28 minute read
Executive Session with Randy Hutchinson
from March 2021
by ASBA
EXECUTIVE SESSION
with Randy Hutchinson
By Steve Brawner Editor
Randy Hutchinson has spent all but five years of his life in Springdale. The 1986 Springdale High School graduate was an All-State center on the basketball team and is a member of the athletic hall of fame. When his children became students, he became involved in the PTA and then was elected to the school board 13 years ago. His Shelter insurance agency provides three scholarships each year to graduates of his alma mater.
Springdale is the state’s largest district with a diverse population comprised primarily of Hispanic, white, and Marshallese students. Forty-eight languages are spoken in the homes of the district’s roughly 22,700 students, a third of whom are English language learners. Hutchinson loves the diversity of the student population and believes Springdale is a wonderful example of how children from anywhere, with diverse backgrounds, languages and cultures, can form strong bonds to create a resilient Springdale family.
Report Card sat down with Hutchin- son to discuss his district’s challenges, its School of Innovation, and how it has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic.
When you’re a school board member and your district is changing so much demographically, how do you keep the community together?
“It could have been challenging, but [former longtime superintendent] Dr. [Jim] Rollins always did a great job of including people, getting the leaders to participate in the education process. Significant effort went into blending many different cultures together to create a sense of one community. We are proud of how our community has come together and is so inclusive and caring for one another. Our student body is second to none.
“Early on, when our community began to experience significant increases of students, Dr. Rollins invited many Hispanic and Marshallese leaders to partner with the school district in the educational process for children. So, we created a trusting relationship with the Hispanic and Marshallese communities early on by identifying the importance of education and inviting everyone to participate. The first step was being present, engaged, and ready to learn. Our diverse cultures are highlighted often and are indeed a tremendous influence in our community. Our diversity enriches the Springdale experience for all.”
Now is there more of a community atmosphere, and everyone accepts that this is the way we do things?
“Yeah. Oh, it’s great. From a school perspective, now again, I’ll go back to my experience as a father with kids in school. We always had a Super Bowl
party when my kids were at the junior high stage. … We’ve got a little 1,400-square-foot house. We’d have 40 or 50 kids in our living room. My wife and I would sit back and just kind of check out who all was there. We had as many as 10 or 15 countries represented in our living room, which we thought was great. I mean, I think the diversity piece is an awesome piece of the Springdale puzzle.”
What’s it like trying to run the largest school district in Arkansas?
“I like to tell people it’s like trying to guide an aircraft carrier, and trying to make a change, it’s kind of like turning an aircraft carrier. You can’t just turn it on a dime. It takes a lot of work, and you’ve always got to be looking around the corner. Dr. Rollins was always a master at that. [Current superintendent] Dr. [Jared] Cleveland has proven to be pretty darn good at it, too, taking over during this pandemic, and things have gone pretty smoothly with him. We’re blessed. We have a great administrative team, and all seven of us, the school board members, are confident in their abilities, and it’s worked out pretty well.
“But yeah, it’s a difficult thing. I try not to think about it because the numbers are staggering. Our district has roughly 23,000 students, 3,000 employees, $250-$270 million budget. When you think about it, you’re like, ooh. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. We have an elephant here, and you just have to depend on the people that you trust that are in place to do what they’re trained to do. And we’ve been very fortunate because they have proven to be the best in the business over time. …
“And that’s why I stay on. Thirteen years, if there was just chaos all the time, I’ve got many other things I could be doing. But it’s enjoyable. I enjoy being around the students and staff. I enjoy feeling like I make a difference. So that’s why I’m an active board member, and I plan on continuing for a few more. I’m up for re-election next year, so I’ll be running again.”
With the largest school district in the state, and with 48 languages, how have you handled COVID?
“Well, I think we win the prize for having the most numbers, but that’s obviously to be expected considering we are the largest district. I have been a student during the COVID situation because I care about our students, staff, and community in general. ... Out of our 3,600 staff and 22,700 kids, we’ve had 365 staff that have been positive since school started, and we’ve had 1,055 students that have tested positive, so 12% of our teachers and 5% of our kids have been positive. A significant difficulty we face is quarantining of staff and students. We’ve experienced roughly 4,600 quarantines so far collectively.
“But yeah, it’s made it very challenging to have class. I don’t know if you knew or not, but back in the fall around Thanksgiving, our district experienced a significant shortfall of substitutes that strained our ability to cover classrooms appropriately. We chose to pause in-person learning for two weeks and move strictly to remote learning. A key question we faced was, when does remote teaching and learning become a better option than in-person learning? Our answer was clear. Remote learning is better when we do not have a quality, caring teacher present to deliver or facilitate the learning in person. Our goal was to get a reset and have that last three or four weeks before we released for Christmas. The spring semester is critical for assessments and each day of instruction is important. We needed our staff on campus to drive that instruction. We sprinted to the finish line of the semester and got to Christmas. We worked hard over the Christmas break to recruit college students into our sub-pool along with patrons of our region. It worked for the most part and we were able to make it through the difficulties of January. February and March are typical weather months, so we will likely have new obstacles to overcome.
“The good news is, out of the 4,600 [close contacts] that we’ve had, 64 of them actually ended up with COVID. Out of 4,600 people that have been sent home because they were a close contact, 64 of them actually got COVID. That’s 1.4%. That’s pretty good.”
How have y’all communicated to these different populations what you need them to do?
“Well, I think a lot of that’s done on the school level by communicating in multiple languages, on social media, letters, and school email platforms. You can’t personally go to every household and check and see what they’re doing, especially during a pandemic. We just have to go on faith that everyone
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is doing his or her part and it’s getting done. You make sure that everybody’s wearing their mask at school and try to keep them distanced as much as you can.
“Har-Ber’s girls golf team, before the state championship was coming up, knew they had a good shot at winning it. They all self-quarantined for a couple of weeks before the event, so they could all go down there and compete – they actually did win the state championship – and not have to worry about getting plucked out the day before they left to go compete. The Springdale [basketball] girls coach was down to like six girls the other day. They had to cancel two games because too many players were considered possible close contacts. Fortunately, everyone was OK. So coaches are having a tough time trying to actually compete.”
You are an insurance agent, which means that your profession is about assessing and responding to risk. How does that inform how you’ve looked at COVID as a school board member?
“I do try to look at things more from a percentage. You know, 4,623 sounds like an awful lot – and it is; it’s a lot of people. But when you look at how many people we have, percentages can help keep perspective. I mean, one number is one too many, but perspective is important.
“The news always leads with ‘Cases up. Five thousand cases in Arkansas.’ OK, but how many of those come to something bad? And that’s the way I look at it. I mean, 1.4% actually are positive, that is encouraging, noticing that the work we are doing is at least helping the numbers stay reasonably low. That’s what I look at. I try to temper everything by trying to look at it from a percentage versus the sheer number.”
So are you the voice of tamping down the worry sometimes?
“There’s two or three of us that have kind of the same thought. I’m not the only one. I’m probably not the most outspoken. None of us think it’s a hoax or a conspiracy or anything. We under- stand that COVID is real. There’s no doubt about. There is COVID. I feel like I’m being manipulated sometimes from a state perspective, from a national perspective, from a political perspective. …
“We’re going to follow the CDC and the Arkansas Department of Health and Arkansas Department of Education rules. We’re going to follow those. Even if I or anybody else on the board thinks [differently], we’re still going to follow it. We’re going to do what we have to do to have school because we definitely believe the schools should be open for our children. We all believe that every child should be in school and have great access to their learning. So if it takes wearing a mask and jumping through 14 different hoops and doing exactly what the medical experts tell us we should do to safely have school, we’ll do it. We all have been inconvenienced and are tired of the situation, but we’re going to do whatever it takes for our students and staff, hopefully with a smile.”
Let’s talk about the Don Tyson School of Innovation.
“You get to kind of design your plan on how you’re going to get through your three or four years of school. We had a student from DTSOI present to the school board at a previous meeting, and he described his experience at the school. He’s going to graduate from the Don Tyson School of Innovation with two associate’s degrees from the local community college … and he’s going to study biology at the University of Arkansas and then plans to attend medical school. Obviously, he’s a special young man, but what other high school have you ever heard of where you could graduate high school and obtain two associate’s (degrees) at the same time? He can be a doctor sooner if that’s what he ends up wanting to do.
“So the opportunities that are avail- able at Don Tyson School of Innovation are what’s really cool. We’ve got kids that for whatever reason, they can’t come to school for a month or whatever. Maybe we’ve got an aspiring gymnast or a missionary family needs to be able to earn a Springdale education but needs flexibility to do it remotely, from practically anywhere in the world from right there at the computer. Virtual learning is not new this year. DTSOI developed virtual learning from the start, well before the pandemic hit. They were able to do this before we were required to make it available to everybody.
DTSOI not only focuses on college but on business and industry certificates. We offer diesel mechanics, industrial maintenance, construction technology, culinary arts, and many more. The culinary arts program in Phase 2 that was just completed is likely the envy of most chefs in a state-of-the-art restaurant kitchen. It’s unbelievable the facilities and staff the students have at their disposal. They offer electrical, plumbing and on and on. It’s just amazing. By the time you get out of there, if you want to, you can have all kinds of certifications, you can have associate’s degrees. If you don’t want to go to college, you could go right into a
I try not to think about it because the numbers are stagger “ ing. Our district has roughly 23,000 students, 3,000 employees, $250-$270 million budget. When you think about it, you’re like, ooh. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. We have an elephant here, and you just have to depend on the people that you trust that are in place to do what ”they’re trained to do.
plumbing program or in an electrical program or a diesel mechanic. Those guys make six figures.”
What makes it different?
“Well, there’s nothing traditional about it. … Don Tyson School of Innovation – big open spaces, you can kind of set your schedule, you can pick your classes a lot easier than in a traditional setting. You can go ahead if you are a math whiz, and you can get through algebra in four weeks? Go for it, and then jump into Algebra II. If you can get done with that in four more weeks, then you can go on into trigonometry. … You can go as fast as you want to go, or if you hit something that’s not working right and it’s not clicking, you can slow it down. They’ve got extra help over there that can get you through if you have a rough spot, and then you’re off and running again. So just the atmosphere, the scheduling, the seat time requirements have been waived. They don’t have to be there for seven [periods]. … All those requirements have been waived because of the status of the school, and they just kind of move at their own pace. You turn a kid loose that really embraces that, and it’s amazing some of the stuff they can do.”
Now school districts have no choice but to be innovative because we’re not going back.
“No, I’m afraid not. Like you said, the genie’s out of the bottle. It’s hard to stuff her back in there and undo that. Personally, I think every kid should be in school five days a week. … I’m afraid what we’re going to figure out eventual- ly is a lot of these kids that were staying home and doing virtual, [I’m] not sure that they’re going to be as well off as if they would have been coming to class for five days a week.”
Maybe I’m putting words in your mouth. More flexibility’s good, but you’re concerned that we’re going to go too far, right?
“I think we need to look at each situation and make sure that whatever that kid chooses, or whatever those parents choose for that kid is really what’s best for that kid. How you do that, I don’t know. When you’ve got 22,000 kids to say grace over, I don’t know how you do that. But I think there’s got to be some checks and balances there. I’m actually glad that they’re going to have testing this year because I want to see how the testing goes, and I want to see it broken down: These kids were five-day-a-week in school; these kids were two-day-a- week; these kids were three-day-a-week; these kids were all 100% virtual. I want to see the numbers. I want to see how they compare.”
We’ll be through with this pandemic at some point. How do you think next year will look at Springdale?
“Well, I hope it’s what we would all consider as normal – you know, back in school, allowing people to have lunch together. We used to have a school board lunch in every school at least once a year. We’d go to all 31 facilities at least one time every year. We’d spend about an hour and a half. Kids would put on a program. We’d eat lunch. We’d meet with administrators. We’d see kids, which was awesome. That’s one of the best parts of our job. Well, we don’t do that anymore. So tomorrow morning, 7:45, we’re going to go to Tyson Middle School. We’re going to have like a little 30-minute walk-around. There will be about five of us that walk around and just kind of see how things are going. But it’s not the same as spending an hour and a half with them and doing all that. So I want to get back to normal.
“And we talk to kids. What do you miss? They miss being able to socialize with their friends. They can’t stand in the hallway together and talk. They can’t eat together in the lunchroom. They can’t do things that you think of that you would enjoy doing when you go to school. And I want to get back to more normalcy – have a regular classroom, have everybody in class all the time, have lunch, have our school board lunches, have sporting events without having to worry about turning people away because you can only have 20% of the gym full. Just get it back to regular again.
“Now I don’t know what the definition of ‘normal’ or ‘regular’ is. I’m sure it’s going to be changed a little bit, but I want to get it closer to what it was in January of last year. So I really hope that we get there.”
Note: Executive Session is edited for length, style and clarity.
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Chartwells K12 adds jobs, employs almost 500 in state
In a year when many employers were reducing their workforce, Chartwells K12 added jobs in Arkansas. The contract school nutrition provider employs 489 Arkansans through its 26 school district partnerships in the state.
The company’s Arkansas representative, Kellye Neal, said Chartwells is composed of a family of companies with specific areas of expertise. It can offer school clients the kind of attention to detail normally found among local, family-owned businesses.
“My sole focus is getting more K-12 students eating and enjoying school meals,” she said.
Chartwells K12 fed meals to all the students at its partner schools over the holiday breaks, providing them enough food to get through the entire break.
Hot Springs School District Superintendent Stephanie Nehus, a client of Chartwells, said, “Everything that we do at the Hot Springs School District is centered around the needs of students and families. I am so proud to work with professionals at Chartwells who continually help us identify efficient and effective ways to make sure our families are taken care of inside and outside our schools.”
For more information, contact Neal at 501.615.3660 or at kellye.neal@ compass-usa.com.
C.R. Crawford brings to life new Pea Ridge High
C.R. Crawford Construction was construction manager for Pea Ridge’s new 140,000-square-foot high school, complete with an athletic center, fine arts center, and community clinic.
The facility accommodates PRHS’s new innovative education program, Pathways. The district has partnered with business and industry leaders to develop a curriculum that provides workforce skills and lets students engage in and explore potential career paths.
“The kids are going to be working and living and learning in this amazing setting,” said Pea Ridge Superintendent Keith Martin. “I think it will enable them to walk into any other environment, be it a business or college, and feel comfortable.”
For more information, go to www. crcrawford.com or call 479.251.1161.
The Fayetteville High softball field.
Hight Jackson Associates designs new sports facilities
Hight Jackson Associates has designed a new softball complex for Fayetteville High School, and construction was completed February 2020. The complex includes softball fields, dugouts, stands, press box, and indoor training facility.
Recent projects completed for Rogers School District include a multi-purpose gymnasium addition for Heritage High School, a competition gymnasium for Rogers High School, and baseball/softball complexes for both high schools.
For more information about Hight Jackson Associates, call 479.464.4965 or go to www.hjarch.com.
All-Clean USA of Jonesboro worked to mitigate and dry the water in the Blytheville High School auditorium after a supply line burst and caused major flooding.
All-Clean used specialized equipment to ensure proper drying, replaced the carpet, and cleaned and sanitized the theater chairs.
To learn more about how All-Clean USA can help schools with fire, smoke and water damage, go to allcleanusa. com or call any of its three locations: Jonesboro, 870.972.1922; Conway, 501.336.0075; and Hot Springs, 501.760.0075. Someone is available 24/7 to take your call.
First Security Beardsley issues 120 bonds in 2020
First Security Beardsley in 2020 worked with school districts across the state to issue more than 120 bonds to expand, improve and better serve students. Those bond issues saved clients more than $80 million that can be used to serve students rather than servicing debt and paying interest. For more information about how to partner with First Security Beardsley, call 800.965.4644.
All-Clean USA mitigates damage at Blytheville High
TIPS purchases on HVACs can be made with ESSER
Arkansas school districts that obtain Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds can
utilize TIPS contracts to save additional money.
ESSER funds can be used to replace or upgrade existing HVAC units, giving school districts the ability to retain their building fund balance, increase air quality, cut energy costs and pay for these upgrades with the stimulus money.
Through TIPS, the competitive bidding process has been completed and a district can choose from multiple vendors that have provided discount pricing and a history of savings. Visit tips-usa. com.covid.cfm for more ways to utilize ESSER funds, including personal protective equipment contracts.
For more information, contact Mickey McFatridge at 870.926.9250 or go to www.tips-usa.com.
As a reminder, Stephens can assist school board members with obtaining their required professional development hours.
Arkansas law generally requires that school board members obtain up to six hours of certified professional development on topics related to school operations.
The Arkansas School Board Association (ASBA) has deemed Stephens’ financial advisors as certified ASBA trainers who are able to provide up to three hours of school finance training annually toward ASBA’s Boardsmanship Awards Program. Normally held in the evening or on a weekend, this free training workshop addresses topics ranging from state and local funding revenue sources to debt financing of capital projects. Stephens believes this type of workshop can be particularly useful if boards are considering how to finance future capital projects.
To learn more about how Stephens can assist your district, contact Michael McBryde of Stephens Public Finance at 501.377.2641.
Stephens can help board members get training credit
The architectural rendering and the school under construction.
French Architects designs Lakeside Junior High School
French Architects designed the Hot Springs Lakeside Junior High for seventh and eighth grade students.
The district wanted the design to incorporate the newest technology and encourage project learning and group learning. The focus was on collaboration and innovation throughout the process.
For more information about French Architects, email David French at david@frencharchitects.net, or check out the firm’s Facebook page.
Entegrity solar project gets help from FFA sheep
Entegrity has partnered with Cedar Ridge Schools and Midland School District on a 1.36 MW solar array resulting in annual savings of approximately $65,000 and $46,000, respectively.
The school districts were the first in the state to utilize agrivoltaics, the co-location of agriculture and solar, by implementing sheep as their grounds maintenance crew. The districts’ Future Farmers of America students will cultivate the grounds and raise the sheep as part of their curriculum.
To learn more, contact Entegrity at 800.700.1414 or visit the company’s website at www.entegritypartners.com.
The Sheridan School District has partnered with Kohler to create a space that prepares students for careers in manufacturing in a new high school addition. The addition is part of a districtwide building plan Nabholz is managing.
The Kohler Academy features a Kohler Robotics Lab with equipment used in Kohler’s manufacturing plants. The academy consists of two career pathways: a computer-integrated manufacturing career-oriented track and an engineering college-oriented track. Students who take the manufacturing track receive training that prepares them for a career at Kohler – or another manufacturing company – right out of high school.
For more information about Nabholz, go to nabholz.com or call 877.NABHOLZ.
Chase Slifka and Sofia Lopez work with an injection molding machine.
School built by Nabholz teaches manufacturing
WER Architects has teamed with Jacksonville North Pulaski School District to design new facilities for the district across all age levels. The new Jacksonville High School and Bobby G. Lester Elementary School have both
been completed, and the new elementary and middle schools are under construction. These facilities have been designed to promote citizenship throughout the student population. The spaces engage the student and promote active learning and the act of helping one another.
For more information about WER Architects, go to werarch.com.
England Elementary Designed by Modus Studio being built
Construction is underway for the England School District’s new elementa-
Technology is transforming K–12 education by enabling richer, more personalized and more student-centered learning environments. Aided by technology, students are collaborating with their peers and with subject matter experts around the world, creating and sharing original ideas.
Homeland Safety Systems’ technology has allowed students and staff to maintain safety in their facilities with the use of air sampling detectors, and has increased accountability of the policies and procedures necessary during the COVID pandemic.
Homeland Safety Systems is looking forward to working with Arkansas state educators on ideas to better enhance the safety of their facilities through the use of technology.
For more information about Homeland Safety Systems’ offerings, go to www.homelandsafetysystems.com or call 888.909.2261.
ry school facility. Designed by Fayetteville architecture firm Modus Studio, the new two-story, approximately 57,000-square-foot Pre-K and K-6 building will include general classrooms, a computer lab, cafeteria, self-contained classroom, fine arts, multi-purpose spaces, and other resources. The building’s design responds to the juxtaposition of the city grid and the surrounding natural landscape, with overlapping forms creating an outdoor classroom and covered play area. Construction is scheduled to be completed by January 2022.
For more information about Modus Studio, go to modusstudio.com or call 479.455.5577.
Homeland technology makes schools safer
Commercial Affiliates
ASBA thanks its premier partners and other commercial affiliates for their support.
Premier Partners Contact Phone Email
American Fidelity
Tom Sledge 800.688.4421 tom.sledge@americanfidelity.com
Apptegy BXS
David Rutledge 501.613.0370 David.rutledge@apptegy.com Bill Birch 501.614.1170 bill.birch@bxsi.com First Security Beardsley Public Finance Scott Beardsley 501.978.6392 scott@fsbeardsley.com Homeland Safety Systems, Inc. Mike Elliott 318.221.8062 mike@hssems.com Jackson Brown Palculict Architects Randall Palculict 501.664.8700 randy@jbparchitects.com
Website
americanfidelity.com www.apptegy.com www.bxsi.com fsbeardsley.com www.homelandsafetysystems.com www.jbparchitects.com
Lifetouch National School Studios, Inc. Patrick Hand 479.631.8951 phand@lifetouch.com schools.lifetouch.com
Pro Benefits Group, Inc.
Gary Kandlbinder 501.321.0457 pbfsi@sbcglobal.net
www.pbfsi.com Stephens Inc. Jason Holsclaw 501.377.2474 jason.holsclaw@stephens.com www.stephens.com The Interlocal Purchasing System (TIPS) Mickey McFatridge 870.839.8477 mickey.mcfatridge@tips-usa.com www.tips-usa.com
Exhibiting Partners All-Clean USA AVID Contact
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Melissa Martin 870.972.1922 mmartin@allcleanusa.com Marybeth Hines 858.654.5072 mhines@avid.org C.R. Crawford Construction, LLC Jordan Ligon 479.251.1161 jligon@crcrawford.com Capital Business Machines, Inc. Ben Higgs 501.375.1111 bhiggs@capbiz.com
Website
www.allcleanusa.com www.avid.org www.crcrawford.com www.capbiz.com
Chartwells
Kellye Neal 501.615.3660 kellye.neal@compass-usa.com www.chartwellsk12.com
Crow Group, Inc. Entegrity Energy Partners
Morgan Zimmerman 479.264.4332 mzimmerman@crowgrp.com www.crowgrp.com
Rick Vance 501.414.0058 rick.vance@entegritypartners.com www.entegritypartners.com
ESS Kinco Constructors
Julie Crum
870.236.2350 jcrum@ess.com Clay Gordon 501.225.7606 cgordon@kinco.net ess.com kincoconstructors.com
KLC Video Security McPherson & Jacobson, LLC Southern Bleacher Company Summit Bus WER Architects/Planners
Bill King
903.792.7262 billking.klc@gmail.com Thomas Jacobson 888.375.4814 mail@macnjake.com
www.klcvideosecurity.net www.macnjake.com Sarah Lundgren 940.549.0733 lundgren@southernbleacher.com www.southernbleacher.com Richard Cooper 501.945.8400 richard.cooper@summittruckgroup.com summittruckgroup.com Russell Fason 501.374.5300 rfason@werarch.com werarch.com
Supporting Partners Central States Bus Sales, Inc. Cobb & Suskie, Ltd. Contact
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Mike Wingerter 501.955.2577 mikew@centralstatesbus.com Michael Cobb 501.225.2133 mcobb@cobbandsuskie.com
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www.centralstatesbus.com www.cobbandsuskie.com
Schools will soon face a lot of necessary adapting when it comes to transgender students, bathrooms, and sports.
It has been illegal to discriminate against a person in the workplace based on their sex since at least 1964 with the passage of Title VII. Then Title IX expanded those protections to include discrimination against students in educational programs in 1972. Schools have long known they must treat female students the same as male students, whether it be equal access to social clubs, sports, STEM classes or vo-tech.
The law regarding transgender students has been less clear. It was not until June 2020, with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Bostock v. Clayton, that the legal interpretation of “sex” was expanded to include sexual orientation and gender identity. It is now undisputed law that an employer cannot discriminate against an applicant or employee because they are gay, transgender, nonbinary, etc. This ruling is currently limited to employment practices, but it is widely believed it will be expanded to include public school activities governed under Title IX, which is just one of more than 100 federal statutes prohibiting discrimination on the basis of “sex.”
Currently, an Arkansas school can require that a student use the bathroom and participate in the sport that corresponds with their biological sex. My advice if a transgender biological male is requesting access to a female facility is to provide access to a private bathroom. This solution follows the current law and may help prevent potential legal battles. When it comes to the student’s preferred use of pronouns, don’t fight it.
Sports are a little trickier (see Arkansas Activities Association rules), but the common advice is to let the student participate in the activity that aligns with their gender identity when at all possible, but to provide private bath and locker room accommodations.
Our advice likely will soon change. President Biden has ordered a review of all agency rules (including the Department of Education’s) to ensure they are consistent with the new Supreme Court holding that “sex” includes gender identity. The executive order announcing
by Cody Kees Attorney at law
the review specifically said “[c]hildren should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports.” This wording suggests that students must be allowed to use the public restroom of their gender identity. This is the guidance offered by President Obama’s administration that was rescinded under President Trump. Likewise, if a transgender female is on the football team (which is currently allowed by AAA), that female would be allowed access to the men’s locker room, even if a private room were provided. We anticipate the Biden rules will have limited, if any, restrictions on how transgender students should be accommodated in the use of bath and changing rooms. How schools address the inevitable concerns of other students who don’t want to use those rooms with the opposite biological sex remains unclear.
What Biden will say about sports is a bit of a sticky wicket. Democrats have long-championed Title IX as a mechanism for increasing woman’s access to competitive sports, but the law recognizes that sex segregation is allowed when it is based upon competitive skill or in contact sports. If the Biden rules allow a biological male to compete on the female team, it could certainly lead to an unfair advantage. Indeed, conservative legislatures across the country, including here in Arkansas, are considering bills that would allow biological females to compete on male sports teams but would not allow a biological male to compete on the female team. These bills have generally been opposed by civil liberties groups, and in the end, any state law on the issue would have to give way to federal law.
Some scholars predict a compromise may be in the works, where there are no biological sex restrictions for most K-12 sports, but restrictions do exist for sports at the upper high school, college, and pro levels.
Regardless, the general rules will involve participation and accommodation, with more specifics yet to come.
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