals/on-the-eve-of-election-day
The response from the board and superintendent Ken Witt has been foul. Thursday evening, the district issued this press release:
It continues to disappoint us to see the teachers union prioritize its political views over the needs of students. If the energy they invest in attacking the Woodland Park School District (WPSD) administration and school board was instead turned towards academics, there would not be a need for the board to direct implementation of sound and fundamental educational standards.
This “teacher press conference” appears to be another union tactic to again dredge up issues that have been thoroughly addressed. These union affiliates are engaging in political maneuvering when the focus should be on the education and safety of our students, which they claim to care deeply about. We are equally disappointed but unsurprised to see CBS choose to be a platform for union opposition to the improvement of education in Woodland Park, enthusiastically seeking to assist in the union opposition to our school board.
Yes, this district adopted a traditional framework for civics and social studies – because we had to realign from courses such as “civil disobedience” and statements by the teachers union in Colorado that they disavow Capitalism, the free market which makes this nation the envy of the world, while they quip communist tropes. And yes, we still ensure we meet or exceed Colorado state standards.
Our community is tired of teachers believing they have the authority to determine what is taught. This is the responsibility of the people, through their elected representatives, the board of education. The concept of teacher supremacy over the rights of parents, voters, and even representative democracy must be rejected.
Yes, we declined some money earmarked for mental health services, which are often utilized for gender confusion and sexual identity matters instead of the sort of counseling and character development that our schools ought to pursue. We are returning to pre-COVID norms, focusing on teaching academics rather than loading the system with so many social workers and mental health practitioners that little time is left for learning. We have a counselor in every school and teachers who are trusted adults and watchful for students needing additional support. We also forged a new partnership with Mindsight this year to ensure we have all mental health support needed.
This district aims to design policies that uphold a respectful working and learning environment while fully honoring First Amendment rights. It is important to emphasize that WPSD does not seek to suppress anyone’s First Amendment rights. Nevertheless, it is expected that all district employees conduct themselves professionally and portray the district aims positively when working in their capacity as employees, where they have a role as representatives of WPSD.
We recognize that there continue to be staff members who seek to pursue goals related to unorthodox worldviews that run counter to the values of this community, but we are adamant that the role of the school is to come alongside parents in the education of their children. It is not the role of the school to be endorsing ideologies or undermine the values taught in the home. This administration proudly acknowledges the accomplishments which this small group of union-affiliated individuals decry. Their proposed alternative, a return to sexual politics, anti-capitalism, and hatred for America, is unacceptable to the administration of this school district, our board, and our community.
Ken Witt, Superintendent Woodland Park School District
That’s Ken Witt, accusing our teachers of proposing ” a return to sexual politics, anti-capitalism, and hatred for America”!
Then today, this email was sent to parents:
Dear WPSD Families,
A false narrative is spreading through the Woodland Park community via a campaign of fear-mongering, claiming that the adoption of the American Birthright standard somehow jeopardizes NCAA accreditation of courses and implies that courses are not meeting Colorado Academic standards. This is patently false.
WPSD fully meets or exceeds Colorado Academic standards, and so courses have no real risk of losing NCAA accreditation. All WPSD courses are and will continue to be accredited. The district notes that adding the American Birthright standards has exposed a number of gaps in the previous civics and social studies content and has both resulted in the creation of a new course, World Geography, as well as the addition of the contributions of a large number of significant historical figures that had been overlooked.
The addition of the American Birthright standard to supplement the Colorado Academic standards has improved the depth and breadth of WPSD civics and social studies instruction, to the irritation of those teachers union affiliates bent on fostering a hatred of America in our youth.
Again, accusing teachers of being “bent on fostering a hatred of America in our youth.”
It’s absolutely unreal to hear a superintendent, with no objection from our board, speak about our beloved teachers in this manner.
Teachers and community members (and I believe four press cameras) crowded the Ute Pass Cultural Center this evening to protest the actions taken by the Woodland Park School Board and the Superintendent, Ken Witt. 81 staff members signed a letter of protest, which you can read here (page 1,page 2).
What the teachers did by speaking out appears to be in direct violation of district policy KDDA, and is similar to what Mary Ward was fired for earlier this year. The district is currently involved in a lawsuit brought against them by the WPEA regarding, among other things, that policy. Staff I spoke to expressed uncertainty and even fear about how Ken Witt and the school board will respond to them speaking out like this.
Full video:
The next board meeting (and last scheduled one before the election) is Wednesday, October 11th, 6:00PM.
Many community members have been concerned about the effect this board and superintendent might have on the staff in the district…we all asked, how many would leave after this past school year? And would the district be able to replace them (as it turns out, it’s having a hard time of that part, with 16 teacher positions still unfilled at this moment). I wanted to get the facts out on this topic, but found it surprisingly difficult to get a concrete number. So let me explain the data I’m about to present.
At first, myself and others tracked resignations via word of mouth, but I quickly realized that was unreliable data. So, the data here depends almost exclusively on the meeting minutes from board meetings going back to December (those meeting minutes include staff resignations, retirements, and new hires). The only exception is some resignations announced since the last board meeting in June. Staff hired anytime in 2023 have not been included in these calculations.
The other side of it, and an unexpected complication, was determining exactly how many people actually work in the district. For that we scraped data from the district website at the end of February, and combined it with a more comprehensive data set that was obtained towards the end of the school year. That last data set quickly proved to be too broad, including some people no longer with the district, and some known substitute teachers.
Bottom line is, this data is 99% accurate but may have an error or two. If the district publishes their own data, I’ll readily post an update to these numbers. Also, there may yet be further resignations before the new school year starts, so final numbers will be posted in late August. Lastly, I thought it useful to show two bits of data…the percent of teachers leaving the school at the end of last year, as well as the overall percent of staff (including teachers) leaving.
That said, how have the board and superintendent’s actions impacted staffing levels in our district? I found it most useful to break this down on a school by school basis. As you can see, a Summit and Columbine have weathered this storm well. Gateway is absolutely devastated…the school that received the Governor’s Distinguished Improvement Award this past spring is effectively an all-new school this year. The middle school and high school also each lost a very large percentage.
Of course, the question on everyone’s mind is, is this normal?
Insiders tell me it’s far from normal, but I do like data, so I dove into the data the CDE makes readily available and came up with a chart. It shows turnover is typically around 15-19%, and there was a weird spike in the COVID years – I don’t know what to make of that, except that those years were full of abnormalities across this country in societal trends (and with remote learning that year, I suspect many of the district positions were cut? I’m not certain). With the COVID year uncertainty, I instead compare this past year with the years previous, which shows the fears of a teacher exodus were well founded (last year was showing a small uptick, but nothing compared to this year).
To interpret that data – when it says ’23-24 compared with ’22-23, what that means is how many teachers or staff in the ’22-23 school year did not return for the ’23-24 school year.
Once the school year starts, we’ll have a final tally and I’ll update this then.
To protect teacher privacy, I will not be releasing my spreadsheet summary of the data as it includes all staff names, but I will share it with any legitimate reporters who are interested. You can reach me using the contact form on this website.
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).
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.
The teacher pipeline is no longer leaking. With enrollment in traditional teacher education programs declining nationwide in the past few years, it is drying up at an alarming rate.
As the nation grapples with the profound effects these challenges have on school communities, the term “learning loss” has made its way into the spotlight. This term is commonly used in stories detailing what children across America lost during remote learning. It focuses primarily on how students have fallen behind in core academic areas such as reading and math, which is of course a critical issue. The trouble is, the term doesn’t represent the complexity of what students, families and school communities experience with teacher turnover.
— Read on www.edsurge.com/news/2023-05-05-what-s-lost-when-a-teacher-leaves-a-school
An anonymous letter from a Woodland Park school district teacher was recently posted to the Concerned Parents of Teller County Facebook group…I’m reposting here:
I could write a novel about the things I didn’t know I was signing up for when I became a teacher. I didn’t have a clue that I’d spend nights awake worrying about my kids, or that I would have days that I would leave work too physically and mentally exhausted to function. I didn’t know how extensive the paperwork, planning time, and meetings would be. We are always working overtime and we often skip lunch/bathroom breaks because there is not enough time. Teachers turn the other cheek constantly and give students, co-workers and parents fresh starts everyday. Most of these things are not typed up in the job description when you apply for a teaching job. A job that starts out at around $40,000-45,000 a year for the record.
This job is hard. It is exhausting under normal circumstances. BUT it becomes impossible, infuriating, and quite frankly, DEGRADING when unqualified officials take over and use their power to destroy a school system.
It’s clear to most rational community members that the board has a political/religious agenda and wants to profit off of Merit. However, what is less apparent is how it is affecting the students lives. Teachers have to follow confidentiality rules. We can’t share heartbreaking stories about the students that will get left behind in public school. Not every student has parents to fight for them and not every family has the ability to choice their kids into other districts. We also can’t share information on the amount of kids that have come back to public schools after attending Merit. Some of which are students whose IEPs haven’t been served correctly. The kids that will be left behind in the public school system after all this will largely be the students that live in poverty, have behavior needs or IEPs.
What drew me to this profession was making a difference in kids lives. You get to show up for kids in really tough situations. I fell in love with reading books to students, sharing laughs about the silly things they say and watching the progress they make- not just as learners, but as humans. In this job, you get to share moments with kids at the most magical time of their lives. At this point in their lives they are still quick to forgive, they are incredibly resilient, they love to have fun, and they build relationships based on nothing other than how you treat them. The kids are what makes it worth it.
As teachers, we learn to be solution oriented. I am struggling to find ways to fix the mess that has been created by Ken Witt, the board, and Charis Bible college. If they respected teachers enough to ask, these would be the solutions I would share.
To the parents of students in the school system and the community members:
Please keep speaking out on social media and at board meetings.
If you have kids with special needs research your rights and speak up. Check out this link if you want more information on how charters affect kids on IEPs. https://exceptionalchildren.org/…/Public%20Funds%20…
You can write to government officials and speak to the press.
To the board members and superintendent:
I challenge you to spend time in the classrooms. Sit with students and talk to them about what they like about their schools.
Shadow a teacher and see what they do in a single day while you spend an absurd amount of money on lunch.
Try going to counseling. Some SEL could teach you a lot.
Please understand your political agenda may help your career but it is RUINING kids lives.
Keep in mind there’s separation of church and state for a reason.
Ask yourself, do you truly think what you are doing is in the best interest of the kids in Woodland park? Because they are pretty important to our future.
To the teachers that are staying:
Keep fighting for kids. I thank you for what you are doing for the people in this community. You have one of the hardest jobs in the world and I am in awe of you.
