Four women are running for two seats on the Roaring Fork School District Board of Education this year: Jodi Barr and Tamara Nimmo are running for the District A seat, and Elizabeth Taylor and incumbent Kathryn Kuhlenberg are competing for the District E seat.
The school district and the Roaring Fork Community Education Association, the teacher’s union, hosted a candidate forum in Carbondale on Oct. 2. The candidates shared their opinions and proposed solutions to some of the biggest issues facing the Roaring Fork schools: school safety, academic achievement equity and declining enrollment.
The District A seat is a four-year term, currently held by outgoing board member Kenny Teitler. The District E seat is also a four-year term, currently held by Kuhlenberg.
School safety
There are several school resource officers in the Roaring Fork School District who patrol hallways, conduct interventions with students and serve in an informal mentorship role. But rather than hiring additional officers to increase safety, District E candidate Elizabeth Taylor said that, if elected, she would consider offering teachers and staff the chance to enroll in concealed-carry training.
She said the goal would be to ensure faster response times in emergency situations, such as school shootings.
“The school would not be as much of a soft target, and it would be a deterrent for any possible dangers,” she said.
Taylor also claimed it would save the district money, since it would not have to hire more school resource officers.
District A candidate Jodi Barr agreed with Taylor and said the cheapest way to ensure school safety is to provide willing teachers and staff the chance to participate in concealed-carry training. However, she recognized introducing more firearms into schools would be a controversial practice.
“Not everyone’s going to be on board with this, and it seems extreme,” she said. “I know not everyone would be comfortable with it, but it should be looked at.”
She said that school resource officers cannot respond fast enough, so arming teachers is a possible solution.
Everytown Research and Policy, a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to reducing gun violence, reported in 2024 that arming teachers introduces new risks to schools because an armed teacher is more likely to shoot a student bystander, or be shot by responding law enforcement.
Taylor’s opponent, incumbent Kathryn Kuhlenberg, said the school district is funded for K-12 educational initiatives — not to police the schools. If they want to add more school resource officers to the Roaring Fork School District, the board should seek additional partnerships.
“We need to rely heavily on other local governmental organizations to help with that funding,” she said.
Barr’s opponent Tamara Nimmo did not provide school safety recommendations specifically, but she said parents should be able to trust that their students are safe at school.
“I’m grateful for the teachers and staff who are taking care of the kids and doing a great job,” she said.
Equity in student achievement
Roaring Fork School District board candidates want to improve student academic achievement across all demographic groups.
According to U.S. News and World Report, over 50% of students in the school district are Hispanic, and almost a quarter come from low-income households.
Taylor said that she wants to provide extra help to these students — particularly English language learners, students facing financial hardships and those with learning disabilities.
She suggested giving English-language learners more time to learn phonics and testing children earlier for learning disabilities like dyslexia.
“In order for them to reach the proficiency levels we’re looking for, some kids are going to need extra help,” Taylor said.
Kuhlenberg said that it is a constant balancing act juggling the needs of all in a diverse student population. She plans to take a student-first, data-driven approach to address equity in student achievement.
The district recently updated its Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education policy, which will allow the board to adjust staff time, allocate financial resources and communicate with families to support students from different cultural backgrounds or who speak languages other than English.
Kuhlenberg also said that helping every student is great in theory, but that costs a lot of money.
“We cannot be unrealistic in our expectations around providing kids with the help they need,” she said. “Our goal is to do that of course, but it has to be within economies of scale.”
For Barr, achievement equity starts with teachers through professional development opportunities.
“I’ve talked to teachers that have gotten professional development, … and they’re like, ‘We're so thankful for it, but if we only got it three years ago, ten years ago,’” she said.
Barr also said that teacher retention is important to reach these goals.
If elected to the board, Nimmo said her job would be to support the superintendent and hold the district accountable for meeting goals.
“I’ll make sure the policies that are being put in place are good ones, check to make sure they've been used in other places, and understand why we’re doing it,” she said.
Declining enrollment
Public school enrollment is declining across the country, including in the Roaring Fork School District.
Candidates had different explanations as to why fewer students are enrolling in the school district, and they each had multiple ideas for how to address the issue.
The district introduced a new health curriculum in 2023, and lessons include topics relevant to gender nonconforming and LQBTQ+ students, as well as expanded sex education.
Whenever schools teach sexual education, the state mandates that lessons be comprehensive and teach about different gender and sexual identities.
Taylor said this “transgender ideology” is one of the reasons parents are pulling their students from the public school system.
“Some of the stuff that I personally encountered when I brought my son here — I think is scaring a lot of parents too,” she said. “And that is bringing in a lot of the transgender ideology and doing it in a way that was kind of just under the radar, so the parents didn't know.”
Taylor said rebuilding trust with the community and providing transparency — by requiring teachers to share their lesson plans on a designated website — will persuade parents to bring their students back to the district.
The new curriculum is publicly available online, and parents can opt their students out of instruction.
Kuhlenberg maintained throughout the forum that addressing declining enrollment is one of her top priorities. She identified declining birth rates and the rise in homeschooling as a couple of factors leading to recent dips in enrollment.
She said that increasing funding for schools is a solution, even though Kuhlenberg said Taylor is looking to cut services regarding the health curriculum specifically.
“I can't express to you how angry it makes me to think that we would want someone on this board who was looking to strip services from our children in terms of the health curriculum,” Kuhlenberg said.
Kuhlenberg said during the last school board election, the new health curriculum was also a top issue — one that was supported by many parents.
Barr said fear among the undocumented immigrant community was one reason for declining enrollment. She said these families are afraid to bring their children to school.
“That's a real thing," Barr said. “I've talked to teachers that don't have kids coming to school for that reason.”
Barr also said that not everyone can homeschool their students or send them to private schools, so increasing trust between the schools and the community is key.
Nimmo said that teacher retention, through solutions like affordable housing, is one way to ensure excellent schools.
“I want to be able to make it so that teachers can really feel like they're a part of the community and live here in this community,” she said.
You can find the full candidate forum on the district’s YouTube channel.
Election Day is Nov. 4.
