Is it working?
Dear Editor:
The high school has had five principals and as many assistants in the past five years, affecting stability, continuity, morale and traditions of both students and staff. The other schools in the district have had similar turnover as well. The best and brightest administrators in this district, one that was even recognized on the state level, have left. There are huge turnovers in support staff and faculty annually. Are they not mentored, are they demoralized, were they not good hires to begin with – were exit interviews done to assist in future attraction, hiring and retention?
The superintendent that was hired by this board from outside at a very high price was spirited away with a non-disclosure settlement costing the district – how much we’ll never know. Then there was the cost of an interim superintendent.
The school building that we were told was a bad environment for kids now houses a preschool for our most vulnerable community members.
There was a subsequent theft even after this board became aware of previous embezzlement.
This board has approached the other local governmental districts with an adversarial approach both personally and publicly. Mr. Garrett inferred in his letter that the Town (really the Planning Commission) had tried to force the school district to improve the Town’s infrastructure – the philosophy of the code is that development should be asked to pay its way and also help mitigate the impacts on the surrounding neighbors, not too unrealistic considering the community as a whole bears all costs, both financial and otherwise, on both sides of the ledger. The school board’s ‘negotiations’ with the rec. district over the pool cost sharing were more like that of a petulant child, rather than collaborating to make something work for the whole community. These are not us versus them issues – but community issues.
The current board passed a bond issue. Sadly, a building never educated a child. It takes continuity of staff who are mentored, and work in an empowered environment to engage and excite young people about learning and the world around them.
I will be voting for three candidates among the non–incumbents as I believe they have the leadership, experience, best interests of all our students and community in mind and will work to stabilize the core of our educational system.
Sincerely,
Sue Doylen
Estes Park
This past year, the Estes Parkian begged the school board, to provide accountability, before they asked the citizens to borrow a huge chunk of money. Come clean, air out the laundry so to speak, there are dozens and dozens of skeletons in the school board closet which needed airing. This board did not make public, the details of the corruption they discovered and dealt with. They managerially and morally lanced and flushed the boil, but, politically kept a lid on the dirt, instead choosing to attack the dilapidated campus previous boards past forward. Not a bad political idea, one - because it needed doing, and two - it is suppose to be about education after all, and they did attempt to get this communities brain wrapped around that fundamental concept, and three – it is what a responsible adult is expected to do, see a problem and deal with it straight up, take action, shouldn’t we teach our children those values?
Dear Editor:
The high school has had five principals and as many assistants in the past five years, affecting stability, continuity, morale and traditions of both students and staff. The other schools in the district have had similar turnover as well. The best and brightest administrators in this district, one that was even recognized on the state level, have left. There are huge turnovers in support staff and faculty annually. Are they not mentored, are they demoralized, were they not good hires to begin with – were exit interviews done to assist in future attraction, hiring and retention?
The superintendent that was hired by this board from outside at a very high price was spirited away with a non-disclosure settlement costing the district – how much we’ll never know. Then there was the cost of an interim superintendent.
The school building that we were told was a bad environment for kids now houses a preschool for our most vulnerable community members.
There was a subsequent theft even after this board became aware of previous embezzlement.
This board has approached the other local governmental districts with an adversarial approach both personally and publicly. Mr. Garrett inferred in his letter that the Town (really the Planning Commission) had tried to force the school district to improve the Town’s infrastructure – the philosophy of the code is that development should be asked to pay its way and also help mitigate the impacts on the surrounding neighbors, not too unrealistic considering the community as a whole bears all costs, both financial and otherwise, on both sides of the ledger. The school board’s ‘negotiations’ with the rec. district over the pool cost sharing were more like that of a petulant child, rather than collaborating to make something work for the whole community. These are not us versus them issues – but community issues.
The current board passed a bond issue. Sadly, a building never educated a child. It takes continuity of staff who are mentored, and work in an empowered environment to engage and excite young people about learning and the world around them.
I will be voting for three candidates among the non–incumbents as I believe they have the leadership, experience, best interests of all our students and community in mind and will work to stabilize the core of our educational system.
Sincerely,
Sue Doylen
Estes Park
This past year, the Estes Parkian begged the school board, to provide accountability, before they asked the citizens to borrow a huge chunk of money. Come clean, air out the laundry so to speak, there are dozens and dozens of skeletons in the school board closet which needed airing. This board did not make public, the details of the corruption they discovered and dealt with. They managerially and morally lanced and flushed the boil, but, politically kept a lid on the dirt, instead choosing to attack the dilapidated campus previous boards past forward. Not a bad political idea, one - because it needed doing, and two - it is suppose to be about education after all, and they did attempt to get this communities brain wrapped around that fundamental concept, and three – it is what a responsible adult is expected to do, see a problem and deal with it straight up, take action, shouldn’t we teach our children those values?
Call a spade a spade, this is politics, this is business, this is the business of politics. A small group of people have controlled a lot of money in this valley. That is community money; it belongs to the people, look at the number, $60 million of community tax dollars annually, between Town Hall and the School District. The two major employers and major individual businesses in the valley, are Town Hall and the School District, who has access to those funds, is the life blood to a lot of people. Buzzards circle around this pile of funds. John Baudeck knows; and he is attempting to jump from one pile of funds to the other big pile of funds. David Taylor knows; that having both the School District and the Town of Estes Park running that $60 million through his bank annually, is big dollars to him. It’s good to have "friends" and belong to the right clubs.
It is relevant, that after discovering all the fraud and embezzlement, that the current school board moved the school boards sizable accounts out of First National Bank of Estes Park and into Key Bank.
This elected school board was faced with cleaning up the school district, attempting to right the multiplicity of inherited damage. In effect, as a group, they had to clean up and take out the garbage allowed to accumulate over decades, or by association they too would become a part of the problem. They chose to clean it up. They lost some employees, yes, that happens when a new board begins examining a system that was loosely managed - all those people with their fingers in the cookie jar fled, your schools had digressed into a “Peyton Place”.
The Estes Parkian does its home work; we examined the documents associated with:
Public Documents
eblackstone Case, #08004CR014, 74E INVESTAGATIVE REPORT, OFFICE OF DISTRICT ATTORNEY, EIGHT JUDICIAL DISTRICT, STATE OF COLORADO
Let us remind you, this is a small town, a lot of people were duplicitous in this ugly mess, allowed the corruption to happen out of stupidity, or ignorance, or they too where getting their share. This gross violation on the school system didn’t happen in a vacuum.
This is a typical corruption scenario; starts with walking off with a pencil, then a ream of paper, and special consideration for “my kid”. When elected officials become buddies with staff, next thing you know, the inmates are running the asylum. Like town hall; the trustees socialize with the employees, belong to the same clubs, party together. Randy is on the bank board where trustees hold mortgages, they all schmooze, making things happen for their "friends." The barrier between employees and elected over site is eroded; it becomes a mutual club, where the spoils are shared – corruption. This is a small town, it is tougher to maintain the neccessary decorum and professionalism, when you seek elected office, things change for you, now you must do the tough things, like bust your friend - the pedophile, not look the other way.
Kastendieck was one of the locally generated “administrators” that knew the system, knew how to grease the cog as he filled his pockets. This story is a spider web that casts a pall over this entire community; banks, bankers and banking, sexual deviants - in addition to stealing from the kids. It is an ugly story. Taking out the garbage, is a dirty and thankless task. Politically speaking, if you get your hands around the neck of a rapid dog you had better kill it, if you do not, it will surely bite you and mortally infect you. This school boards’ big mistake, they did not kill the rabid dog. They drove out the money changers, but, they never identified them, never pointed fingers. The Estes Parkian and its staff, has nothing but distain for all those cheats, thieves, and sexual deviants, and we intend to expose them, we intend to choke that rabid dog, by letting all of you read the truth for yourself.
Sue Doylen is only the tip of the spear, and we are grateful that she offered the perfect segway with her article, so that we may expose this circle of dung.
Carefully read Sue’s article again, why is she suggesting that the current school board that exposed corruption is the problem - not the criminals and the corruption? Why is she attempting to redirect your attention, from the good that was accomplished and who accomplished these monumental tasks? Who and what is she protecting now? We know - the Estes Parkian and its staff have spent months digging into public documents, to find the truth.
While Sue Doylen was Mayor pro tem of Estes Park, she went through five town administrators, and as many finance directors, and a bevy of police officers. We will get back to her trail of tears on a later date.
Sue Doylen suggests that it takes a community to raise a child, not facilities and Sue is correct, it does take an entire community.
Let’s hold on here and begin looking at some detail and roster, from case #08004CR014.
Prior to and during the School Board’s investigation:
Sue Doylen (town trustee).
John Baudeck (mayor - retired police chief from Illinois – school district employee at the high school). John Baudeck is a current school board candidate.
Shirley Baudeck (elementary school book keeper - John Baudek’s wife).
Scott Webermier (school board member – school board president). Scott Webermier is also a current school board candidate.
Mike Smith (school board member and school board secretary - convicted pedophile).
Mr. Kastendieck (school superintendent 1997-2004, convicted of embezzlement).
Randy Repola (police officer, Chief of Police, assistant town administrator, town administrator,
Bank Board member First National Bank of Estes Park, Randy has a seat at every commission table- EPURA, Planning, Board of Adjustment, Public Works, Community Development, etc. Randy’s wife works for the school district).
Sue also mentioned:
Mary Lee Deleo (middle school book keeper - convicted of embezzlement). Tom Deleo, her husband, was doing a lot of catering for Mr. Kastendieck.
David Taylor (President First National Bank Estes Park).
When Larry Pesses became the school board president, the board began discovering all manner of accounting idiosyncrasies that previously went unnoticed.
Examples:
There were numerous trips, to a club in Oklahoma called “Habana Inn”, paid for by the school district, on a school district credit card, assigned to Mr. Kastendieck.
Quoting directly from the proceedings of the Grand Jury p 87:
Q. And Mr. Dean, going back to the Oklahoma resort, did you find out which resort that was?
A. The name of it is “Habana Inn”, and what I’d done is gone onto the Web sites to pull up 1-800 numbers, to get the registration. When I pulled up the “Habana Inn” on the Internet, I was pretty sure that the school did not authorize this, because it’s advertised as the Southwest’s largest gay resort hotel. He visited this, as I said, on three occasions.
Accounts at First National Bank of Estes Park, used to move money from the School District’s general account at West Star Bank into Mr. Katendieck’s phony accounts at FNBEP, all these checks by the way, were authorized by Mr. Scott Webermier.
Quoting directly from the proceedings of the Grand Jury p 72:
Q. And that bank president’s name is Mr. Taylor?
A. Mr. David Taylor.
Q. Did Mr. Taylor ever come into contact with you during your visits to the bank?
A. Yes. On my last visit, while I was meeting with Mr. Hull he walked in, and said something to the effect, after introducing himself, that it – this investigation has some of the bank members kind of in a little tizzy or something like that. And he stated that he’s known Mr. Kastendieck for sometime. And he says, “You never quite know what’s going on with your friends.” And he said, “Good luck with your investigation.”
Your friend, was laundering school district money through your bank - at that time there were only two "school district accounts" at First National and twelve accounts at West Star. The statements from First National were being sent to Mr. Kastendiecks home, the twelve at West Star were sent to the school district. Everyone around Richard Kastendieck and Mike Smith got real stupid. Scott kept signing checks, and David Taylor, and First National Bank kept cashing them, eventually the School District transferred all their accounts into First National Bank From West Star Bank. "Friends"
Mr. Larry Pesses, had a heated run in with Randy Repola, current town administrator, who was the Estes Park Police Chief. The confrontation was concerning Mike Smith, and Mike Smith’s penchant for wandering the Estes Park School grounds, despite a Larimer county court order demanding Mr. Mike Smith stay away from schools - until the accusations of child molestation, by an adult, in a position of trust, were satisfied. Randy Repola would not enforce the court order, intended to protect our children from perverts. Who was protecting the children in this community? Susan Doylen (trustee) and John Baudeck (mayor) were directly responsible for Randy Repola's actions. Again Randy accosted Larry Pesses (an elected school board official) on a hiking trail, concerning school board operations. Why was nothing done to Randy, by the trustees or the mayor? They were in charge of law enforcement in our community. In fact, Randy was never reprimanded, in fact, he was given a promotion to town administrator (by Sue Doylen and John Baudeck). Randy Rapola was also awarded a seat on the First National Bank of Estes Park bank board (by David Taylor). Concurrently, Mike Smith pled guilty to child molestation, and is currently required to register as a sex offender, it is rumored that he is currently in jail. "Friends"
John Baudeck/Sue Doylen/Scott Webermier/David Taylor/Richard Kastendieck/Randy Repola/Mike Smith all have a multiplicity of; entanglements, friendships, relationships, bank loans, mortgages, Rotary, all going back decades. Pals, friends, buddies, all networking - making things happen for one another. "Small town friends."
Ask yourself, why would John Baudeck and Scott Webermier run for the school board, and why would Sue Doylen come out publicly against the very school board members that got tough on perverts and thieves? Which perverts and thieves is she protecting now?
Sue Doylen thinks all the businesses in this town are stupid, no moxey (her quote).
Sue Doylen thinks the current elected school board members are petulant children (her quote).
It is working Sue, but not for you and your kind.
Elect the wrong people, and we will get the perverts back in the hallways and money going to “friends.”
Finely, if you are interested, you too can look into the facts, we are working to provide all the details on the web so you can read them.
Caution: when the investigators went through the boxes of files, they were only looking for anomalies associated with Richard Kastentieck. They did not look at all the oddities. There are a lot of people that would like to see that information go away, for good reason.
Vio Con Dios My Friends
Vio Con Dios My Friends
The Estes Parkian
