History is written by the one who is victorious. However, the victor’s version is often biased, and the facts are usually exaggerated in his favor. As the true sequence of events are forgotten, the biased version of history is all that remains, and starts to be accepted as actual truth.

Revisionist Example No. 1, the 1619 Project. In August 2019, The New York Times ran a series of articles known as the 1619 Project. Named for the year when some believe the first African slaves were off-loaded in Virginia, the narrative is that slavery is the central driving force in American history

Well-known historians were immediately critical of the 1619 Project. In a 2019 letter to The New York Times, a group of academicians wrote they had no issues with Americans understanding “the past is populated by sinners as well as saints, by horrors as well as honors, and that is particularly true of the scarred legacy of slavery.” However, they felt the 1619 Project “offers a historically-limited view of slavery” and “asserts that every aspect of American life has only one lens for viewing, that of slavery and its fall-out.”

Revisionist Example No. 2, Jameson

Dion’s Op-ed “Woodland Park School Dist. should keep the current board” in the June 16 edition of The Gazette. Mr. Dion asserts that voters in WPSD should “keep the current school board.” This instruction is likely intended to counter an ongoing recall effort focused on three recently elected board directors.

Mr. Dion stated the school board directors, at least the four who were elected in November 2021 (one has since resigned), immediately eliminated the child mask mandate. Actually, newly hired WPSD Superintendent, Dr. Mathew Neal, established the district’s mask policy in a July memo to his staff and faculty — that masks would not be required within school and district buildings for those that were vaccinated but was encouraged for those who were not.

Mr. Dion goes on to praise the new board’s effort to transfer a charter school to the authority of the district. A December 2021 email from Director David Illingworth to the new Board President Rusterholz, characterized this effort in the following manner:

“... My idea is that chartering Merit Academy should be our immediate priority, but it might be good to move forward on some other things. This is the flood the zone tactic, and the idea is that if you advance on many fronts at the same time, the enemy cannot fortify, defend, effectively counterattack at any one front. Divide, scatter, conquer.”

In May of 2022 the new board, minus Director Chris Austin, approved a five-year contract with Merit Academy. Board meetings were multiplied and accelerated to make this a reality. But the vote occurred after a judge issued an injunction against the new directors to cease violations of board policies and state statutes governing open meetings. And, it occurred even though the District Accountability Committee assessed the contract was rushed and lacked due process and that sharing sales tax revenues with the academy was possibly illegal or, at best, inappropriate.

Mr. Dion also praised the new board members for prioritizing and approving raises for every employee in the district. In June, the board did approve two resolutions authorizing staff-recommended expenditures for the coming fiscal year. However, the extra monies in the district’s coffers were, in part, the result of continuing sales tax revenue made possible by a voter initiative passed in 2016. That ballot question ensured voters the collected tax revenue would be used specifically for post-secondary preparations courses, innovative technologies, staff salaries, facility maintenance, and the elimination of existing debt service. There is no per pupil distribution of the collected sales tax. However, the new charter school contract includes a per pupil piece of the sales tax pie. This is not what the voters approved in 2016. The board takes credit for salary increases that may not be sustainable if Merit Academy continues to receive a per pupil distribution of sales tax revenue.

Mr. Dion commended the new board directors for a new sensitive subject policy that directs teachers planning to teach something controversial to inform parents before their kids are exposed to something that might be age inappropriate. However, this policy was already in place and contained in board administrative guidance approved in 1989 and updated in ‘91, ‘98 and 2014.

As a recall effort for three of the sitting school board members progresses, examine, and evaluate the actions of the directors using facts, not the lens of revisionist history.

Carrol Harvey is a resident of Woodland Park.