District reports Title IX athletics inventory, finds 5.2% overall participation gap, flags drill team effect on spending

Jordan School District officials presented the annual Title IX‑related report Aug. 12 that the state now requires to show availability, participation, expenditures and facilities usage for gender‑designated interscholastic sports. What the report covers: Staff summarized required elements of Utah code 53G‑6‑1101 (House Bill 420) including counts of gender‑designated sports, participation by gender, per‑sport spending totals, per‑athlete spending, and comparisons of practice and game facility use. The district provided three years of trends for each high school; the full report shows school‑by‑school line items for participation and spending. Key findings staff highlighted: Across the 12 girls‑designated sports and 10 boys‑designated sports tracked under the statute, the district had a net 238 more boys than girls in gender‑designated sports — a 5.19% difference districtwide, down from 8.4% the prior year. Staff noted drill team (recently reclassified as coed/nonspecific) and competitive cheer spending heavily influence per‑student spending comparisons: current reporting excludes nonspecific sports and therefore drill historically inflated girls’ per‑student spending. The district called out that when drill becomes nonspecific it will remove a large female competitor count from the gender‑designated tally and thereby change the comparative math. Action plans and thresholds: The state requires an action plan when a school has a participation discrepancy of 10% or more between boys and girls in gender‑designated sports. Staff said for the first time in four years no school met that 10% threshold. Where schools did record discrepancies in prior years the district worked with principals and athletic directors on action plans that included recruitment in school halls and feeder clubs, exploring sub‑varsity teams, and evaluating roster sizes and coaching capacity. Spending and facilities: Staff presented total district spending reported for the year: about $2.0 million for boys’ sports and about $3.0 million for girls’ sports in the constrained statutory report (which excludes nonspecific sports). Staff warned that excluding nonspecific sports (drill, cheer, football, baseball where appropriate) can skew per‑student spending comparisons. Facility use comparisons showed the district generally tries to balance practice and game access between boys’ and girls’ teams but staff noted some practical differences among schools driven by available gym, field and auxiliary space. Recruiting and retention concerns: Board members and staff discussed local trends in student‑athlete movement between districts. Presentation authors said they are seeing cases of top athletes transferring to other districts and that competitive facilities, coaching pay and uniforms are factors. Staff said they are studying coaches’ pay across districts and have identified positions where pay was below regional averages; the district said it has begun targeted increases in some coach pay lines and will look for further steps. What the board asked for: Board members asked for additional breakdowns by school of per‑student spending including participation fees and booster or donor contributions (the statutory report excludes some collected participation fees). Members asked staff to return information on a few individual schools with notable spending or practice‑location questions and to provide a broader inventory of extracurricular participation beyond UHSAA athletics.