{"id":21581,"date":"2025-07-04T00:06:49","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T06:06:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-district-revising-nondiscrimination-policy-amid-funding-concerns\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:07:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:07:58","slug":"montezuma-cortez-district-revising-nondiscrimination-policy-amid-funding-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-district-revising-nondiscrimination-policy-amid-funding-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma-Cortez district revising nondiscrimination policy amid funding concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=51c460bb-c5b2-5342-8929-762db693a47f&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1227\" alt=\"MB McAfee addresses the Montezuma-Cortez Board of Education on May 20.  (Screenshot via YouTube)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">MB McAfee addresses the Montezuma-Cortez Board of Education on May 20.  (Screenshot via YouTube)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>The Montezuma-Cortez School District is contemplating removing sexual orientation and gender identity from its nondiscrimination policy after new guidance on Title IX and other executive orders from President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>The RE-1 Board of Education <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Jx7UJZmzhoc&amp;t=31s\" id=\"link-a9a4fc64ef7251612a246093d98f5faf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">on May 20 <\/a>held the first reading of policy changes, including a revised non-discrimination and equal opportunity policy, and started a discussion among board members and the community.  The board will revisit the proposals on June 24.<\/p>\n<p>Board member Mike Lynch raised the question whether the U.S. government could remove funding from schools if they include \u201cprotected classes like sexual orientation, gender expression or gender identity\u201d in their nondiscrimination policies.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a scenario that played out in Maine.<\/p>\n<p>In April, the U.S. Department of Agriculture restricted funds for Maine\u2019s school lunch program because the state allowed transgender students on sports teams. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ed.gov\/about\/news\/press-release\/us-department-of-education-announces-consequences-maines-title-ix-noncompliance\" id=\"link-626e189b47d4577dea2927d41a5f9235\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">U.S. government held<\/a> that the Maine Department of Education decision violated Title IX because it allowed transgender female athletes to participate in girls\u2019 sports and \u201coccupy women-only intimate spaces\u201d and infringed on the rights of female athletes.<\/p>\n<p>The administration argued that Trump\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/presidential-actions\/2025\/02\/keeping-men-out-of-womens-sports\/\" id=\"link-14c2843b830286bd7918bf13fbca6592\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Executive Order Keeping Men out of Women\u2019s Sports<\/a> aligned with U.S. policy consistent with Title IX \u201cto protect female student athletes from having \u201cto compete with or against or to appear unclothed before males.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"naviga-pdf-embed\"><iframe class=\"article-pdf\" src=\"https:\/\/dur-prod-public-pdfs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/l5ec7LBnx2xuyKPInGlwnVPiEek.pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:500px;border:1px solid #ddd\" loading=\"lazy\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dur-prod-public-pdfs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/l5ec7LBnx2xuyKPInGlwnVPiEek.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">RE1 Policy AC draft.pdf (Download PDF)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/p><\/iframe>\n<p class=\"naviga-pdf-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dur-prod-public-pdfs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/l5ec7LBnx2xuyKPInGlwnVPiEek.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">RE1 Policy AC draft.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>In May, the USDA agreed to refrain from freezing funds to Maine, and Maine agreed to dismiss its lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p>A point of confusion about the Montezuma-Cortez proposals came in the policy\u2019s definitions of protected groups. One part of the policy protects \u201crace, color, and national origin,\u201d and another, the section on harassment, further lists \u201crace, creed, color, sex, marital status, natural origin, religion, ancestry and the need for special ed services.\u201d References to \u201csexual orientation, gender identity or expression\u201d were removed.<\/p>\n<p>Resident MB McAfee expressed confusion, stating the policy at one point protects \u201crace, color, and national origin,\u201d and another, the section on harassment, further lists \u201crace, creed, color, sex, marital status, natural origin, religion, ancestry and the need for special ed services.\u201d References to \u201csexual orientation, gender identity or expression\u201d were removed.<\/p>\n<p>She criticized the removal of sexual orientation and gender identity, calling it an attempt to \u201cscrub DEI from your policies,\u201d and urged the board to ask their legal counsel about it.<\/p>\n<p>According to an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chalkbeat.org\/colorado\/2025\/06\/09\/rural-district-could-remove-lgbtq-policy-protections-amid-trump-funding-threat\/\" id=\"link-b78f289f5b9c8c5702763892a7a10556\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">article<\/a> published by <em id=\"emphasis-134ecaceffb3bcb0749f5c70d83cf5ae\">Chalkbeat<\/em>, board Vice President Ed Rice stated by email that the policy\u2019s opening sentence \u201canswers everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That sentence appears to propose to protect all students.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Board is committed to providing a learning and work environment where all members of the school community are treated with dignity and respect,\u201d it states. The current version of the policy says \u201csafe learning and work environment\u201d but the revision takes out the word \u201csafe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On an side note, Lynch relayed that a member of the policy committee contended that the district practiced discrimination between races, specifically by offering scholarships and tutoring to Indigenous students. He clarified this is a \u201cpurposeful and approved form\u201d that some might consider discrimination, but is in fact permissible by federal rules.<\/p>\n<p>Though this may be seen as discrimination by some, Lynch added that, right now, it is protected by federal rules.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPlease don\u2019t think this is discrimination because it\u2019s been approved,\u201d Lynch said.<\/p>\n<p>The <em id=\"emphasis-a016fe1e5ecf97c48ac723da80f92011\">Chalkbeat<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chalkbeat.org\/colorado\/2025\/06\/09\/rural-district-could-remove-lgbtq-policy-protections-amid-trump-funding-threat\/\" id=\"link-1a4aaec038814625d48825155cbbc1e4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">article<\/a> further states that Lynch and Superintendent Tom Burris, along with two others, signed a letter that urged the Colorado High School Activities Association to restrict transgender athlete\u2019s participation in sports.<\/p>\n<p>Right now, the proposed nondiscrimination policy revision would replace policy language that promises a \u201csafe learning and work environment\u201d and omitting the work \u201csafe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em id=\"emphasis-9f286112b3525cd62a20da958b825120\">Chalkbeat<\/em> reported that Lynch said the term \u201csexual orientation\u201d will not be restored to the revised policy. The policy committee was composed of two district staff, two community leaders and one teacher, but the names of the committee members has not been revealed.<\/p>\n<p>The district isn\u2019t the only one feeling pressure to revise their policies in accordance with changing federal guidelines. Two districts near Colorado Springs \u2013 Woodland Park RE-2 and D<a href=\"https:\/\/www.chalkbeat.org\/colorado\/2025\/05\/09\/colorado-springs-district-49-approves-trangender-athlete-ban\/\" id=\"link-b97e1f7da7f7760a13559fd8f0af97e0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">istrict 49 \u2013<\/a> have also reportedly begun working to change their policies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>requirements put in place by the Trump administration were cited<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,60,216,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-21581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-montezuma-county","tag-montezuma-cortez-school-district-re-1","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21581"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77371,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21581\/revisions\/77371"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21581"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=21581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}