NBC News- The community of Woodland Park, Colorado, has grown more divided following a leadership change on its local school board. The new board members had campaigned on conservative values and made sweeping changes. NBC News’ Antonia Hylton reports further on shifts in curriculum and mental health services, as well as the community’s response.
2021
Nov. 2021
- Truth & Liberty Coalition Expands Culture War to 30 Colorado School Boards | Word & Way
- In 2021, Andrew Wommack told his followers to “take over” Woodland Park, a mountain town of 8,000 near Colorado Springs. The televangelist and Charis Bible College founder had been saying for years that “the time has come” for Christians to stop focusing only on their faith and start working to gain political influence.
- Baby We Were Born for War: To Dominionist Christian Groups, No Election is Too Small — and Colorado is Just the Beginning | Religion Dispatches
- Man, as many people as we have in this school here, we ought to take over Woodland Park.” Thus spake theocratic leader Andrew Wommack at a political mobilization conference in April at the Charis Bible College he heads.
- Yes, Colorado’s school board races are becoming more politicized. Here’s why
- The Teller County Republican Party has donated money to each of the four ‘conservative’ candidates running in the Woodland Park School District race. That slate of candidates openly tells voters on billboards to “vote conservative.”
- Truth & Liberty Coalition Expands Culture War to 30 Colorado School Boards | Word & Way
2023
Jan. 2023
- Woodland Park School District adopts conservative American Birthright social studies standards after the state board rejected them -CPR News
- The board of a small school district in Teller County passed a resolution Wednesday night to use the conservative American Birthright social studies standards that emphasize patriotism and American exceptionalism, just a month after the state board of education rejected them.
Feb 2023
Mar 2023
May 2023
- ‘Trump was great at this’: How conservatives transformed a Colorado school district
- A new school board quickly enacted its agenda in Woodland Park. Now teachers are leaving and the board faces growing opposition, including from lifelong GOP voters.
June 2023
- DAVIS: The Small Colorado Town at the Center of Far-Right Plans for American Schools
- Some of the tactics on display in Woodland Park over the past year and a half have been taken straight from the playbook of the ongoing nationwide “parents’ rights” movement – like the banning of books by Ta-Nehisi Coates, and the general furor surrounding “critical race theory,” and “social emotional learning.” Other moves made by Woodland Park’s insurgent school board, however, suggest that the small, rural district is being used as a testing ground from which the next chapter in that playbook can be written.
July 2023
- DAVIS: American Birthright: A Woodland Park Investigation | Colorado Times Recorder
- That is the most immediate effect of the Woodland Park school board’s January decision to adopt the American Birthright social studies standards: complete educational isolation. It was the potential longer-term impact, however, that led the Colorado Board of Education to reject the standards last fall, and led the national body overseeing social studies education to raise the alarm about the “damaging and lasting effects” of implementing the standards in schools.
- DAVIS: Buying the Birthright: A Woodland Park Investigation
- The Woodland Park-based effort to fundamentally alter public education in America is being funded by the zombie fortunes of long-dead conservative industrialists, according to a review of hundreds of tax documents associated with the members of Civics Alliance, the coalition which produced the American Birthright social studies program.
August 2023
- DAVIS: Secret Audio Recording Reveals Inner-Workings of Woodland Park Takeover
- Based in Olympia, Washington, the Freedom Foundation is one of the crown jewels of the State Policy Network, which played a leading role in developing the aggressively right-wing American Birthright social studies standards. The organization – which promotes traditionally conservative views like opposition to abortion and equal rights for the LGBTQ community – really made its name through vocal opposition to teachers’ unions.
Oct. 2023
- Woodland Park teachers criticize conservative board that made sweeping changes | The Colorado Sun
- Those decisions, which many teachers and parents say were made without their input, started with the board adopting the American Birthright standard for social studies in January even after the Colorado State Board of Education rejected those standards, Colorado Public Radio reported.
- News brief with The Colorado Sun: Teachers ask for help overturning ‘American Birthright’ curriculum
- “One hundred kids go to the school district and last week, about 80 teachers and staff wrote a letter in common urging the community to get more involved and put pressure on the school board to do a couple of things,” Booth told KUNC. “One is to restore a past social studies curriculum.”
Nov. 2023
- Truth & Liberty Coalition Expands Culture War to 30 Colorado School Boards | Word & Way
- As in Woodland Park, where Wommack succeeded in getting his chosen candidates elected to City Council and gaining a majority on the school board, the goal, in the words of one victor, is to oppose “the teachers’ union and their psycho agenda.”
- Woodland Park School District adopts conservative American Birthright social studies standards after the state board rejected them -CPR News
2024
Jan. 2024
- School superintendent walks out of interview | KOAA YouTube
- It is National News Literacy Week and we want to pull back the curtain to explain some of our daily journalistic practices. We told you last night about the Woodland Park School District’s plans to merge the middle and high schools. During an interview with the district superintendent, News 5’s Maggie Bryan asked him a question about a different topic that a former district employee had brought to our attention.
Feb 2024
- Woodland Park’s White-Supremacist Tainted History Courses Disappear From NCAA’s Approved List After CTR Inquiry
- The district’s high school had submitted three updated social studies syllabi incorporating the American Birthright standards, World History, World Geography and Economics, to the NCAA, which requires schools to prove specific core courses adequately prepare student-athletes for college-level coursework. Each time a course’s content or curriculum changes, schools must re-apply for accreditation.
April 2024
- A Colorado city fights back against the prosperity preacher trying to ‘take over’ their town | Baptist News Global
December 2024
- Anti-Abortion Center Teaching Sex Ed in Woodland Park | Colorado Times Recorder
- School superintendent walks out of interview | KOAA YouTube
2025
January 2025
- Woodland Park school board passes resolution to recognize “only two sexes,” reject “gender ideology” | Lamar Ledger
Feb 2025
- Woodland Park School District CFO resigns amid back and forth over sales tax reporting | KOAA
- Woodland Park community voices opinions on potential school funding cut | KOAA
March 2025
- Perry proposes task force | The Gazette
Public Comment about Brad Miller & Ken Witt at Woodland Park City Council Meeting
March 2025
- Woodland Park School District Superintendent announces resignation to ‘pursue other opportunities’ | KOAA News
- Woodland Park City Council votes unanimously to remove city sales tax, council member resigns | KOAA News
- DAVIS: ‘Bleed it Dry, Then Get the Hell Out’ – The Fight for Tax Dollars in Woodland Park Schools | Colorado Times Recorder
- Woodland Park School District Head Boss Throws in the Towel | The Mountain Jackpot News
April 2025
- The Man Behind Colorado Schools’ Efforts to Ban Trans Athletes
- Of the letter’s 80 signatories, 58 of them are current or recent clients of Miller’s firm. The signatories from El Paso County’s District 49, Pueblo’s District 70, Montezuma-Cortez, Elizabeth, Brush, and Woodland Park – totaling 21 signers – currently retain Miller’s legal services. Miller also has current or recent professional relationships with the signatories from nine of the ten charter schools on the list, and with Education ReEnvisioned BOCES, accounting for another 37 people (though many of the charter boards who signed did not list individual names, signing instead as a unified board).
August 2025
Sept. 2025
- Colorado Supreme Court upholds ‘cure’ doctrine for open meetings law, awards attorney fees to plaintiff in Woodland Park school board case | Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition
Oct. 2025
Nov. 2025
2025 School Board Election
- DAVIS: Labels & Lessons in Woodland Park | Colorado Times Recorder
- Progressive school board candidates make inroads in races across Colorado | Chalkbeat
- Woodland Park School District Awaits Change of Leadership | Mountain Jackpot News
Dec. 2025
- Loss of grants leaves lingering effects | Pikes Peak Courier
2026
Jan. 2026
- Conservative Woodland Park school board member resigns | Pikes Peak Courier
- Bates explains departure from school board | Pikes Peak Courier
Feb. 2026
- Woodland Park RE-2 District Board Completes 360-Degree Political Turn
- Woodland Park School Board appoints new member, following delay | Pikes Peak Courier
- Judge orders school board to pay O’Connell | Pikes Peak Courier
- Judge gives Woodland Park district the bill for parent who sued over vague school board meeting agenda
- Woodland Park RE-2 announces superintendent finalists
March 2026
- Local Parent Awarded Six-Figure Settlement in School District Lawsuit | The Mountain Jackpot News
- Woodland Park Board interviews superintendent finalists | The Gazette
- Ginger Slocum Named New Superintendent of Woodland Park School District
April 2026
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