The last item the Woodland Park School District RE-2 Board of Education considered at a special meeting on Nov. 30 was the resignation of board secretary Chris Austin.

President David Rusterholtz said Austin had phoned him to resign prior to the meeting, but didn’t give a reason.

“I’ve known Chris (Austin) for several years,” Rusterholtz said. “He is a very good quality, man. I will miss him.”

“He was always prepared to advocate for his beliefs,” said Board Vice President David Illingworth II. “He was dedicated to the job.”

“I respected his experience,” said Director Suzanne Patterson. “He kept us in line.”

Director Cassie Kimbrell said she appreciated Austin’s ideas and thanked him for his service.

“He really advocates for the children in his pastoral job,” Rusterholtz added.

Austin was the sole incumbent on the board when Rusterholtz, Illingworth, Patterson and former school director Gary Brovetto were elected to it in November 2021, after campaigning together as a conservative bloc. Brovetto resigned in April. Kimbrell was appointed as his replacement in June.

The board voted unanimously to accept Austin’s resignation. The board must pass a resolution at the next special or regular meeting declaring a vacancy, then it will have 60 days to appoint a replacement.

In other business, Tom Sistare of Hoelting & Co. presented the 2022 fiscal year audit. He said district finances and internal processes are in good order.

Illingworth and Kimbrell updated the board on the interim superintendent search. The application period ended Nov. 29. Illingworth said the district received a “good number” of applications for the interim superintendent position, but wasn’t sure if he could legally say how many.

The board will review the applications and select some applicants for phone or Google Meet interviews. The timeline calls for naming the finalists at a special meeting on Dec. 7, two days after a Town Hall meeting on Dec. 5.

There will be a regular board meeting Dec. 14 and likely more special meetings before the board names the interim superintendent finalist on Dec. 21. At least one of these meetings, tentatively scheduled for Dec. 17, 19 or 20, will be a joint public meeting with the District Accountability Committee to conduct open interviews.

Kimbrell said this joint meeting will be scheduled on a date that won’t conflict with district holiday events. “We want as much participation as possible,” she said.

Rusterholtz said there could also be several executive sessions over the next few weeks, but assured those in the audience that no decisions will be made during these sessions, in accord with the Colorado Open Meetings Law.

At the Nov. 30 Woodland Park School District RE-2 special meeting, Chief of Staff Del Garrick uses a slide show to explain why the district mill levy will increase to 24.5 mills in 2023.

Norma Engelberg, Pikes Peak Courier

WPSD Chief of Staff Del Garrick, who is currently serving as co-superintendent as well, presented the mill levy certification report. He explained that the mill levy will increase by 1 mill to 24.5 mills, and added the increase is required by the state.

“In 1998, voters allowed the district to keep the mill levy at 34 mills,” he said, referring to the process of “de-Brucing,” a nod to Douglas Bruce, the former legislator, who authored the Colorado Taxpayer Bill of Rights. Without de-Brucing, TABOR would have required the district to refund excess tax revenues.

The state ratcheted back the mill levy, but the courts declared in 2020 that this was an error.

“Now the state target is 27 mills,” Garrick said. “We can only add one mill per year until we reach that target.”

The district gets to claim an annual tax credit, which drops each year as the mill levy inches closer to the target, he said.

The board can’t certify the mill levy until the county sends out its assessed valuation figures, but the levy must be certified by Dec. 15.

“It’s always a race,” Garrick said.

Tina Cassens, who currently serves as co-superintendent with Garrick and is also the district’s chief academic officer, and Woodland Park High School Assistant Principal Karen Hamlow presented the Summit Learning Platform transition overview.

Cassens said the goal is to minimize the “implementation dip” that always happens when a new curriculum is introduced. She indicated that student test scores in most instructional areas are significantly higher than the state average and she doesn’t want that to change.

Hamlow presented the platform’s strengths, including key instructional components, teacher and student coaching, customizable curriculum, a central entry point for all students and teachers in all subjects, real-time progress tracking and the Illustrative Mathematics software.

Cassens presented alternative recommendations. The math program can be bought separately but, for almost all the best alternatives, “bought” is the operative word.

The Summit Learning Platform is free, but Cassens estimated the cost of replacing its best components at about $2.37 million over three years. While Cassens and Hamlow looked at alternatives based on the platform’s strengths, Illingworth asked them to determine whether the alternatives would also address the platform’s weaknesses.

For Patterson, the main weakness is a perceived link with Facebook and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The platform was designed by teachers with help from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which is named after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s wife Priscilla Chan. The Gates Foundation, known locally for supplying the Rampart Library District with computers, is a major donor.

“Zuckerberg and Gates don’t do anything without a return on their investments,” Patterson said.

Patterson also said she is worried about online security.

Cassens responded that the platform takes student security very seriously. “I can find out more about students by Googling their name than I ever will on the platform,” she said.

The board members agreed that they needed time to process the information presented by Cassens and Hamlow before making a decision.

Cassens also presented preliminary results from a survey recently sent to district parents and staff. Already, more than 865 people have responded, which she said is the best response the district has ever received for a survey.

“We’re aiming at 1,000 responses,” she said. “A report on the full results will probably be available in January.”

Chris Austin