As part of KDNK’s election coverage, we reached out to all school board candidates running in the Garfield Re-2 district. Candidate Kaylin Harju declined an interview, and Fathom Jensen did not respond. However, they did respond to the conservative group Transform Colorado, and their answers, along with responses by candidate Chance Jenkins who did speak to KDNK, appear in the group’s voter guides.
In an effort to provide more information to voters on how Garfield Re-2 candidates align with these issues, KDNK News read through the guide and has this report.
Transform Colorado describes itself as a movement that unites Christian leaders to restore biblical values in the public square. On its website it says it connects “churches with the training and tools necessary to mobilize individuals, inform communities about key issues, and increase involvement.”
The group’s website also features a series of "nonpartisan voter guides for [voting] according to biblical values"
Harju, Jenkins, and Jensen are quoted in the voter guides saying they believe teachers have the right to refer to a student according to the pronoun corresponding to the student’s biological sex at birth [,] and Biological males should [not] be allowed to compete in girls’ sports. They also say they agree with the ideal that Sex education should [emphasize] the abstinence-based model [,], [and] students should not be taught that people are automatically privileged or oppressed based on their race or skin color.
The voting guide created for Transform Colorado was paid for by “Truth and Liberty Coalition”, a heavily conservative-christian non-profit run by televangelist preacher Andrew Wommack out of Woodland Park, near Colorado Springs.
The town’s school district has adopted the American Birthright Social Studies standard, recently rejected by Garfield Re-2. The district and its conservative majority board were recently sued by the teacher’s union over a policy that prohibited teachers speaking to journalists or on social media about district matters.
Garfield Re-2 Candidates Daniel Adams and Cassie Haskell were recorded as “No Response” for the Transform Colorado voter guide.
You can listen to KDNK’s interviews with candidates Daniel Adams and Chance Jenkins on KDNK.org
Transform Colorado did not release a voter guide for the Roaring Fork School District.
