Multiple North County school board candidates recently received a political questionnaire from Calvary Chapel Paso Robles asking their stance on issues including student gender identity, LGBTQ-plus issues, and abortion.
Atascadero Unified School District school board incumbent Matthew Pennon and newcomer Veronica DeCoster said they, along with school board candidates in Paso Robles, had received the questionnaires via certified mail earlier this month, requesting they return their answers by Sept. 16.
"Calvary Paso has designed the following questionnaire to help us understand your position on a few issues that concern the electorate as a whole," the letter read. The document included questions about the candidates' views on topics such as removing books that contain persuasive or explicit content from school libraries and allowing biological boys to participate in girls' sports. Under each question the candidate was to select "support," "oppose," or "no answer."
"I thought it was interesting when I received the questionnaire because that questionnaire had a very specific intent, and that intent was not to foster collaboration," Pennon said. "It really seemed to come from a place of divisiveness, which in this day and age, just seems too prevalent."
Under the IRS, Calvary Chapel Paso Robles is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization, and according to federal Internal Revenue Code, those types of organizations "are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office."
Calvary Chapel Paso Robles did not respond to New Times' requests for comment.
While the questionnaire did not endorse any specific candidate, it did state that its purpose was to assist voters in "understanding [candidate's] overall perspectives."
DeCoster said the questionnaire was "unnerving" and felt like she was being manipulated.
"I felt like it was very one-sided, and it felt like a trap to me," she said. "One of the things that was most concerning about it is you had three options—either support, oppose, or no answer—and there was no space given for you to explain your answer, so it was very black and white."
DeCoster also said some of the questions weren't related to student issues and asked about her stance on LGBTQ-plus issues and abortion.
"[It was] completely irrelevant and, in my opinion, improper to be asking a school board candidate," she said.
Both Pennon and DeCoster said they did not return the questionnaire.
Pennon said he instead emailed the church and encouraged them to visit his campaign website for his platform and views. He has not received a response.
"[That email] was open, it was honest. It stuck to the points of my campaign, and it also left open that opportunity for a conversation, for collaboration," Pennon said. "In not getting a response, that clearly showed to me that there was no intent for that."
According to the questionnaire, if candidates chose to return the questionnaire, the results would be posted on the website of Real Impact, a ministry of Calvary Paso that provides a California voter's guide that offers "impartial information" on California elections.
A representative from Real Impact told New Times that the organization had not sent the questionnaire to the North County candidates and confirmed that Calvary Paso would have sent them.
Similar questionnaires were sent to school board candidates in South County that asked the same questions, including topics of amending the constitutional definition of marriage and allowing mental health professionals to remove minors from their homes without parental consent, although these questionnaires were affiliated with a different church.
According to Lucia Mar Unified School District board member Colleen Martin, school board candidates received questionnaires from an organization called Pulse of the Central Coast, a low-profile group associated with Grace Bible Church in Arroyo Grande.
Grace Bible Church declined to comment when contacted by New Times.
"Those questionnaires had nothing to do with school board governance," Martin said. "Throughout my time on the board I have never seen such a questionnaire so outrageously slanted." Δ