Leaders Accept Resignation from Former Board President; Continue Search for new Superintendent
Trevor Phipps
The Woodland Park RE-2 School District Board of Education has completed a 360-degree political turn, with the well-known president of the previous board calling it quits.
With the resignation of Mick Bates, the last member of the old guard and a local GOP leader with strong community ties, the new board, with three new members getting elected last November, is now in complete charge. The change is pretty dramatic considering the makeup of the board several years ago, with majority members endorsing an extremely conservative stance on such issues as parental choice, academic standards, mental health and charter school institutions. Their stand was part of a national movement that vastly altered school politics in the Pikes Peak region.
Mick Bates was first appointed to the school board in 2023 after former board director Chris Austin resigned
Bates then ran for the 2023 election with fellow conservative candidates David Illingworth and Cassie Kimbrell. Kimbrell and Bates were both elected to the board in fairly close elections.
After Bates was elected to his seat in November 2023, he was promptly voted to replace David Rusterholtz as school board president. During the two years Bates served as school board president, the board made some controversial decisions that divided the community.
A Tumultuous Time as Board President
As a result, Bates endured a tumultuous time as board president.
After the 2023 election, Gateway Elementary was closed, and middle school students were sent to the high school building. The conservative school board also received scrutiny for refusing a grant for mental health services and implementing the somewhat controversial American Birthright Curriculum.
Further eyebrows were raised when the conservative school board rushed in the Merit Academy Charter School. The board rapidly approved the charter agreement and then booted sixth graders back to the district’s elementary schools so that Merit Academy could take half of the middle school building. The next year, middle schoolers were moved into the high school so that Merit could take over the whole former middle school building.
More scrutiny of the school district then occurred, following the Woodland Park City Council elections in 2024. Newly elected city council members quickly started pressing the school district to show transparent records of how a 1.09 city sales tax increase to benefit the district, previously okayed by the voters, was being spent.
The council sought more transparent financial records from the school district. The situation then came to a climax in 2025, when the council learned that the district planned to sell the former middle school building to the Merit Academy.
The city council then held an emergency meeting and voted unanimously to end the voter-approved school sales tax increase given to the district. Former district superintendent Ken Witt resigned the day after the sales tax was eliminated.
However, the push to make the former middle school building the permanent home of Merit Academy continued. Several efforts were made to sell or extend the lease of the building to Merit Academy shortly before the new school board was sworn in.
At the same time, Bates and his supporters have touted some positive development during the previous school board’s rein. The district experienced significant academic improvements, ranking 29th out of 169 districts in 2024. They also gave teachers significant raises when they were first elected. Plus, the Merit Academy continued to draw much support.
School Board Seeking New Director and Superintendent
However, political times significantly changed once Board of Education Directors Kassidi Gilgenast, Carol Greenstreet and Laura Gordon easily defeated three candidates, who sided with the previous, more conservative school board, by a substantial margin. Once the election results were finalized, some citizens at a public meeting called for Bates to resign.
After the election, Keegan Barkley was voted as school board president, but Bates remained on the board. But then during a meeting in December, Bates tried to support appointing Ginger Slocum, the interim superintendent for the full superintendent position, to save money.
The other board members refused to follow this recommendation and voted to continue the superintendent search. Bates then publicly commented that there was no point in him serving on the board any longer. His recent decision to step down wasn’t that surprising, according to political insiders.
Bates officially resigned from the board on January 7. He didn’t attend the most recent monthly board meeting on Jan. 14, when his resignation was officially accepted.
During this meeting, the board agreed to open up applications for the open school board seat and accept them until Jan. 30. The applicants will then be invited to be interviewed by the board during a special meeting on Feb. 4.
During the last school board meeting, the recruiting firm aiding the district in a search for superintendent gave a lengthy presentation. The district plans on picking several candidates, and then receiving feedback from community members and district staff.
The district started their search for a new superintendent after Ken Witt resigned last April. Aaron Salt briefly served as interim superintendent until he resigned last year. Since then, Ginger Slocum has served as interim superintendent, while the search for a permanent boss continues.
In another decision that clashed with actions of the previous board, the new RE-2 leaders decided to part ways with the district’s former attorney, Brad Miller. In making this decision, the board indicated that Miller had a poor record defending the district. They opted for finding new legal counsel to represent the school district.
In their search for a new attorney, the board recently announced they have narrowed their search down to about three finalists.
In the next coming months, changes made by the new school board will start to surface. For starters, the district will have a new attorney, and it could have a new superintendent as well in the coming months.
