Following a City Council decision that lost Woodland Park’s school district more than $3 million in annual funding, talks to sell district property to its charter school are now being reconsidered.

Woodland Park RE-2 Interim Superintendent Aaron Salt began his tenure by addressing public fervor and beginning efforts to navigate a budget shortfall during the Board of Education’s March 12 regular meeting.

Salt was announced as the interim superintendent in a statement released March 7 announcing former superintendent Ken Witt’s resignation.

In an email sent out to school district staff on March 11, it was announced by administration that Witt’s final day as superintendent was pushed up to that day, and that Salt would begin serving as the interim superintendent the next day.

Ahead of his superintendent report, he expressed his gratitude to the board for the opportunity and addressed the public by saying he aims to regain their trust and rebuild the district’s reputation.

“I understand that there’s been a lot of broken trust over the last few years and I am committed to working to help restore that,” he said.

“I know that I will not be a long-term solution here…but while I’m here, I’m gonna work to do everything that I can to restore the reputation of this district in the community.”

Given the large number of people in attendance who signed up for public comments, the board opted to extend its public comment portion of the meeting to allow all 24 speakers to speak.

Most speakers used their allotted time to express their disappointment with the loss of the sales tax, frustrations with most of the board members and delight with Witt’s resignation, with many adding that board members should follow suit.

During the meeting, Salt provided an update on the new agreement with Cripple Creek-Victor and the Ute Pass BOCES, announced the renaming of one of their schools to Woodland Park Junior-Senior High School and said that he had posted the job opening for chief financial officer.

Salt has been the COO for the district since 2023 and is also the current president of both Academy School District 20’s board of education and the Pikes Peak Library District’s board of trustees.

Merit Academy

The topic that dominated talks in the meeting – and the catalyst for the district losing the sales tax – was the possibility of selling the Merit Academy building owned by the district to the charter school. Late last week, a drafted resolution scheduled for the meeting was leaked that detailed how exactly the district would sell the building.

Among the conditions detailed in the resolution, the facility would be sold for at least $5 million at 2.5% simple interest and the district would give the building to Merit Academy if Woodland Park’s city council reduced or repealed the local 1.09% sales tax earmarked for public schools over the next 30 years.

When city council members learned of the resolution, an emergency meeting was called and the tax – which contributed over $3 million to the school district’s budget – was repealed. Various council members and members of the public said that the resolution was the latest example of the school district acting in bad faith.

Ahead of the council’s vote, RE-2 board president Mick Bates said that resolution was mistakenly drafted as an action item for the meeting when it was supposed to be a discussion item and that it would get corrected ahead of the meeting.

The item was corrected and then removed completely from the agenda ahead of the meeting before getting put back on as a discussion item.

As to why the item was originally removed, Bates said that more time was needed to discuss their options regarding a sale given the funds that were recently lost and that the discussions would be done more publicly going forward.

“It’s going to be a process to see where we end up from where we are right now,” he said. “We’re going to work through that and have a plan as to how we’re going to move ahead. There is not currently a plan.”

Board member Keegan Barkley then pressed Bates on the drafting of the resolution since she and board secretary David Rusterholtz admitted they were unaware of it until March 7. She added that, upon learning of the resolution, she reached out to Bates asking him to change it to a discussion item.

Barkley added that this situation was the “final straw” in a series of other last-minute decisions by the district that culminated in losing the sales tax.

“So, we weren’t having these conversations in the proper forum. We were breaking our own public policy by having those conversations not in the public forum and that is unacceptable,” she said.

The district’s policy on agenda planning and board meetings states that regular meeting agendas be prepared by the board’s president and the district superintendent at least one week prior to the meeting. Additionally, any board member wishing to add items to the agenda can present it to the board president at least 24 hours prior to the agenda setting meeting and at least 48 hours prior to the board meeting.

Bates would admit that “there were discussions behind the scenes” regarding the resolution that involved Witt, the district’s lawyer Brad Miller, board director Suzanne Patterson and board vice president Cassie Kimbrell. Kimbrell would later reveal that Witt was the one who wrote the resolution.

Merit Academy was originally authorized by the Education reEnvisioned Board of Cooperative Educational Services – a BOCES with Witt as its executive director intended to expand access to innovative education options – in 2021 before getting approved in RE-2 the following year.

The school would share building space at the Woodland Park Middle School facility during the 2023-24 school year. When the district decided to move all of its middle schoolers to the high school to improve the efficiency of the building space, Merit became the only occupants starting last fall.

Barkley later suggested that this item get tabled until the district finds its new superintendent and chief financial officer while other board members believed that they could address Merit Academy’s future during this same time.

The board agreed to revisit the issue in the coming weeks through work sessions and special meetings open to the public.

Superintendent search

Another item added to the agenda was how the board will proceed with selecting its new superintendent.

Bates said that this item was also left off the agenda since the original plan was to have a transitional period between Witt and Salt and that the only data they had to work with was from past superintendent searches.

“Nothing has been done towards that effort because it wasn’t as urgent the first of the week. So, no plans have been made,” he said.

He added that hiring a new CFO and grant writer took precedence at this time, while Barkley argued that they make a concerted effort to hire the best candidate for the district.

The board discussed a more comprehensive process for the search like hiring an independent firm and gathering community input through the district’s accountability committee, teachers, principals and local business owners.

They also agreed to update the job description and qualifications for their superintendents going forward, such as requiring them to be a community resident.

Audit update

The district’s contract chief financial officer Courtney Crouch provided a brief update on the audit released earlier that month and proposed how she and the district might address its recommendations going forward.

While admitting that the independent auditors themselves would be best suited to answer questions regarding their findings, she said that she would pull from her experience working with other school districts to address them.

Solutions mentioned included identify and address hiring gaps to ensure correct, accurate accounting, restructure the district’s business department to improve productivity and present monthly financial updates to the board to demonstrate transparency.

“It will take some time and there are a number of issues that will probably take more time than where we will end up being by the end of time this audit year closes,” she said.

Her answers garnered applause and approval from those in the audience.

Regarding the absence of the auditors, Barkley said that she had reached out to them directly who told her they offered to present their report at the previous board meeting, but were told not to come.

Salt stated that he and Crouch had already begun to meet with school principals to identify the resolutions to the district’s budgets for the current year and for next year.

Following a suggestion by Barkley, he said he would also explore the cost of conducting a forensic audit to absolve the district of any potential fraud.