Former Board Firing its Final Shots Over Building Agreement
Trevor Phipps
The outgoing school board of education in the RE-2 Woodland Park District may be departing this week, but they are not leaving without a fight, or making a tussle, at least when it comes to finalizing a planned long-term lease agreement with Merit Academy for a building that once housed the middle school.
A week before election day, the Woodland Park RE-2 School District Board of Education called a special meeting to discuss the signing of a 30-year lease on the Merit Academy facility, a lively session that ended with no decisions rendered. At the same time, plenty of questions were raised regarding a previous plan for the Merit agreement. This deal would transfer the financial burden and responsibility for maintenance and repairs of the school building to Merit Academy through a long-term, 30-year lease. Based on earlier forums, it was intended to allow Merit to secure funding for necessary facility upgrades that the district can’t afford. As a result, Merit would get the building basically for free, but it would have to foot the bill for the improvements.
The former board, according to insider reports, still wanted to finalize this issue before the new cadre of leaders get sworn in on Wednesday (see related election story).
During the earlier Oct. 30 meeting, board members and district staff cited several issues with the wording of the proposed lease, and suggested that it favored the Merit Academy too much, to the determent of the RE-2 School District. The board chose to table the lease, following another marathon session, and one highlighted by huge concerns voiced by the district’s chief financial officer.
School board president Mick Bates started the meeting clearing up some what he called “misinformation” surrounding the residency of three school board members. In the days leading up to the meeting, multiple reports circulated on social media, and one new source developed, claiming that Board of Education directors David Rusterholtz and Suzanne Patterson had moved away and are no longer residents of the area. Other social media posts claimed that board member Cassie Kimbrell may have also left the area.
Bates called the claims rumors that simply weren’t true. “I can assure you that they are eligible,” Bates said. “There is very viable proof that they are all residents here.”
He said the meeting was called, following an earlier work session during which issues were raised about the lease.
Bates then introduced David Kuritar, the school district’s chief financial officer (CFO), to expand on some of these issues. Kuritar researched the financials of the district and Merit Academy to come up with a scenario, allowing the district to give the Merit Academy Charter School a 30-year lease on the former Woodland Park Middle School located at the intersection of Rampart Range and Kelly’s Roads.
Kuritar stressed that the future of Merit Academy’s charter institution is secure because it is very difficult for a school district to eliminate a charter school’s contract. During the school board races, some allegations surfaced that a few of the candidates wanted to oust the Merit Academy from the district property.
But the district’s CFO said it would be very difficult for the district to remove Merit Academy from its building. He said that if the district did that, it then would have to provide another building for the students.
Problem Issues with Lease Deal
While supporting the Merit Academy on its future as a valuable joint player and charter institution in the RE-2 School District, he outlined a number of problems with the proposed lease agreement.
Kuritar said that he was initially told that the district needed a 30-year contract in order to secure loans for capital improvements on the facility. He was then told the district needed to sign a 30-year lease with Merit for the former middle school building. Kuritar said that he professionally questioned this approach.
Kuritar also had issues with the drafting of the lease. He said that he understood former interim superintendent Aaron Salt deferred the writing of the lease to Merit Academy attorneys. This reportedly occurred just before Kuritar began his role as the district’s chief financial officer
“If that’s true, that was a major mistake on Aaron’s part,” Kuritar said. “As I have mentioned before, I have owned commercial property, and I would never let a tenant draft the lease.”
During his time with the district, Kuritar admits he has raised a red flag regarding this proposed agreement. “I kind of honestly felt the lease was offensive in a number of ways to put it politely,” Kuritar said at the Oct. 30 meeting.
After he red-lined the lease multiple times, he still wasn’t happy with the new version and thinks it needs to be re-worked again. He said that the district really needed an attorney other than Brad Miller, who is familiar with real estate law.
The district CFO said that he didn’t like parts of the lease that seemed to unevenly favor Merit Academy. He was also concerned about a clause that stated if they couldn’t fulfill their side of the lease due to financial reasons, they could sub-lease the building or parts of it to anyone they pleased without the district’s approval. “I’ll fight that all day,” Kuritar said
During the public comment portion of the meeting, the majority of the speakers spoke out against the district signing the 30-year lease. Many believed that 30 years was too long. Others said that the district should wait until after the election and a new school board signs in before making the decision on the lease.
A new school board was elected on Nov. 4 (see related article), a development that could result in changes within the district, and its relationship with Merit Academy. However, many residents now fear that the former board will try to get the new agreement signed before an official changing of the guard occurs.
