The roiling tension in Woodland Park over its charter school culminated Wednesday night when District RE-2’s board of education approved a contract renewal with Merit Academy at its regular board meeting.

The new contract is set to expire in 2055 and is intended to assist Merit Academy in funding various deferred maintenance and building upgrades. The charter school has resided in the former Woodland Park Middle School building since 2023 and began renting the building in 2024.

In a presentation to the board, the school district’s attorney Brad Miller said that the decades-long contract was to guarantee that Merit could secure long-term financing commitments for its projects beyond its per-pupil revenue from the state, which is prone to fluctuation and less guaranteed.

“They (Merit) would be liable for, in every respect, the maintenance, any upgrades, the repairs … and we don’t want to have to pay for those sorts of things,” he said. “And we don’t want our people to have to run over on a Saturday night and address a frozen pipe situation. We want them to have to be responsible for that.”

Board members and meeting attendees clashed on the details of the extension and the timing of the vote.

The contract extension first appeared as an action item on the board meeting agenda, despite off-and-on discussions on Merit Academy in recent months. It was only after the meeting began that a discussion item on the contract was added to the agenda.

Many who signed up for public comment championed Merit Academy’s academic achievements in recent years and the option for school choice provided by the district, and voiced their support of the contract. Others argued that the public wasn’t given proper notice of the decision and that the board didn’t sufficiently discuss this topic publicly.

The most recent board items concerning Merit Academy were an executive session on June 11, which wasn’t open to the public, and a joint meeting with the charter school’s leadership on March 31.

Earlier in March, Woodland Park’s city council unanimously voted to repeal a local sales tax for its public schools. The vote came shortly after councilmembers learned about a last-minute agenda item added to a school board meeting about selling Merit Academy their school building.

Board member Keegan Barkley agreed that she felt the decision was rushed to a vote, that the board had “a bad habit” of making decisions against community wishes and, since the previous contract was set to expire in 2027, they could afford to discuss this further in a future public meeting.

“And one conversation, I don’t think, is enough to write a 30-year contract,” she said.

Board member David Rusterholtz said that he would be open to another meeting with Merit Academy’s leadership to answer any questions the public still had to justify the 30-year contract, but added that he was also in favor of the contract presented.

Despite the discussion and these considerations, the board motioned the final vote on the contract. The motion passed 4-1, with Barkley being the only dissenting vote.

“Merit Academy is pleased with the decision as it now puts the Academy in a better position to offer the best possible educational experience for the long term,” a spokesperson for the school said in a public statement.

Immediately following the vote, the meeting room erupted with vocal responses, including Woodland Park resident Diane Reed calling the board “disgusting and a disgrace.”

“I am so embarrassed to be a part of this board,” Barkley said moments before the vote.

She left the meeting following the contract approval.