Stop the travesty against our children in public education!
We are dumbing down our children in order to raise social justice warriors, exactly in accordance with Communist John Dewey, “education reformer.”
D49 reading and math scores in 2023 are literally 20-25% lower than 12 years ago.
Translation: in 2023, 44.5% and 29.5% of D49 are at grade level in reading/writing and math, respectively.
Translation: 55.5% and 70.5% of our kids are NOT at grade level in reading/writing and math, respectively.
Translation: 73% of D49 kids failed to meet “Postsecondary and Workforce Readiness” as defined by the Colorado Dept of Education.
Peter Hilts snatched up a quarter of a million+/yr salary after 10 years of failing CMAS scores. Not only is he STILL not focusing on the kids, he is spending his overpaid hours cyber-stalking and attacking critics and constituents on Nextdoor.com and official D49 site.
The Communications Dept, under the alias of “Joel”, are actually removing conservative constituents’ comments from the D49 FB page, while extreme leftist have unrestrained freedom to viciously attack conservative constituents. It seems this is yet another violation of a statute and/or policy.
Superintendent Peter Hilts had the audacity to gaslight the community in response to a report assembled by Director Liu from the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) website, by accusing her of deliberate misrepresentation and “attacking teachers.”
Hilts along with district lawyer Brad Miller and the three “useful idiots” on the board (John Graham, Lori Thompson, and Rick Van Wieren) have been attacking Director Liu for the last two years for exposing what’s been deliberately hidden from the taxpayers. This includes finances accountability and most importantly, the district is turning out high percentage of kids not ready for real world due to diminished ability to read, write, and do math.
In contrast, new superintendent Michael Gall in D11, who beat out Peter Hilts for the D11 superintendent job, is voraciously attacking the problem of low CMAS scores and academic achievement. Good job, Mr. Gall.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11xf9KQpv-94dwoBmowwgN_HnmMWDsaNxDJi8ppQQrWI/edit?usp=sharing
Hilts is expending his time and energy, at a salary over a quarter of a million per year, on hiding the truth from the public and attacking his critics. His biggest target has been Director Liu who is highlighting the dire need to improve academic achievement. Board Members John Graham, Rick Van Wieren, and Lori Thompson shamelessly and mindlessly stepped up their attacks on Liu in the community and behind close doors.
https://www.d49.org/Page/10144
This is the response to Mr. Hilts’ deceptive post by one of the long time constituents, Cathy Gardino:
“This is hilarious… “The Claim” you are claiming Director Liu claimed is incorrect… The CDE’s PWR is there in black and white on their dashboard. Your repudiation of Director Liu’s comment is to insult everyone that has the audacity to look at the CDE’s site and determine she is correct in quoting the CDE’s information. You have in effect told everyone outside your inner circle of supporters that they are too stupid to read these stats for themselves.
Clearly Director Liu was quoting the CDE and she NEVER CLAIMED 73% of D-49 Students were “FAILING”. Uniformed interpretation? I have looked at all of your links and all of your metrics and some of the information is ten years old. The slicing and dicing of the “high bar and low bar” is astounding and indeed can be confusing to anyone not familiar with these stats, however, that doesn’t change the FACT that these numbers are provided by the CDE.
If it is unbecoming to quote figures provided by the state, then it is equally unbecoming to continue to be less than transparent about the curriculums purchased and taught by D-49, the process by which Mr. Hilt’s was swiftly re-appointed and given a raise after these low scores from the CDE and the continued loss of excellent academic staff.
These things didn’t come from Director Liu, rather, they have been exposed to the public by her presence on the D-49 Board. I appreciate her efforts to bring transparency to the hidden world of academia in D-49 where the parents and stake holders are considered “too stupid to understand the issues or the numbers and therefore are to be considered dangerous”…
Inaccurate and insulting Mr. Hilts. You speak down to all of us when you make jokes about your mother and her road trip rather than addressing the actual complaints being lodged against this District and it’s administrative failures.” – Cathy Gardino, D49 constitutent.
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Mr Hilts’ gaslighting response:
“Cathy Gardino says Director Liu was quoting the CDE and she NEVER CLAIMED 73% of D-49 Students were “FAILING”. Well Cathy, except for multiple emails, spammy FB posts and at least three headlines on Ivy’s “Guardians” page that use the exact phrase “with 73% kids failing.” She absolutely did say that, and she isn’t quoting CDE because 1) CDE would never use the phrase that “students are failing”, 2) the measure cited (PWR) is a measure of programs, not students and, 3) the index is built on scaled ranges or bands–not percentages of students. Using graduation as an example, any rate from 0-74% earns 2 points out of 8 in the PWR formula. That means, if you believe histrionic Liu misrepresentation, a hypothetical school with 74% of students graduating would be “failing 75% of its seniors!!!!” So to sum up, Neither of you have any idea how to interpret a ranged score from an index, and Ivy said exactly what I said she said—your defensive denial is Liudicrous.” – Peter Hilts
Editor’s note: “Liudicrous?” Mr. Hilts’ lack of professionalism is appalling although not at all surprising.
Editor’s note: The D49 article referenced by Hilts is titled: “Peter Hilts gets 11th year as Superintendent with 73% kids failing to meet Postsecondary and Workforce Readiness??” Mr Hilts quotes “73% kids failing.” Mr. Hilts has a problem with presenting truth.
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Cathy Gardino’s reply, not affected by Hilts’ spin doctoring:
“You continue to avoid Mr. Hilts… “Not ready for post secondary workforce…” Is that an interpretation by CDE or by Ivy Liu or by you Sir? If I understand your “LIU-dicrous” response I see the hatred, and the unadulterated unprofessionalism of a third rate administrator that is either unwilling or unable to see past his rose colored sugary sweetened interpretation of the catalogue of his own work.
That being said, You have not addressed the excessive loss of staff or the obvious questions surrounding your choice of curriculums nor even your terrible accounting of the monies spent within your district. You are now begging for an extra full time employee to cover CORA requests because you have parents and stakeholders that have the nerve to ask questions and request information of your very shady and hate filled 10 year reign at D-49.
I am very glad your position has been revealed as being adversarial to parents and stakeholders and very PRO-UNION… Of all of your positions, the one question you never answered was “What is your position on the CEA’s resolution on Capitalism being detrimental to students…” and you lack of a direct response that question has left most of the people I know and associate with very strong doubts about you, your character and your ability to administer this district. In conclusion, you do not have to like what the people are seeing and saying about D-49, but you do have to recognize that your tenure has produced this result and it is time to address concerns of that the people that are subject to your results, Sir.” – Cathy Gardino.
Oh, kids are failing: just look at the data from the Colorado Department of Education (CDE), which seems to be incapable of reporting reality according to Mr. Hilts…
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iIxHUA69TIWkqQkPV3fALFmwFLo9hxDYpKlYJqPBXxY/edit?usp=sharing
Yep, she didn’t say just plain failing, she said failing to meet post secondary workforce requirements. Yep different things altogether. The gross misinformation this district puts out is appalling.