A Welcome Pledge for Better Transparency and Community Interaction Ensues
Tough Issues, Though, From the Past Remain
Trevor Phipps
Over the last four years, division within the Woodland Park community could be felt pretty much everywhere you went.
It was clear to travelers and locals that the national red versus blue battle had infiltrated our community. And instead of really affecting the governments of local municipalities, the chaos ensued within the Woodland Park RE-2 School District.
For four years, the school board was taken over by a group of board members that won elections, saying that they were running on the “conservative state.” They promised change for a community regarded as mostly conservative by promising to rid the school district of certain left-leaning ideologies. This helped them dominate two school board elections in a row.
Then during the stint, the district made national headlines as they seemed to battle a slew of lawsuits. Schools were shuttered and children were taken from their classrooms and put into other buildings, while many in the community blamed the board for favoring the new Merit Academy Charter School.
Meetings grew tense with many nearly turning into bare knuckle brawling matches. It seemed like everyone in town had an opinion one way or another. Reported fist fights did break out over yard signs.
But then when the most recent election occurred, the atmosphere appeared to change, which marked a good change. The election battle was not as intense. In the end, it revealed that the majority of the community wanted a change in guard. They were tired of all the noise. We welcome the change, but at the same time, hope the conflicting sides can come together more.
Earlier this month, the new school board held its first regularly scheduled board meeting. And a change was definitely apparent.
Instead of loud outbursts and regular gavel pounding, the crowd clapped and cheered as the new school board members spoke. There was a new positive aura surrounding the meetings, even though no big changes have been made yet.
On the downside, it did seem as if the school board didn’t exactly know where to start. Many subjects were discussed at the meeting, with no set conclusions. Some members said they wanted more information. The following are some highlights of recent discussions. Look for these topics to take center stage over the next few months. In TMJ’ view, the sooner some of these past conflicts can be put to bed, the better.
Superintendent Search Continues
Over the last four years two district superintendents and one interim boss all resigned. The district had been looking for potential candidates for the past several months while interim superintendent Ginger Slocum has taken the reins.
The search was however, put on pause until after the election. Then during the last meeting when the topic came up, former board president Mick Bates suggested that the district just keep Slocum in the job permanently to save the district more money to spend on recruiting.
But Bates’s requested was politely shutdown by the newly seated “Three Gs, (Carol Greenstreet, Kassidi Gilgenast and Laura Gordon) At the December meeting, Carol Greenstreet and Laura Gordon both said that while they thought Slocum was doing a great job, they wanted to continue the search to show the community that they weren’t just pushing someone into the position. They believed this was a pitfall the board pursued in the past.
The board then agreed to continue the search for superintendent to find the best candidate for the position. Slocum did say, though, that she had applied, and was still wanting to be considered for the permanent superintendent spot.
Financial Auditors Seeking More Research
Financial auditors have come to town and recently addressed the board with some of their preliminary findings. The auditors combed through the districts financials to see if they found any discrepancies.
In the end, the auditors did find some things that they raised big concerns about. There were credit card charges that didn’t have receipts with them. There were also charges to restaurants, which the auditors questioned.
One auditor said that he looked over several transactions and found things that resembled district employees buying themselves dinner (and maybe even alcohol) on the taxpayers’ dime. He also found credit card transactions from Amazon and Walmart, which took on the appearance of personal purchases.
“We look for anything regarding food that had a small balance because that is indicative of someone eating lunch alone on the school district’s dime,” the auditor reported. “Your district did have transactions that were like that. We did look for transactions that might be indicative of alcohol.
In the end,, the district auditors said they need more time (and money) to get to the bottom of some of the discrepancies they found. The board then agreed to pay another $10,000 to finish the audit report.
District Attorney Brad Miller Ousted
After years of residents blaming the district’s issues on their attorney Brad Miller, the new board didn’t waste any time giving him the boot. During their December meeting, the board met in executive session for negotiations and advice concerning their legal counsel.
New board director Kassidi Gilgenast reported that the board did a review of how the legal counsel (Attorney Brad Miller) has been representing the district. “A couple of things we noted in that review were significant expenses the district has incurred has a result of legal fees,” Gilgenast said. “In addition to that too, we have considered and evaluated performance of our counsel in terms of representation of the district in court. And that performance has been poor based on the records that we have.”
The board will now also be on the search for a new attorney to represent the district. They said they wanted to get three options to choose from. The board then called for a work session this week to address some of the issues that came up.
