Rescue our traditional public schools

At the September Truth & Liberty Conference in WP, Richard Harris, previous CEO and affiliate of Andrew Wommack/Charis, introduced speaker Ken Witt (our failed school superintendent) by saying “You don’t have to keep your kids locked in the secular, humanistic, indoctrination laboratory called public schools”. Adding “Ken is going to be presenting on what those options are…”

These appalling and hateful words, coming from a large religious entity in our town who purport to be “good neighbors”, are a relentless effort to destroy our traditional public school option and exactly describe Ken Witt’s motives during his time as Superintendent. This divisive political and religious rhetoric has to be addressed at the time of our November school board election.

Strong school are built on principles we all value – responsibility, accountability and respect for families. Parents should have open access to district records, taxpayers deserve fiscal stewardship and teachers need support to help every child succeed. These are common sense priorities that unite us no matter our political background.

Carol Greenstreet, Laura Gordon and Kassidi Gilgenast are the candidates who have these principles. They have actively participated in our school district and will uphold the traditional public school option while moving the district to a higher standard and heal our community. Give them your vote on November 4th – the three “G’s”.

Gail Gerig, Woodland Park

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The three Gs

I am impressed with three school board candidates. Ethos, pathos, and logos, which represent the Greek “rhetorical triangle” represent rational approaches to complicated problems. They are an antithesis of what we have suffered for going on four years now. It’s not perfect, but what I witnessed in these women was a perfect balance of the three, and this dovetailed nicely with the compassion and understanding for all stakeholders that was manifest in these three candidates: Gordon, Greenstreet, and Gilgenast. It is reassuring that we have the opportunity to benefit from a multifaceted and multi-talented group of education and community-oriented professionals. This alone is a marked improvement from the recent monolithic, simple-minded and off-topic political agenda driven by zealots who lost the plot.

The Three Gs’ approach is compelling, and while rhetoric and action are not the same, it is telling what wasn’t in their presentations. References to culture-war antagonism, talk of us vs. them, vitriol, and rancor. Conversely, there was a sense of togetherness, inclusion, forgiveness, forward thinking, openness, and healing!

I’ve heard similar thinly veiled platitudes from school officials recently who have driven this train off the tracks and would like to continue driving it into a chasm. Also rhetoric, but in this case we have years of action to judge the latter by. It’s pretty obvious which way is forward. Kids or not, for the sake of our shared community, vote! When you do, choose the cure for what ails us; the Three Gs.”

Andrew Pappadakis, Woodland Park

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Oopsie Daisy

Good ol’ boy Mick Bates, the BOE president, loves to claim he’s not politically driven, all the while pretending to be neutral and NOT trying to influence voters’ choices for school board candidates. So why, on the night of the Vision Forward Rally on Oct. 1, was he observed fumbling to stuff all of Clayton Austin’s election signs into his car? Several WP residents witnessed Bates’ fib-a-roo (i.e., outright lie). But given that we live in a kindly small mountain town where neighbors still help one another, they generously assisted Bates with picking up the signs. Oopsie!

There might be some humor in this scenario if it weren’t for Bates’ blatant hypocrisy as well as his obvious demonstration of being highly unethical. Oh, and then there were the many local residents who heard Bates recently stumping for Clayton Austin, even though Bates freely admitted at the time that he’d “Only met him an hour ago.” Clayton clearly appears to be hand-picked by Bates, leaving one to wonder about the other two last-minute candidates? Sure looks like another effort on Bates’ part to keep the BOE on the same ol’ corrupt track of not serving the best needs of students, parents, and teachers.

Mr. Bates, your constant cowboy two-step of lies and manipulation are getting not only stale but downright in violation of the public’s trust as BOE president. You talk the talk, but you most definitely do NOT walk the walk. Pardner, it’s time to resign.

Suzanne McDonough, Woodland Park

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Kudos to “WPSD Forward”

I attended the rally in person and was pleased to find the audience attentive, respectful, and well behaved. The candidates spoke of strategic plans, transparency, financial competency, and better communication/cooperation between the board the community, staff, parents, students, and teachers. All the candidates sounded like they could be effective board members.

The one topic never discussed was the Woodland Park Education Association, which is a member of the Colorado Education Association and is part of the NEA. The CEA has endorsed Socialism over Capitalism, which means their members are encouraged to indoctrinate students to favor Socialism. The NEA, CEA, and WPEA have funded and worked to undermine and cause division within WPSD and the board.

My question for all the candidates is do they support the WPEA and CEA and do they have any relationship (family, partner or past membership) to these organizations? If so, have they considered this as a conflict of interest? Talk about a real “Fascist Playbook.”

I compliment “WPSD Forward” for their efforts to improve the operation of the WPSD. They even have some of the findings of the audit on their web site. These findings show the district has not had any basic financial policies or controls. The question is for how long? These policies and controls should have been in place for the last 10 or 20 years. So would an audit from 6 years ago show the same problems or were these policies and controls shredded 4 years ago?

Chuck Craig, Divide

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