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08/10/2026

If only ESD would do the right thing and hold whomever was responsible for the missing fundraising money accountable. A responsible board would call for a forensic audit, notify the police that money is missing and be transparent about the entire process. That's not what ESD's school board has decided to do.

“CU Boulder does not tolerate fiscal misconduct in any form and once CUPD was notified it took immediate investigative action.”

08/10/2026

More questions than answers from the Elizabeth Schools board. A school board is responsible for the financial workings of the district. If the ESD board did not know what was going on with the fundraised money, they are responsible. And if they did know and did nothing, they are also responsible. This is their one job.

08/07/2026

"Restore. Rebuild. Rise" The Elizabeth School Board's theme at this week's convocation with district staff...And that's off to a great start as we find out the district and board has been hiding the fact that tens of thousands of fundraising money from several of the districts extracurricular clubs/teams was either stolen or mishandled. No statement from the district. No statement from the superintendent.

Is this the transparency we were promised? Is this what you voted for? Is this the fiscal responsibility this board promised during the election?

"Promises made, promises broken" seems to be a better theme for this board. We were hopeful Superintendent Knight was going to change this climate of secrecy and financial crisis but clearly that's not happening. Such a shame.

Who will be held accountable for this one?

08/07/2026

When it comes to fundraising and club money, you have rights. The district can't just absorb the money you raised and tell you you're out of luck. School finance laws require appropriate records to be kept and ethics laws apply to whomever was responsible for this.

Your first responsibility is to file a police report to document the incident. Filiing a police report doesn't mean you're accusing anyone of wrong doing. It simply means you're documenting a potential issue. You, as the fundraiser, have an ethical and fiduciary responsibility to report this issue to the authorities. How well will future fundraisers work if the community is concerned you're going to allow nefarious actions to take place and not report them? Uphold your responsibility as a fundraiser -- file a police report.

We understand this is a tough pill to swallow for the community. We all want to trust our school district and hope they'll always do the right thing. But to be frank, sometimes they don't and we have to be the bigger person and report what we know happened. Be that bigger person.

Still no public comment from the Elizabeth Schools or the school board. Their silence speaks volumes. If they did nothing wrong, the district itself would be filing the police report as this happened under their nose. Yet another absolute failure of transparency and ethics by the Elizabeth school board.

CBS Colorado Colorado Public Radio Kyle Clark Next with Kyle Clark Marshall Zelinger The Denver Gazette Phil Weiser Elbert County News

08/06/2026

This is sad. Let's get it reported so these groups can get their money back. File a police report with the Elizabeth Police Department.

https://www.townofelizabeth.org/police

Elizabeth Schools

07/30/2026

Our request is pretty simple.

07/29/2026

Now that you know they're breaking Sunshine Laws with zero regard for the resulting cost a lawsuit will have on ESD students, can we all agree that a forensic audit or a district attorney investigation is absolutely necessary?

If they didn't do anything wrong, wouldn't they want to get to the bottom of what happened to the $6M Elizabeth Schools suddenly lost over the past four years? Or are they trying to hide something?

07/28/2026

What are you doing to protect Elizabeth from a school board that knowingly violates Sunshine Laws and wastes your tax dollars fighting the lawsuits when they get sued for it?

Elizabeth Schools

07/27/2026

What part of the oath allows the ESD board members to make decisions in secret or break Sunshine Laws half a dozen times? Is this what you voted for, Elizabeth? Are we embarrassed yet, Elizabeth Schools?

07/26/2026

The Elizabeth Schools board knows open meeting/Sunshine Laws. Heck, they've lost at least three different Sunshine Law lawsuits, they should be experts by now. But that didn't stop them from ignoring those laws, ignoring their campaign promises of transparency and ignoring the community betting them to be fair and transparent. This board doesn't respect the law and they don't respect the community.

See the text and Signal messages between Rhonda Olsen, Mary Powell and David Fletcher (obtained through the Colorado Open Records Act - CORA and shared with us). Isn't it interesting how our community only learns the truth when someone CORAs and shares it publicly? That's not how school board business is supposed to work -- public business, public money, public meetings.

Be sure to watch the video at the end to remind yourself what this board did during the public meeting where this issue was discussed. Spoiler alert: there was zero discussion, they all immediately voted AYE because they had already discussed the issue and decided before they even walked into the room.

Add this to the Sunshine Law violation over ESD joining ADF and Heritage and they've broken the law twice in a month. We deserve better.

Colorado Public Radio CBS Colorado Colorado News Elizabeth Schools KOA Colorado