BAYFIELD – As a decisive election for Bayfield School District Board of Directors approaches, the eight candidates who are vying for three open seats explained their visions for local education in a wide-ranging forum sponsored by the La Plata County League of Women Voters on Wednesday night in Town Hall.
Justin Ross, Daniele Hillyer, Koel Phelps, Kristi Smith, Wendy Cox and incumbent board member Timothy Stumpf are competing for two board seats with four-year terms.
Carol Blatnick and Judy Spady are competing for a board seat with a two-year term.
While the forum was genial throughout – and the candidates were unanimously effusive in praising teachers, parent involvement and the greater Bayfield community – voters face clear choices.
Asked by moderator Stephanie Huss what they thought of Amendment 66 – a ballot initiative that promises to increase funds for K-12 public education across the state – Cox, Phelps, Hillyer, Ross and Spady said they opposed the measure.
Phelps said she thought Bayfield residents would prefer to write a check to the local school district to paying more in income tax.
Ross asked, “Is our government even open? We’re going to get money from something that isn’t open?”
Stumpf, Smith and Blatnick said they were still making up their minds.
Asked whether Bayfield High School students were receiving adequate sex education, every candidate declared themselves unfamiliar with the curriculum and said children’s participation in sex education should be up to parents.
Cox said she thought sex education should be taught at home and that education about sexual orientation was unnecessary and part of a political agenda.
Blatnick got the biggest laugh of the night, saying, “I’m not familiar with the high school, but let me tell you, if it’s in the high school, it’s way too late.”
Ross advocated a “more well-rounded approach,” saying, “I think abstinence gets very little time, if any. I think that should be emphasized that you can remain pure until you’re married.”
Hillyer, Phelps, Smith and Stumpf all said sex education played an important role for students who may be struggling or lack parents they can turn to for information.
Asked how evolution should be taught in schools, the candidates starkly divided along cultural lines.
Spady, who home-schools her children, said though she reads the Bible daily, she felt evolution and creationism should be taught in schools.
Hillyer, Phelps, Cox and Ross agreed.
Ross said, “Evolution is a theory and a belief. It’s never been entirely proven,” and suggested “teaching intelligent design” as an alternative, letting kids ultimately decide what they believe.
Stumpf said he thought evolution, a science-based theory, should be taught in science classes.
Smith likewise rejected creationism in classrooms, saying creationism was a religious explanation for humanity’s emergence, and therefore best taught at home.
Blatnick said, “I can’t believe this is still a question.”
cmcallister@durangoherald.com
