
A Substack article by Restore Ottawa on October 15 claims that the Grand Haven Area Public Schools (GHAPS) board “quietly implemented changes to their Title IX policy” using a “stealthy approach” to do so. The article also claims that “These [Title IX] changes mandate that teachers use students’ chosen pronouns, allow boys to access girls’ private spaces, and allow boys to compete in girls’ sports.”
In summary, the article claims::
- Title IX Regulations mandate that:
- Teachers use students’ preferred pronouns,
- Allow boys access to girls’ private spaces
- Allow boys to compete in girls’ sports
- The GHAPS Board acted without transparency, by adopting these new rules in a board meeting without previous discussion or without using the words “Title IX” in the agenda.
- By adopting the updated Title IX policies, GHAPS (and any other public school who adopts the policies) “are willing to force teachers and students to affirm LGBTQ students in exchange for Federal funding.”
What is Title IX?
Title IX regulations were first implemented in 1972 with the goal of protecting students from discrimination against them because of their sex. It states that “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance” (Michigan.gov).
This is a fairly broad statement, and the full regulations go into more detail. Since 1972, these regulations have been amended and redefined multiple times to try and increase clarity. In 2020, the Trump administration made updates to Title IX regulations that “balance the scales of justice.” (Inside Higher Ed).
In April 2024, the Biden administration announced updates to Title IX regulations to include protections for pregnant and LGBTQI+ students (npr.org). According to Nichole Merhill, Title IX Coordinator at Harvard University, this update is “not so much an expansion of what was covered, but really a clarification on the application of Title IX.” (harvard.edu)
After the Title IX announcement this spring, several states along with the extremist group, Moms for Liberty, brought a lawsuit (currently involving 26 states) against the federal government, and there is currently an injunction from the Supreme Court that prevents this from going into effect in those states. However, Michigan is not on that list and must comply in order to follow the federal regulation. To clarify, the Title IX regulations are only required in order for schools to continue to receive federal funding, but aren’t required of any institution that doesn’t receive funding from the federal government.
What are the details of these 2024 updates?
An overview from an ed.gov fact sheet shows how Title IX hopes to provide students with full protection from sex-based harassment. Restore Ottawa’s article states that these regulations will require “teachers [to] use students’ preferred pronouns and allow boys access to girls’ private spaces.” However, there is no specific requirement stated in these regulations—getting to this level of detail remains at the discretion of each school district or individual institution.
The Restore Ottawa article also states that the regulations will “allow boys to compete in girls’ sports.” However, the ed.gov fact sheet states, “The final regulations do not include new rules governing eligibility criteria for athletic teams.”
All Title IX regulations, current or included in these recent updates, are only required for schools who receive federal funding. GHAPS does receive federal funding (the budget proposal for the 2024-2025 school year estimates federal funding at $2.4 million, almost 3% of the school’s total annual budget), and therefore if they wish to continue to receive that funding they will need to comply with the updated policies.
So what about the GHAPS board, specifically?
The Restore Ottawa article mentions that at a Blank Canvas event Superintendent Kristen Perkowski stated that approving the Title IX updates was required by vote. And the article asks, “Why vote on something that is required? If a vote is required, then it is permissible to vote No.” What Perkowski likely meant was that they could vote no, but then the school risks losing $2.4 million each year by not complying with the Title IX updates.
As far as the school board operating with a “stealthy approach” as the Restore Ottawa article also states, the board meetings haven’t changed their meeting cadence. The Grand Haven Area Public Schools Board meets several times a year—and multiple policies, including Title IX, are a regular part of these meetings. In 2020 when the Trump administration did its own updates to TItle IX policies, the GHAPS board met to adopt these rules, listing them in the August 10, 2020 agenda under “Board of Education Policy Updates.” At that meeting, the Title IX policies, along with others, were adopted with a 7-0 vote (board meeting minutes). In 2020 the GHAPS Board included John Siemion, Chris Streng, Nichol Stack, Seth Holt, Christine Baker, James O’Neal, and Carl Treutler.
This year, the September 19 Agenda included an item called, “2nd Reading and Adoption of Board Policy Updates” which is very similar wording to all past agendas. In the September 19 meeting minutes, you can see that the current board also passed all discussed policies with a 7-0 vote. The current board includes 5 of the 7 previous board members (Chris Streng, Seth Holt, Nichol Stack, Christine Baker, and Carl Treutler) and only 2 new members (Marc Eickholt and Kristal Boyd).
Organize Ottawa recommends voting for Kristal Boyd, Cyndi Casemier, and Heather Herrygers for the Grand Haven Public School Board, to keep extremist viewpoints off the public school board. The article in Substack is an angry letter that focuses on Title IX as a buzzword, without fully understanding all the details of the regulations, and with no understanding of how it affects our local schools, their students and staff, and their important funding.