On March 7, City Council met to vote on the ordinance to repeal the sales tax allocated to our local school district. This ordinance, as readers may recall, was introduced by councilmember Carrol Harvey under false pretenses. She said that the board of education had stonewalled council’s attempts to meet and discuss the intergovernmental agreement between the city and the school district. Leaked emails show that the district was responsive to council to meet – and it was council’s staff that dropped the ball. Another email shows that Harvey received the financial information she has been claiming that the district has been holding back from her in June of last year.

Last week, city council met with the board of education to hammer out the details of the IGA. The meeting went well. The board of education agreed to pay an increase in fees to cover the city’s expenses related to the pass-through text. They also offered to provide financial information in addition to what has already been provided both on district websites and upon request. Essentially, the city got everything they wanted, and few details were left to hammer out.

Fast forward to the meeting on March 7, and the egos of City Council were on full display. Carrol Harvey claimed that the screws still had to be turned on the district because the financial information she previously lied about not receiving was insufficient. Note that when Harvey received the information last year, she expressed satisfaction to the district’s CFO in an email. Council member Rusty Neal stated that he had gone into the session with the intention to pull over $3 million from students and teachers in our district because he wasn’t informed that the district was going to make a facilities decision that week. In the same statement, Neal acknowledged that the district’s internal decisions were none of his business, but that he was tempted to pull funding from teachers and students because he was not informed ahead of time. Only councilmembers Robert Zuluaga and Frank Connors stood up for your children, and their funding.

The board of education has already come to the table and agreed to council’s terms. If funding is pulled at this point, note that it will be because of the fragile egos of city council members. Will laying off teachers and defunding our local school district be this council’s legacy? Council will now wait to vote on this ordinance until March 21, leaving teachers more time to worry about whether they will face a layoff or a pay cut, and leaving students and parents unsure as to whether their education will be properly funded. Just know that the only thing that stands between layoffs, pay cuts and decreased funding to your kids at this point, is a few egos on city council. Email Rusty Neal rneal@city-woodlandpark.org, Kellie Case kcase@city-woodlandpark.org, Catherine Nakai cnakai@city-woodlandpark.org, Hilary LaBarre hlabarre@city-woodlandpark.org, Carrol Harvey charvey@city-woodlandpark.org.