Following a four-hour discussion, Garfield Re-2 School board on Wednesday voted to review options for setting its social studies standards.

The three standards being proposed include the 2022 adopted Colorado state standards, the revised 2022 Colorado state standards or implementing the American Birthright Standard.

The American Birthright Standard was developed by the right-wing group Civics Alliance.

According to the American Birthright Curriculum PDF, the ABS “explores the Hebrew, Greek, and Roman sources of the American political system, and the Christian synthesis of Hebrew, Greek, and Roman thought, with its emphasis on the equal dignity of all individual humans in the eyes of God.”

During the discussion, Board President Tony May and Board Member Britton Fletchall said the reason for the implementation of the social studies standards proposal is due to the controversy over the state of Colorado’s 2022 proposed changes to the social studies standards, which are set to be adopted in 2024.

According to the Colorado Department of Education, the changes from 2020 to 2022 include learning about holocausts and genocides, media and financial literacy, civics, and the inclusion of minority groups in the teaching of history and government. 

Both May and Fletchall said they have no issue with the financial literacy portion.

Before the discussion began, public comment was allowed.

“I am fully willing to grant the possibility that both the adopted state social studies standards and the American Birthright Standards have many positive aspects,” said Gina Thompson, a district teacher and parent in the district. “I am concerned that this topic is on our agenda at all… this elected board recently followed a clearly-defined process to adopt social studies standards after gathering public and professional input — and specifically evaluated and rejected the American Birthright Standards.”

Thompson is referring to the Colorado Department of Education rejecting the American Birthright Standard. 

Colorado law, however, allows each school board to have control over each assigned district and allows the board to adopt content standards and alignment of the curriculum. 

District resident Daniel Adams spoke about how he wants to know how minorities feel about their representation in this process. 

“At a bare minimum, we need to identify these minority speakers coming back with information and (whether) they are represented in this process,” he said.

In Rifle High School alone, Hispanic students make up 61% of the student population, according to CDOE data. 

With three board seats are up for re-election, Adams also suggested that the school board wait to hold a vote on the implantation of ABS or other social studies standards until after the next elections. In response, May and Fletchall later worried that delaying adoption of a social studies standard until after the election would not afford enough time for the incoming school board to learn it.  

District resident Christina Senechal asked the board bluntly, “Why are we doing this?” 

“Why are we interested in changing a curriculum that seems to be thoroughly vetted and approved by the experts at the top of our state?” Senechal said. “This feels extremely politically motivated.”

No one spoke in support of the American Birthright Standard proposal during the discussion Wednesday night. 

The next steps for Garfield Re-2 selecting a social studies curriculum will be to collect public input on what standards to adopt. 

The board will be sending out a survey, found in the proposal, which can be accessed by anyone online, to vote on the options being presented. 

The survey will be available to anyone online regardless of location, and the only information collected will be the user’s IP address.

The survey will be used as public input, along with other data collected to be provided to the board. Open house discussions will be held throughout the district over the next month. A final vote will be during the Re-2 school board meeting on Oct. 25.

The board also discussed allowing students to be a part of focus groups during this process. Re-2 students have been left out of this process so far.

It was suggested by one school board member that if students were allowed to vote, then that vote would simply be another vote for that student’s parents.

No matter the standards adopted after this process, the board discussed calling the new standards the Garfield Re-2 Standards, even if that standard is originally the American Birthright Standard.

Garfield Re-2 will hold open house discussions from 6-7 p.m. on Aug. 30 at the Silt Library. Open houses are also slated for Sept. 6-7 at the Rifle Branch Library, as well as the New Castle Branch Library on Sept. 11.