WOODLAND PARK — Millions of dollars in sales tax revenue allocated to the Woodland Park School District (WPSD) could soon be in jeopardy.
The 1.09% sales tax was put in place by Woodland Park voters in 2016 to raise more money for the district to spend on educational purposes, like teacher salaries, school programs, and building improvements. Voters approved a ballot question in Nov. 2024 keeping the sales tax in place. Last year, WPSD received $3.2 million from the sales tax revenue, which is about 10% of the district's general fund.
However, several Woodland Park City Council members say the district is not following rules requiring the district to report how it's spending the sales tax money.
According to an Aug. 2024 intergovernmental agreement (IGA) between the City of Woodland Park and WPSD, the district is required to submit monthly reports to the city showing sales tax expenditures through detailed and categorized ledgers. The IGA gave the district until Jan. 31 to retroactively submit the monthly reports from July to Dec. 2024.
During a council meeting last week, council members were visibly frustrated after they received a one-page summary from WPSD showing the six months of spending. The original summary showed money spent on replacing security cameras, software programs, and salaries for teachers at Summit Elementary School, Woodland Park Middle School, and Gateway Elementary, which closed at the beginning of the 2024-2025 academic year. An updated summary posted on the district's website shows the Gateway Elementary salaries have been changed to say Columbine Elementary School.
Woodland Park City Councilmember Jeffrey Geer said shortly after the council meeting on Feb. 6, Jack Bay, the district's Chief Financial Officer (CFO), sent an email to the council including a longer report of the district's sales tax expenditures. Councilmember Geer said the following morning, the CFO rescinded the email, citing wrong information in the report.
"I don't think that the district has any intention at this point of ever telling the citizens the truth about what they're doing with this money. They have had a ridiculous amount of opportunities to do this. They could have done it at any point in the last six months," said Councilmember Geer.
News5 reached out to WPSD multiple times by phone and email over the past two days to request an interview with CFO Jack Bay. The district did not acknowledge our interview request and instead sent the following statement from WPSD Superintendent Ken Witt:
"We are working diligently to comply with the council’s request. We understand the importance of the sales tax to students, teachers, and programs, as well as the community’s trust in our stewardship of these critical funds. We will promptly provide additional accurate and transparent accounting as the city council has requested.”
News5 followed up to ask if the district has since turned in a detailed breakdown of the sales tax expenditures and if someone with WPSD could explain each expense in the one-page summary sent on Jan. 31. We did not receive a response from the district.
In the meantime, several city council members said it's time to pull the sales tax altogether, citing financial transparency concerns about how the district is spending money.
"Is there some intent to hide something? How do we know? We don't know. And so the supposition is that the district's trying to hide something," said Councilmember Carrol Harvey. "Teachers, faculty, parents who have talked to me about this issue, they are... they feel very frustrated as well, because they know they will suffer, ultimately, if the district administration does not meet the requirements of the IGA."
"I'm the last person in the world that wants to take money away from kids. But my question is, are all the kids getting the money? Is it making it that far?" said Councilmember Teri Baldwin. "I don't know if it's malicious intent or if it's incompetence."
Councilmember Geer said the council intends to introduce an ordinance to repeal the sales tax during the next council meeting on Feb. 20.
El Paso County Judge Blocks Marijuana Ballot Measure
On Monday, an El Paso County Judge blocked the City of Colorado Springs City Council from referring a ballot measure to the April election concerning recreational marijuana sales in Colorado Springs.
