We students are tired of being swept aside like we don’t matter. — Ericka Nicols
Woodland Park School District has gone off the rails.
The new superintendent and school board members think that’s a good thing, as they say those rails — mainstream public educational practices — were not properly educating their children. Many students, teachers and parents have protested the new policies and see this as an extremist right-wing takeover.
Woodland Park is a few miles west of The Bulletin’s regular coverage area. But the fallout from the district’s new policies is affecting Manitou Springs and other nearby school districts. An open-records request revealed that 49 students have left Woodland Park to choice into Manitou Springs District 14. Nearly half of Woodland Park High School teachers and staffers have quit or been fired.
Woodland Park Superintendent Ken Witt isn’t worried.
“While it is natural that during times of significant change, such as this time of refocusing on academic success in Woodland Park School District, that some may be disquieted,” he wrote in an email.
“I am confident that the majority of Woodland Park families have long awaited the leadership this board of education and district are showing. Woodland Park is becoming a destination school district for the area.”
When Witt talks about significant change, here are the two changes that are causing the most stir:
The adoption of the American Birthright social studies curriculum, developed by the national conservative Civics Alliance, was one. In fact, Woodland Park is the first U.S. school district to adopt the curriculum. Witt had been the school board president in Jefferson County and was recalled along with two other board members for trying to inject this kind of patriotism into history classes.
American Birthright, as you might expect from the name, is long on patriotism and American exceptionalism and short on the Holocaust, equity, inclusion and civic engagement.
In October, a proposal to the Colorado Board of Education suggested replacing the approved state social studies curriculum with American Birthright. The board reviewed the curriculum and rejected it as “too extreme,” saying it did not give a full, accurate examination of American history.
Another major change of district policy was the reduction of traditional student support. Witt suspended the pursuit of $1.2 million in grants for support services. That would have covered 15 salaried employees, including career and college readiness specialists, counselors and social workers.
“We are not the Department of Health and Human Services,” Witt told Gateway Elementary School staffers in March.
He said the new district priority is academic achievement, and that emotional support was largely the purview of parents.
Ericka Nicols, a sophomore who spoke at the last school board meeting, sees it differently.
“I had a school therapist. Now I don’t,” she said as she waited in line for the district offices to open. “It makes me just not wanna get up in the morning. I need this help. My friends need this help. They aren’t getting that, and it’s really upsetting.
“We students are tired of being swept aside like we don’t matter,” she said. “We deserve better.”
The district’s new leaders stress that student mental health remains a priority, and they point out that every school has a salaried counselor to meet any mental health needs.
Students staged a protest in December to speak out against the new changes. Teachers have railed against the changes to the media, notably NPR and NBC News.
But both Witt and School Board Vice President David Illingworth frame most of this issue as a case of teachers’ unions gone wild.
“I wasn’t elected to please the teachers’ union and their psycho agenda against academic rigor, family values, and even capitalism itself,” Illingworth wrote in an email to NBC News. “I was elected to bring a parent’s voice and a little common sense to the school district, and voters in Woodland Park can see I’ve kept my promises.”
At the June 14 Woodland Park School Board meeting, angry students, parents and teachers started lining up in the rain at 12:30 p.m. for a meeting that didn’t start until 6.
They say they lined up early because many were shut out of the last meeting, as a good portion of the seats were taken by adult students from the nearby campus of Charis Bible College, an international ministry that has been flexing its political muscle in Woodland Park.
The Charis students said that, although most of them didn’t have students in the district, they were there to defend American values. After the opening recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, the Charis students, in unison, shouted, “We love America!”
One of their number spoke during the meeting’s public-input portion about violent, extreme radicals, communists and socialists taking over our schools.
After he was done, Logan Ruths, the district’s information technologist who’d been fired after fulfilling a media records request, asked, “Where else do you do your comedy act?” A flippant, combative exchange with board members ensued, and Ruths was removed.
What Witt described as “disquieted” looked like an uprising, at least among the parents, students and staff at the meeting.
A Facebook group, Concerned Parents of Teller County, has become a virtual meeting place, where those who feel disenfranchised can share their feelings and plan next steps, including the support of three new board members up for election in November.
Several parents and staff in that group spoke about their departure from the Woodland Park School District.
“I left the district (as an elementary teacher), accepted a job in MSSD, and moved both of my kids there as well, due to the negative impacts of the Board of Education,” said Audra Kludt Maruszak.
“I’m the Youth Services manager for the Rampart Library District and have known these teachers and students for over 18 years,” said Julie Wood Wilson. “What’s happening up there is like something out of a dystopian nightmare.”
“I looked into choicing out my two students and even homeschooling,” said mother Bridget Curran. “This BOE and superintendent have used politics and religion to change the direction of our school district. Public education is supposed to be inclusive to ALL students, not just straight cis white Christians.
“The treatment of our beloved staff and educators is appalling. If I had the resources and time needed, my kids would go elsewhere. Because we don’t have that luxury, reluctantly, we have re-enrolled. My only hope for the children and staff is a November turnout that removes three board directors.”
The exodus from Woodland to Manitou has already filled up some grades in District 14, and teachers are bracing for classes filled to capacity.
“Our class sizes will be bigger for sure,” said Sue Spengler, an English teacher at Manitou Middle School. “I’m curious (and a little worried) to see class sizes for next year. But with each student comes PPR (state funding), so districts are happy to have them. Because, money. Ultimately, the ones who suffer are the children, who get uprooted from communities to which they belong, and that’s the biggest tragedy.”
“Manitou Springs School District 14 is pleased to provide our district and out-of-district choice families with the best place to send their students to learn,” said Sean Dorsey, the new superintendent in Manitou.
“Moreover, we encourage parents and community members to be highly engaged in their local school district. Meaningful stakeholder engagement often drives high-performing schools. Manitou Springs School District 14 provides a number of outlets for purposeful stakeholder involvement and input, including serving on School Accountability Committees, as well as our District Advisory and Accountability Committee.”
Steven Pittz, a political science professor at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, has seen how the Woodland Park School District is making national news, and he sees it as a radical move.
But, he says, another way to look at it is that conservatives may have long felt like political refugees from a liberal public school system.
“So, now in Woodland Park, it’s turned the other way,” he said. “But this move seems tough because it’s the whole district.”
That leaves many families with few choices. Granted, Woodland Park has always been a conservative town. But these moves by the new district leadership, particularly a social studies curriculum that discourages civic engagement, has felt extreme, even for many Republican residents.
“They’re trying to push a certain agenda down to these kids,” Amy Schommer, a mother in Woodland Park, told NBC News. “I’m a conservative, but I’m not against my kids learning something they disagree with. They’re trying to fix problems that don’t exist here.”
The Colorado Board of Education told district leaders they had until the fall of 2024 to submit a curriculum that meets state standards.
Their response:
“While American Birthright is not adequate as a curriculum in itself, the Woodland Park School District has adopted American Birthright as a curriculum guidance, against which we will review, select and potentially develop instructional materials to use in the classroom.
“This curriculum guidance, along with our additional district requirements for education on the Holocaust and financial literacy, will ensure our curriculum meets or exceeds state standards.”
If the new curriculum fails to meet state standards, the state board lacks the authority to enforce sanctions or penalties.