Minnesota State High School League contract renewals prompt questions about transgender athletes

The question keeps popping up as Minnesota schools consider routine contracts with the organization that runs state high school sports tournaments: What about transgender athletes?

Board members, mostly conservative, are raising concerns and questioning contracts with the Minnesota State High School League. But they are also quick to clarify that breaking up with the organization can’t be done without yanking opportunities away from student athletes and artists.

“There isn’t an option for us to not be a part of the Minnesota State High School League so that our high school kids can compete,” Elk River School Board Member Mindy Freiberg said, adding that she believes transgender athletes’ participation on girls’ teams violates Title IX.

The discussion of the high school league contracts, renewed by the end of July each year, is the latest example of once-routine school board agenda items caught in culture war debates. Some board members in Prior Lake, Elk River and Hastings say simply rubber-stamping the membership renewal is shortsighted, particularly amid ongoing federal scrutiny of the league’s rules on transgender athletes.

The policy at the core of the debate in Minnesota is more than a decade old; the MSHSL in 2015 decided to open girls sports to transgender student athletes. The league’s bylaws allow students to participate “consistent with their gender identity or expression in an environment free from discrimination with an equal opportunity for participation in athletics and fine arts.”

The issue garnered new attention when President Donald Trump signed an executive order in February stating that transgender athletes could not be eligible to play on girls teams. That order opened a U.S. Department of Education probe into the MSHSL.

In June, another federal investigation began aimed at determining whether the Minnesota Department of Education and the league allowed “male athletes to compete on sports teams reserved for females” and thus violated Title IX.

Elk River Superintendent Andy Almos said he understands why the discussion is coming up, but “when the contract is set in front of a school board is not the time to make changes to it,” he said.

Instead, member districts should advocate for policy tweaks during the year through a process called the representative assembly, he said.

In addition to operating state tournaments, the MSHSL provides vetted referees and judges for competitions as well as concussion and catastrophic medical accident insurance for student participants.

It also ensures that schools play by the same set of rules, requirements and bylaws, said MSHSL Executive Director Erich Martens.

“It’s what this league was founded on — a good, strong, consistent set of rules and governance,” Martens said.

In Prior Lake, School Board Member Lisa Atkinson asked about adding an addendum to the contract to “protect our female athletes.” Atkinson called the bylaws concerning transgender athletes “illegal and harmful” — a statement that prompted loud pushback from attendees at a recent board meeting.

Prior Lake’s Activities Director Jeff Marshall said contract customization isn’t allowed, and his staff doesn’t have the time or resources to verify if competing teams have transgender athletes.

“There are certainly some bylaws I don’t necessarily agree with,” he told Atkinson at the recent meeting. “But I say adamantly: Just because I don’t agree with those, that doesn’t mean I think we shouldn’t be a part of the Minnesota State High School League.”

The implications of leaving, he added, “would be devastating for this school district and many families, including my own, would be exiting this district.”

Atkinson, who has repeatedly voted against membership in the league, cast the sole vote against renewal.

“Every high school athlete’s dream is to win a state championship and it’s the high school league that offers that for us,” Almos said. “The high school experience would be greatly diminished without the league.”

Hastings School Board Chair Carrie Tate said at a May board meeting that members are caught between a “rock and a hard place” as state laws and federal directives clash. Other board members expressed interest in exploring ways to advocate for changes to the MSHSL contract.

At that May school board meeting in Hastings, Board Member Elaine Mikel-Mulder suggested looking for other school districts with similar questions about the MSHSL contract.

“We can voice our concerns and work with other districts who are in the same position,” she said. “There may be ways to engage constructively with the organization.”