“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.” We are “Kids First,” and we are accountable to no one!
Estimated Read Time: 12 minutes
At a School Board Candidate Forum at ThunderRidge High School on Oct. 11, 2021, then-candidate Mike Peterson gave a personal appeal to Douglas County voters (noting from transcript as audio cut out):
“The last thing I will say is that we expect you, the voters,
the taxpayers, the teachers and parents to hold us accountable.”
Ironically, Mike Peterson (who is now the DCSD School Board President) and the other directors from the “Kids First” campaign slate (Christy Williams, Kaylee Winegar, and Becky Myers) have eluded any sort of accountability since they were sworn into office.
Until June 16, 2023.
That was the day that District Judge Jeffrey K. Holmes issued the “Finding of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Orders” in response to the lawsuit filed by Douglas County resident Bob Marshall. The lawsuit alleged that BoE Directors Peterson, Williams, Winegar, and Myers, had violated Colorado Open Meetings Law (COML) in their decision to fire DCSD Superintendent Corey Wise, and Judge Holmes found that the directors had, indeed, violated COML.
Not only have all of the “Kids First” directors not been held accountable for their actions in how they fired Wise, they have also used every opportunity to shift blame and deny wrongdoing, beginning at the BoE meeting on Feb. 4, 2022, when they publicly fired Wise without cause.
From the Beginning
At that Feb. 4th meeting, it was clear that the “Kids First” directors were on the defensive following their underhanded actions of private conversations with each other and with Wise were addressed in a virtual Special BoE Meeting on Jan. 31, 2022. Directors Elizabeth Hanson, Susan Meek, and David Ray served public notice of the meeting to hold a public discussion, in accordance with COML, to discuss their interactions with BoE Directors Peterson and Williams about the job ultimatum issued to Wise on Jan. 28, 2022. This was the first the Douglas County community heard about the ultimatum and the “Kids First” directors’ plans to terminate his employment.
A few days earlier, on Jan. 31, Douglas County Federation (DCF – the local teachers’ union) voted to move forward with a Collective Action on Feb. 3, 2022, to protest to the actions of the “Kids First” directors the previous week in passing their “Resolution to Policy ADB” (the DCSD Equity Policy) and their course of action in regards to Wise.
Throughout that meeting on Feb 4, Director Peterson attempted to absolve himself of any responsibility for a COML violation, while simultaneously creating a narrative that the BoE minority members (Meek, Hanson, and Ray) were in cahoots with the teachers’ union (starting at 24:54), “This isn’t about process and open meetings laws or board policy. This is about a minority of directors and a local and state labor union not accepting the results of an election and the will of over 120,000 voters.”
Other “Kids First” directors also found it a convenient narrative to portray DCF as the enemy instead of taking responsibility themselves. Director Winegar completely ignored any concerns of COML violations and went straight to a union attack (starting at 29:56) “I was disheartened this week over the attempt at chaos the union and some leadership encouraged among our community.”
Director Myers feigned outrage (starting at 32:44) stating, “I’m appalled at a labor union that encourages teachers to participate in a sick out day.” She followed up with “Clearly, clearly, the union does not value teachers nor put kids first.” Myers was quickly reminded by Director Ray (starting at 44:20) that she also used to be a member of that very teachers’ union when she was employed by DCSD.
Director Williams took a curious approach, attempting to present herself as an expert on COML, insisting there was no wrongdoing whatsoever. She framed this a couple of different ways (starting at 28:15). The first was an outright denial of wrongdoing, revealing a clear misinterpretation of COML, “I want to make very clear I followed the law to the letter. Because we are a local board, Sunshine Laws [COML] are that two of us can be together at any time without calling a public meeting. At no time was I with more than one other director at any given moment. My phone calls were only between myself and one other at a time. ” She then said that legal counsel “assured” both her and Peterson that their actions were not in violation of COML.
Last-Chance Effort
We have seen continued denials from the “Kids First” directors over the last 14 months, even as the plaintiff (Marshall, who was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives in November 2022) made repeated attempts to settle the case, and the minority BoE directors encouraged them to do so.
On May 8, 2023, the BoE held another Special Meeting, with one of the agenda items being the most recent Proposed Settlement Agreement to the lawsuit. This offer included the following point, which turned out to be the main barrier to the “Kids First” directors accepting the offer:
“b. The Board of Education will make the following statement at the board meeting at which the Board adopts this settlement agreement:
The Defendants acknowledge that pursuant to the legal advice of counsel, they had non-public discussions among three or more members concerning public business in violation of the Colorado Open Meetings Law.”
This was a gift horse, and the “Kids First” directors could have taken accountability gracefully with “mea culpa” that they had not violated COML intentionally and had acted on bad legal advice from their original counsel.
Of course, accountability was not a choice the “Kids First” directors would make that night.
Williams continued her narrative from the night that Wise was fired, claiming that she had not engaged in any wrongdoing (starting at 3:49:34), “I have maintained for over a year now that I do not believe that I did anything illegal. I maintained that I am not guilty.” Additionally, she put feelings over facts (starting at 3:57:06) by stating she would “never give advice to my child to admit guilt when they didn’t feel like they were guilty.” Not feeling like you are guilty is very different than the fact of actually being guilty of violating COML.
Clearly still put out from the minority-director-noticed Special BoE Meeting noticed and the Collective Action of the teachers’ union a few days later (starting at 4:11:21), Peterson offered a bizarre monologue suggesting that there was no precedent for interpretation of COML and attempted to shift blame on Marshall for the lawsuit, instead of his own actions of violating COML. Peterson suggested that since the plaintiff (Marshall) was now a state representative (starting at 4:12:49), “He is in a unique position to drop this lawsuit or at least Part B [the admission of the COML violation listed above] of it and could have easily raised something in committee and if he could have gone to any of his legislature friends instead of litigating and trying to create new law and new interpretation of law in the courts.”
Winegar also denied any wrongdoing (starting at 3:58:46), “I don’t believe there was any violation” and took an opportunity to blame Marshall for the lawsuit, by boldly claiming “This is really on the plaintiff. The costs that he is costing our taxpayers right now is on him.” Obviously, accountability is completely a lost cause here as she seemed incapable of seeing how her own actions and the actions of the other majority members were the real cause of this lawsuit.
Rooting herself firmly in a fantasy, Winegar speculated about Marshall paying the legal fees, “if we win,” through the following word salad, “And if this does end up going to trial, it would be really nice, and we win, if we win, it would be really nice if he decided and offered to pay our side of the legal fees.” If Winegar is attempting to conflate “nice” with “fair”...What would have been “nice” is if the “Kids First” directors would have taken the settlement on May 8 (or any other time one was offered) instead of making the district pay for the trial… which they lost.
And Myers did a complete 180 when she had an opportunity to speak that night, and contradicted sworn testimony she provided at the first lawsuit hearing on Feb. 25. In Judge Holmes’ finding from June 16, a reference was made to Myers previous testimony stating, “Myers testified at the preliminary injunction hearing that the four majority board members understood that the meeting was to ask Wise to resign immediately.”
On the dias on May 8, Myers did not recall any phone conversations, and instead said (starting at 4:00:04), “I think if Director Williams can remember, I actually made a statement to her one night walking out of a board meeting and saying, well, that was a shit show. Apparently, it is not going to work with us with Corey Wise. And that is all I said. So I don’t remember, I don’t even know, I don’t even remember calling Director Peterson.”
Even more interesting is that Myers appeared to change her story again during her testimony at the trial. While the official court transcript is not available, NewsBreak reported that “Board directors Becky Myers and Kaylee Winegar admitted to sharing their opinions about Wise in phone calls and that they agreed he wasn’t performing well but stopped short of saying they’d made up their minds to fire Wise before the February 4th board meeting.”
Continued Lack of Accountability
Since the release of Judge Holmes’ Finding, the “Kids First” directors still refuse to take responsibility. At the BoE meeting on June 20, 2023, several BoE Directors read prepared comments (starting at 5:58:02). Of the “Kids First” directors, only Peterson, Williams, and Myers spoke. None used this as an opportunity to take accountability for their actions and for the harm they created for the district.
Peterson read the prepared statement that he submitted to media the previous week. For someone who has adamantly denied any wrongdoing and systematically blamed others (minority BoE members, teachers’ union, the plaintiff), his statement highlighted a piece from Judge Holmes’ finding, noting “it does not appear they were purposefully acting in an unlawful manner. They did not blatantly violate the statute…”
Let’s not forget – the last Proposed Settlement Offer gave the “Kids First directors the opportunity to blame bad legal advice for their actions and violation of COML. “The Defendants acknowledge that pursuant to the legal advice of counsel, they had non-public discussions among three or more members concerning public business in violation of the Colorado Open Meetings Law.”
If only Peterson had admitted this earlier, and spared the district from a costly trial.
Additionally, Peterson alluded to the possibility of an appeal of the finding, stating early in the meeting (starting at 33:21), “There’s still some times [sic] for other motions, whether those be appeal, whether those be other motions.”
And will the cost to the district be a factor in consideration about any other motions? It certainly has not been yet.
Director Williams began by noting her gratitude “to be moving on from this lawsuit.” She added that she was “satisfied with the findings within the ruling” and “respect and understand what the court has determined.”
Earlier in the meeting (starting at 34:42), Director Myers expressed hesitance potentially giving a statement, noting that she did not want to “say anything incorrect.” A smart move considering her public blunder at the May 8th BoE meeting. She did give a brief, unscripted comment later, thanking Judge Holmes for lifting the injunction and “trusting that we will honor the court’s decision.”
Director Meek read a proposed resolution in response to the COML ruling, indicating that she had hoped the BoE would have been able to have discussion about it that night. The resolution included statements from Judge Holmes’ ruling and from DCSD BoE policy. She also shared some suggestions to rebuild trust with the community, including: engaging in comprehensive training on board governance, conducting a thorough review of our policies and procedures, and implementing regular evaluations and audits.
The resolution could formally be proposed at a future BoE meeting, so it is yet to be determined if we will see the “Kids First” directors actually take advantage of this opportunity to own their mistakes and try to build trust with this community. Or, will they continue to perpetuate their pattern of blame, denial, and minimizing the harm of their actions and call for their desire to “move forward.”
Incompetent Leadership or a Circus Act?
What is clear from the last 14 months is that Peterson’s words on Oct. 11, 2021, were an inaccurate representation of the leadership that he, Williams, Winegar, and Myers would bring to DCSD. Instead of welcoming accountability from the community or even the law, the “Kids First” directors have regularly put themselves first and avoided taking responsibility at all costs with blame, denial, and trying to minimize the impact of their actions.
What we have been shown is their sheer incompetence as elected officials and their commitment to do anything to avoid having any accountability, including spending an egregious amount of the district’s money, damaging the integrity of the entire BoE and school district, and subsequently destroying the community’s trust.
At the BoE meeting on Feb. 4, 2022, in reference to the previous day’s Community Action and protest at the district building, Director Myers said (starting at 32:32), “This negative circus act will have an irrevocable effect on our community, teachers, and students, which will take time to reverse. This is not the way to build trust and put our kids first.”
This quote did not age well.
The real circus act going on here is the one starring Peterson, Williams, Winegar and Myers. And in the end, it was clear that no matter how many high-flying mental gymnastics performed by these “Kids First” directors, “The court finds that the Plaintiff has proved that the Individual Defendants’ conduct was in violation of the COML.”
