The Woodland Park School District needs to keep the current school board.

Six months ago, four new members were elected to the board by strong majorities. Sue Patterson, David Rusterholtz, Gary Brovetto and Dave Illingworth ran together as conservatives against a “Do Nothing Board” with the promise of improving school choice, restoring parents’ voices, and supporting teachers. Six months in, let’s compare their campaign promises to their record in office:

1. They immediately eliminated the child mask mandate that the old board had enforced on children, even pre-K, for over a year.

2. In their first month, the board focused on putting into place a new “sensitive subject policy” to ensure that if a teacher is going to teach something controversial, parents will be informed before their kids are exposed to something that might be age inappropriate. Parents deserve to know what their children are being taught. The opponents of this board do not think parents have this right.

3. It got to work on approving Woodland Park’s first charter school. About a dozen meetings later, two town halls, hours of public comment, we welcomed Merit Academy, its students and staff, into the District. School choice can only help a district that has seen a 36% decline in enrollment over two decades.

4. Seeing that our buildings are at about only 50% of their capacity, the board negotiated a contract for Merit Academy to share the Woodland Park Middle School building, so taxpayers don’t foot the bill for empty classrooms. Merit Academy pays for its use of the building, reducing the burden to taxpayers during a troubled economy.

5. Not done making history, the board last week didn’t just approve raises for every employee in the district, it approved the biggest raises in district history. On average, each employee will get a raise of at least 8.5%, effective July 1. This will help close the teacher pay gap and attract more teaching talent to our schools.

Promises made, promises kept. Recently, Carol Greenstreet urged this community to seek to recall these same conservatives only six months after the people elected them in a landslide (“Recall of newest members of Woodland Park school board is needed | Guest Column,” June 8). Greenstreet is a former appointed board member. She never ran for her office, nor got the approval of the voters for her agenda. Apparently, she doesn’t like the tone of some emails written by new board members. She must not like school choice or big pay increases for our front line educators either! When she was on the board, nothing was done to improve school choice options for our families, and no significant raises for teachers were approved. Perhaps she’s worried that an elected board is proving that the people were right about the priorities of her do-nothing board.

Whatever the reason, one thing is for certain: a bitter coalition that puts the interests of national teachers unions, activists that seek to sexualize our children, and pushers of a racist critical race theory over the interests of the voters now wants a do-over of the election they lost six short months ago. Note that the presence of these divisive materials was speculation before but after over 35 Colorado Open Records Acts we can confirm they are present and need to be addressed. One of the folks that filed this recall advocated for drag shows involving our children. Another of the filers bullied and yelled at children at football practice because they went to a different school from her children. In fairness to Greenstreet, she might not be aware of the facts many of us firmly grasp. That said, this is even more reason to not take her opinion on the board as informed.

If the partisan folks seeking this recall are successful, an election that will cost tens of thousands will be paid for by the school district. That’s money that should be spent in the classroom for the benefit of students — not the benefit of special interests and radicals. Evidence clearly shows that special interests, including the teachers union are part of the push to oust this school board. Should the school board be punished for fulfilling the promises they made to the voters? Don’t buy into the rhetoric from the opponents of this board. Our district is finally headed in the right direction, despite the hateful opposition we have seen.

Jameson Dion is a resident living in the Woodland Park School District.

Jameson Dion