School Board in Eastern Washington asks feds to intervene over OSPI gender policy mandates

In the letter, the board also argues state policy directly challenges and violates President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders

Carleen Johnson
The Center Square Washington

A Washington state school district just outside of Spokane is calling for federal intervention regarding a state-mandated gender-inclusive sports policy.

The Mead School Board has sent letters to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and the U.S. Department of Education, claiming the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction’s mandated policy conflicts with federal directives, undermines parental rights, and fails to protect fairness in women’s sports.

In the letter, the board also argues state policy directly challenges and violates President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders, particularly one intended to ban transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.

As previously reported by The Center Square, Superintendent Chris Reykdal has instructed schools to continue to allow transgender athletes to participate based on the gender they identify with.

“OSPI has sent us a letter telling us we are out of compliance with current 3211 policy,” Mead School Board Vice President BrieAnne Gray told The Center Square Wednesday. “We are in this situation where we have to comply, but it goes against the current Title IX regulations and the federal executive orders that have come out.”

Policy 3211 ensures all students, including transgender and gender-expansive students, feel safe, supported, and included, promoting equal educational opportunities and prohibiting discrimination, according to OSPI. 

Gray said it is the duty of members to reflect the values of their community.

“This goes back to listening to our parents and listening to our community,” she said. “We represent them, and we just feel like it’s our duty. They want us to act and support their beliefs, and that’s what we’re here to do as representatives.”

The school board’s Tuesday letter requests federal involvement.

“On behalf of the Mead School Board, we respectfully request urgent federal intervention regarding our school district’s current situation,” the letter reads. “As described below, the Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) has mandated that our school district revise its Gender-Inclusive Schools Policy and Procedure to conform to a state-wide model policy (3211/3211P). Doing so, however, would result in the district’s violation of Executive Orders issued by President Donald J. Trump on January 20, 2025, and February 1, 2025.”

The Mead School District finds itself in what Gray calls “an impossible situation.” 

“We feel like we’ve been put in a tough position because if we don’t comply with OSPI, we lose our state funding, and if we do comply with Washington state, we could lose our federal funding,” Gray explained.

OSPI Chief Communications Officer Katy Payne previously told The Center Square there has been no threat to withhold state funds from districts that don’t comply, while also noting OSPI does retain that option.

Senate Minority Leader John Braun, R-Centralia, lamented the impact on the education system.

“It would punish school districts for not following their social agenda, and while we can certainly disagree on a social agenda, what they are doing is undermining trust in the system, and when that happens, people are going to continue to walk away from the system,” Braun told The Center Square during a Wednesday interview. “We have been losing students because Democratic policies have undermined trust in our public education system and responsible parents are finding other options.”

Braun also noted that school districts are caught between a rock and a hard place.

“I would not want to be running a school district today because we have existing federal law which the current administration is intent on enforcing,” he said. “We have constant changing of the law at the state level, which is trying to enforce a very one-sided social agenda on school districts.”

The Center Square reached out to OSPI for comment on the Mead School Board’s request for federal intervention but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

This report was first published by The Center Square Washington.