New Haven in tentative pact to avoid penalty

$3M in federal funds at stake over city district’s support of transgender athletes

NEW HAVEN — The U.S. Department of Education has tentatively agreed to release $3 million in federal magnet grant funding to the district without a costly showdown on the right of transgender students to compete in high school athletics.

District officials learned that they would avo id litigation with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights in an email exchange between attorneys.

Federal officials have threatened to withhold the money because of New Haven’s affiliation with the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, which allows transgender students to compete in athletics with their selfidentified gender because of a Connecticut state law.

DOE officials argued that allowing transgender girls to compete against cisgender girls was violating the Title IX rights of those cisgender girls.

But U.S. DOE attorney Richard Foster said in an email with an attorney representing the Board of Education that the district had proven it was able to meet the standards of Title IX, the federal civil rights law that protects against sex discrimination.

“Based in part on the Title IX assurance you provided earlier today, our Acting Assistant Secretar y for Civil Rights has signed a document certifying that New Haven ‘will meet’ its (Magnet Schools Assistance Program) non-discrimination assurances, in the context of New Haven’s application for a year 4 grant award,” he wrote Tuesday.

“We have conveyed that certifying document to the programmatic MSAP staff in (the Office of Elementar y and Secondar y Education), which means OE SE can go for ward with completing and providing New Haven’s Grant Award Notification (GAN). OE SE staff fully understands the urgency here and will do so as soon as possible,” he wrote.

Berchem Moses P C attorney Michelle Laubin, who has represented the New Haven Board of Education wrote in an email to Foster that the district is “grateful, on behalf of the students in New Haven Public Schools, that we were able to resolve this amicable and without resorting to litigation.”

“Thank you again for finding a way to resolve the conflict regarding the Title IX assurance. We are grateful, on behalf of the students in New Haven Public Schools, that we were able to resolve this amicably and without resorting to litigation,” Laubin wrote.

However, as of Tuesday the grant money had not yet been released to the school district.

“Please send us a copy of the Grant Award Notification (GAN) as soon as possible so that we know that there is no need to pursue this matter further. It is my hope that we would be able to receive the GAN by the end of the week, given how quickly we are approaching the end of the fiscal year,” Laubin wrote to Foster.

The fiscal year begins on Oct. 1.

Board members and district officials had prepared Monday to spend up to $99,000 on legal fees to argue for up to $ 6 million in federal magnet school funding over two years.

The district operates 16 interdistrict magnet schools with the primar y purpose of voluntarily desegregating schools.

“I’m looking for ward to seeing the final results,” said board member Darnell Goldson.

Chief Financial Officer Phil Penn summarized for the public that New Haven officials are “encouraged” by the process of negotiat i ons.

In an email to the school board Wednesday morning, Superintendent of Schools Iline Tracey said it was “good news” and thanked Laubin and the district’s magnet school coordinator Michele Bonanno for their work on the issue.

Tracey and Bonanno declined to comment Wednesday at the advice of school board attorneys. Bonanno said the issue is not entirely settled yet.

Sarah Miller, a parent leader of the NHP S Advocates, said she supports t he distri ct ’s ef f orts.

“We should not compromise our most fundamental values. The district is right to defend our students against this discriminator y policy,” she said.

Before the U.S. DOE appeared to back away from the issue Tuesday, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said that he was prepared to work with the school district on the matter.