This expanded screen adds a direct formal charter-board tie for current D11 board secretary Michelle Ruehl and a direct institutional innovation-zone proposal involving D11 and Pikes Peak State College. It also narrows two user-flagged leads: Parth Melpakam has public endorsement / advocacy-network adjacency to Parents Challenge founder Stephen Schuck and innovation-school founder Vance Brown, plus a CIVA Charter High School event appearance, but this pass did not find a formal Parents Challenge or Colorado Charter School Institute role for him.
The screen also adds direct Moms for Liberty pledged-candidates evidence for Jason Jorgenson and Jill Haffley. That relationship should be typed as advocacy affiliation / pledge-listing evidence, not as an endorsement by Moms for Liberty and not as proof of charter or voucher coordination.
The pass started from the existing D11 report and source cluster, then added bounded live captures and board-material checks focused on New Summit Charter Academy, Parents Challenge, CSI, Moms for Liberty, CIVA, the current D11 board roster, and the D11 / PPSC innovation-zone proposal. Current CSI board, staff, transfer-applicant, and conversion pages were searched for the current superintendent and board roster. No current actor-name match surfaced in those captured CSI pages.
An April 23 maintenance pass also normalized the Church Voter Guides 2025 D11 candidate guide and the League of Women Voters Pikes Peak Region candidate-forum transcript as processed source layers. Those captures are useful for candidate self-description and forum context. They are not formal affiliation, funding, campaign-finance, or governance records.
No direct formal charter-school employment, board-service, advisory, Parents Challenge, Moms for Liberty, or CSI role surfaced for Gaal in this expanded source set. The new PPSC healthcare high school / innovation-zone material is institutional and agenda-level: D11 was presented with a proposed partnership, but the captured evidence does not make Gaal personally a charter, CSI, or school-choice actor.
Carey remains supported by the 2023 D11 Momentum / Springs Opportunity Fund public slate layer and direct D11 charter-governance votes from the prior source cluster. This expanded screen did not find a formal external charter-board role, Parents Challenge tie, CSI role, or Moms for Liberty pledge-listing for Carey.
The Moms for Liberty pledged-candidates page lists Jill Haffley under Colorado. The page also states that signing the pledge does not constitute a personal or campaign endorsement by Moms for Liberty, its chapters, PAC, or affiliates. Relationship type: advocacy affiliation / pledge-listing. Evidence strength: direct for listing; claim limit: not proof of endorsement, school-choice funding, charter role, or policy coordination.
The Moms for Liberty pledged-candidates page lists Jason Jorgenson under Colorado. Existing retained reporting also places Jorgenson in a State of Education in El Paso County event context with charter and school-choice discussion. Relationship type: advocacy affiliation / pledge-listing for Moms for Liberty; co-appearance only for the event record. Evidence strength: direct for pledge listing, moderate for reporting-backed event context. Claim limit: not proof of formal charter governance outside D11 or donor control.
Melpakam's expanded ties are public-facing but not formal organizational roles in the current source set. His campaign endorsement page includes Stephen Schuck, identified there as Founder; Parents Challenge Community Leader, and Schuck's own Parents Challenge profile preserves school-choice and education-reform context. The same endorsement page includes Vance Brown, identified as founder of The Classical Academy and Colorado Springs School of Technology, praising Melpakam's commitment to innovative education. CIVA's official video-library page lists Intro: Dr. Parth Melpakam and Speech: Dr. Parth Melpakam.
Relationship types: public endorsement, advocacy adjacency, and public speaking / co-appearance. Evidence strength: strong for the existence of the endorsements and CIVA page listing; moderate for the broader advocacy-network relevance; unresolved for any formal Parents Challenge or CSI role. Claim limit: these records do not prove Melpakam was employed by, governed, advised, funded by, or coordinated with Parents Challenge, CSI, CIVA, The Classical Academy, or CSST.
A later KHOW 2019 Schuck / Parents Challenge source summary strengthens only the general school-choice mechanism behind this adjacency. It adds Schuck's public description of a full-menu choice model, public-school transportation and supplemental-cost supports, parent sessions, and DeVos / ESA context. It does not change this screen's finding that the Melpakam tie remains public endorsement / advocacy adjacency rather than a formal role, funding, coordination, sponsorship, or D11 operational record.
Ruehl has the strongest new individual tie. The live New Summit Charter Academy board page lists Michelle Ruehl as BOARD DIRECTOR. Academy District 20's March 12, 2026 packet sidecar includes New Summit's annual-report section stating that Ruehl's term concludes after her recent election to the Colorado Springs District 11 Board of Education and listing her as a 2025-2026 board director.
The Church Voter Guides candidate page adds a candidate-statement layer: Ruehl described herself as having five years of D20 school-board experience. That is consistent with the New Summit / D20 packet evidence, but the guide is still a candidate self-description rather than an official board roster or term record.
Relationship type: board service. Evidence strength: direct. Mechanism: charter-school governing-board service at a D20-authorized charter school while Ruehl is current D11 board secretary. Possible flow type: governance authority, legitimacy, and charter-network relationship. Observable effect: direct formal governance tie exists outside D11. Claim limit: the source set does not prove D11 policy influence, recusal failures, coordination, compensation, or conflict-of-interest handling.
No new external charter, Parents Challenge, CSI, or Moms for Liberty tie surfaced for Baca Bartlett in this expanded screen. Existing TRACER evidence remains a counter-network finding because her 2025 committee had public-education and labor-aligned support.
No new external charter, Parents Challenge, CSI, or Moms for Liberty tie surfaced for Johnson in this expanded screen. Existing TRACER evidence remains a counter-network finding because his 2025 committee had public-education and labor-aligned support.
The March 18, 2026 D11 work-session agenda and captured Healthcare_HS_Board.pdf sidecar directly support a Pikes Peak State College Innovation School Zone proposal. The proposal describes a Fall 2027 healthcare high school, $5M PPSC investment, 300-400 students, D11 Innovation Zone language, and an independent board with PPSC, D11, and community / industry representation. The agenda classifies the item as informational only.
Relationship type: proposed partnership / innovation-zone governance mechanism. Evidence strength: direct for proposal; unresolved for adoption. Mechanism: innovation-school / innovation-zone governance and waiver structure, with PPSC facilities / faculty / investment and D11 campus / Promise pipeline. Possible flow type: authority, students, funding, institutional legitimacy, workforce-training infrastructure, and governance autonomy. Observable effect: board-interest expression would initiate D11 planning-team engagement. Claim limit: no signed MOU, final innovation plan, waiver list, minutes approving the proposal, or independent-board documents were captured in this pass.
| actor | target entity | tie type | time range | mechanism / possible flow | evidence strength | claim limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michelle Ruehl | New Summit Charter Academy | board service | 2025-2026; live page captured 2026-04-22 |
Charter-school governing board; governance authority / legitimacy | direct | Does not prove D11 policy flow, recusal failures, compensation, or coordination |
| D11 / PPSC | proposed healthcare high school Innovation School Zone | proposed partnership / innovation-zone governance | agenda item 2026-03-18; Fall 2027 launch target |
Innovation-zone model, independent board, PPSC investment, D11 campus / Promise pipeline | direct for proposal | Informational proposal only; no final MOU, waiver list, or board approval captured |
| Parth Melpakam | Stephen Schuck / Parents Challenge network | public endorsement / advocacy adjacency | 2025 campaign page; Schuck says worked with Melpakam over prior eight years |
Endorsement / legitimacy; school-choice advocacy context | strong for endorsement, unresolved for formal affiliation | Does not prove Parents Challenge role, funding, coordination, or CSI tie |
| Parth Melpakam | Vance Brown / The Classical Academy / CSST | public endorsement / innovation-school adjacency | 2025 campaign page |
Endorsement / legitimacy; innovation-school founder context | strong for endorsement | Does not prove formal governance or funding relationship |
| Parth Melpakam | CIVA Charter High School | public speaking / co-appearance | CIVA page captured 2026-04-22; page footer 2025 |
Charter-school event appearance | moderate to strong | Does not prove CIVA board service, employment, advisory role, or funding |
| Jason Jorgenson | Moms for Liberty | advocacy affiliation / pledge listing | page captured 2026-04-22 |
Parent-pledge signaling / parental-rights advocacy | direct for listing | Source says pledge signing is not an endorsement; not charter or voucher proof |
| Jill Haffley | Moms for Liberty | advocacy affiliation / pledge listing | page captured 2026-04-22 |
Parent-pledge signaling / parental-rights advocacy | direct for listing | Source says pledge signing is not an endorsement; not charter or voucher proof |
| Current D11 actors | Colorado Charter School Institute | unresolved adjacency / negative current-page check | pages captured 2026-04-22 |
Current CSI pages checked for actor names | unresolved | Negative current-page match does not rule out historical, filing, or packet-level CSI records |
Use this summary to update the D11 major-investigation report, the D11 chronology, the D11 institution page, and the Colorado public-school privatization / culture-war keystone theme. Keep direct formal ties separate from endorsements, pledge listings, event appearances, and negative current-page checks.