A group of Powell parents has united together to share information and talk about issues in the school district. 

The members of the PCSD1 Parents Group said they wanted their voices to be heard and felt neglected by the board. With a member of the group running for election and several other candidates sympathetic, they’re now getting their views in front of the community more than ever before.  

The group held a forum for Park County School District 1 board candidates Wednesday in hopes of giving parents and community members an opportunity to voice their concerns to candidates. 

The group is not affiliated with the district but rather is composed of parents and community members in the district who want to promote transparency within the school district and provide a voice for community members. 

The members formed last spring after a group of parents began talking about forming a parents group. The group currently consists of roughly 33 community members, not all of them parents, who communicate through the BAND app.

“Lynnet [Paul] had said that she had an idea of forming a parents group for a while and just the more that we talked, we just kind of decided to actually kickstart trying to get it going,” member Carrie Peters said.  “So she got stuff set up on an app, and tried to recruit people to join, and we’re just kind of sharing information and talking about stuff.”

Member Christina Murdock said that she has had one child graduate from PCSD1 as well as numerous friends’ children and all had encountered issues with the school district. 

“So we’re trying to hopefully get other parents’ support to help make changes or voice concerns that we all seem to have,” Murdock said.

Lynnet, who is the wife of candidate Dustin Paul, said that for her it came down to difficulty navigating the school board website and receiving responses from school board members.

Under board policy, the school board chairman has to speak on the behalf of the board but parents’ group members Lynnet Paul, Peters and Murdock said they don’t receive acknowledgment of receipt from all board trustees. Murdock said she has never received a response from the superintendent when she has emailed. 

“I’ve emailed them separately, I’ve only had a response back from Don Hansen, which they [censured] him,” Paul said. “And then I had a response back I think from Kim Dillivan once and I’ve had a response from the superintendent once but I’ve emailed them a couple of times and I haven’t heard responses back.”

Peters said that she has received responses from a “large portion of [the board]” acknowledging her concerns and asking to take items to the board. However, she said she has not received responses from other board trustees. She added that she feels that the board is not always proactive about concerns that parents have. 

Peters hoped that the forum would be “in a respectful way, trying to let the current board members know that a large group of concerned parents don’t feel like they’re being heard on issues.”

The forum lasted one hour and 45 minutes. It was attended by Dan Morrow, Dustin Paul, Joni Bennett and Rich Stearns. Incumbent Lillian Brazleton responded to the questions after the event — her responses were posted on the group’s Facebook page. Question topics included biological males sharing locker rooms with biological females or vice versa, white privilege, critical race theory, if the schools have a right to administer medication without parent permission, arming teachers, CDC mandated COVID vaccines and the Park 1 Virtual Academy.