Concerned Elida citizens pack into the high school’s community room for an Elida school board meeting Thursday.
Mackenzi Klemann/The Lima News
ELIDA — After months of protest, critics of an Elida schools policy granting transgender students access to the facilities of their preferred gender identity won a major concession Thursday as three newly sworn-in school board members voted to require all students to use the facilities of their biological sex or use a single-use family restroom.
The policy change, which came before the board as a last-minute addition to Thursday’s agenda, fulfills a campaign promise from new board members Jeffrey Point, David Peters and Jaired Birks.
The trio, who now claim a majority on the five-member board, wasted no time as they amended their agenda to include a reading of the “Bathroom and Locker Room Safety Policy” and the rescission of a resolution adopted by the board last April, which outlined their previous stance on the issue.
“We have a clear electoral mandate,” Birks said.
Birks, Peters and Point voted in favor of the new bathroom policy over the objections of incumbents Alisa Agozzino and Jeff Christoff, who asked to table discussion until February because they were “blindsided” and wanted to consult with legal counsel first — prompting Peters to suggest the board search for a new law firm to represent Elida schools — and warnings from Superintendent Joel Mengerink that doing so put the trio at risk of losing their insurance coverage.
“If we table this,” Birks said, “something could happen.” He added: “the board has had a lot of time to address this issue.”
Birks, Point and Peters used their newfound majority to advocate for other changes, like limiting the superintendent’s spending authority from $50,000 to $25,000 per contract without board approval.
The board will likely debate next month whether the district’s open enrollment policy should include references to race, which Birks opposed.
Elida schools will continue paying the public education advocacy group Ohio Education Policy Institute $1,000 a year, despite opposition from Point and Peters, who argued the contract is a waste of resources.
And the board may start searching for a new law firm to represent the district after Peters described general counsel Scott Scriven, which has represented Elida schools for decades, as “woke.”
Thursday’s meeting in Elida underscores disagreements regarding accommodations for transgender students and federal Title IX regulations, which prohibit schools that receive federal funding from discriminating on the basis of sex.
Elida schools, which receives roughly$4.2 million in federal funding each year, granted transgender students access to restroom and locker facilities that matched their preferred gender identity on a case-by-case basis to comply with those regulations and case law.
A resolution adopted by the board last April, which the board may rescind next month, warned that failure to do so would put Elida schools at risk of a costly lawsuit.
But critics like Point argue that court decisions cited by previous board leaders are less binding than they appear, and that asking transgender students to use facilities of their biological sex or a single-use restroom is not discriminatory.
Ohio lawmakers are debating legislation that would prevent K-12 schools and public colleges from granting transgender students access to facilities of their preferred gender identity. The bill would affirm the Elida district’s new approach to restroom access, but will likely be challenged in court if passed by the General Assembly.
