Winthrop School Board debates transgender-student policy amid legal risk, safety and fairness concerns

The Winthrop School Board held an extended discussion over its policy addressing transgender and gender-expansive students, weighing a staff recommendation and legal context before asking the policy committee to research options further. Superintendent Donna Foley reviewed three policy paths: keep the district’s current policy (JB/JBR), adopt the more recent recommended policy titled ACAAA (which specifically references gender-expansive students and uses more permissive language for accommodations), or remove the specific policy and rely on other code sections.

Foley told the board that the district’s existing JB and regulation JBR align with current Maine state law. She said several districts are involved in complaints or investigations with the Maine Human Rights Commission and that legal defense costs are effectively capped: "Our district's insurance carrier is XL Indian Harbor... there is a collective cap of 250,000 in insurance coverage for the legal defense cost across all districts involved in this lawsuit," Foley said, warning that once the insurance limit is exhausted each district would be responsible for remaining defense costs. Foley also noted that if the law changes after a referendum the district would then change its policy accordingly.

Board members voiced a range of concerns. One member said, "I do not want a biological boy in a in a biological girl's class bathroom or a locker room," framing the question primarily as protecting girls’ privacy and fairness in sports. Other board members urged caution about exposing the district to litigation and losing federal funding, and several asked staff to gather model policy language from other districts and to provide sample approaches, including designating some sports as male/female/coed. Libby, a board member, urged the group to remember student mental-health consequences and cited statewide survey data: "there's less than 4 percent of Maine students that are transgender," she said, arguing for protections that do not further marginalize a vulnerable population.

School leaders described how the district has handled accommodations for a small number of students: the high-school principal said the district has allowed transgender students to use restrooms aligned with their gender identity and provided single-stall and nurse’s restrooms for privacy; the middle-school principal said similar steps (nurse’s office, curtains, coach’s area) have been used without major incidents. Several board members noted the procedural route for athletic eligibility—petitioning a gender-equity committee through the Maine Principals Association—and the practical limits of enforcing a local ban against transgender athletes when playing against other districts that follow state rules.

The discussion produced no policy vote. Instead, the board asked the policy committee to gather sample language from districts that have adopted different approaches, to research implications for Title IX and the Maine Human Rights Act, and to present options at a future meeting (Joel Stoneton will present on related questions next week). Superintendent Foley said she would provide further legal and insurance context. The board did not take action at this meeting.