WOODLAND PARK — During a city council meeting on Thursday night, the Woodland Park City Council voted unanimously to keep a city sales tax that funds local schools.
The vote comes after a recently revived dispute between city council members and the Woodland Park School District (WPSD) over how the district should report what it's using the sales tax money for.
An Aug. 2024 intergovernmental agreement (IGA) between the City of Woodland Park and the WPSD requires the school district to submit detailed and categorized ledgers showing sales tax spending to the city. In February, several council members said the district was not being financially transparent after it submitted a one-page summary of six months of sales tax expenditures. The district sent the city a more detailed spending report thirteen days later.
Your Voice Your Community
Woodland Park community voices opinions on potential school funding cut
In previous interviews with News5, several council members said they wanted to take the sales tax away. However, during Thursday night's meeting, council members voted unanimously to keep the 1.09% sales tax in place.
Councilmember Jeffrey Geer said that after listening to feedback from parents and residents, he felt keeping the sales tax was the right thing to do for the community.
"My job is to represent the people of the community, not what I personally feel," said Geer. "We did exactly what I feel we were tasked to do, which is listen and act accordingly."
Before the vote, dozens of community members and WPSD parents voiced their opinions during the meeting's public hearing. Those in favor of keeping the sales tax in place pointed to the outcome of a question on November's election ballot that aimed to end the sales tax. 58% of voters rejected the question, which kept the sales tax in place.
"The people voted to invest in the future of our children to ensure they have the education and opportunities they deserve. By bringing this on council's agenda again, you disregarded the will of the people. The very voice you were so eager to hear from when you pushed it to the voters in November," said one Woodland Park resident during the meeting.
Warren Dickenson, a parent of a student at the district's charter school, is leading an effort to recall the five council members who previously voted to move the sales tax repeal forward. In an interview with News5 on Monday, he said the move to take the sales tax away seemed like a political attack on the school board.
"The children and the teachers are the ones that are going to really pay the repercussions for that," said Dickenson.
It's unclear whether the recall efforts are moving forward. Councilmember Geer said the circulating recall petitions did not persuade his vote on Thursday night.
Other school district parents, like Erin O'Connell, were disappointed with the council's decision. O'Connell said repealing the sales tax was a way to hold the school district accountable.
“I would like to see it repealed until the district can show where the funds are going and that they’re being used appropriately and as the community directed," she said. "So to have it kind of thrown in our face that there is no accountability required, it’s a slap in the face to the community."
When asked how the council can hold the school district accountable to the IGA reporting guidelines in the future, Councilmember Geer said that's "challenging."
"They're [the school district] going to need to report here at the end of March on what they did in February and I think that is the next step, you know, let's see what that report looks like," he said.
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. Last year, the WPSD received $3.2 million from the sales tax revenue, which is about 10% of the district's general fund.
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