The RSU 10 school district reversed course on its plans to include a co-ed locker room in its newly constructed Mountain Valley Community School in Mexico after parents voiced outrage over the prospect.
[RELATED: New Maine School Set to Open With Co-Ed Locker Room…]
“I am frustrated that restoring a prior-planned wall of separation in the locker room by sex designation ultimately required the concerned citizens and families of RSU 10 to involve their State Senators and Representatives,” said School Board member Kristen Chapman in a statement provided to The Maine Wire.
WMTW reported on Friday that the school board has instructed the general contractor handling the construction to install a dividing wall in the locker room in order to separate the spaces for girls and boys.
RSU 10 serves students from Mexico, Buckfield, Hanover, Hartford, Roxbury, Rumford, and Sumner, and is set to open its new school in January, serving pre-K through eighth grade.
The school district’s change of plans came after a group of parents met on Wednesday to voice their displeasure over the co-ed locker room. Parents were concerned that stalls in the locker room would be floor-to-ceiling, making it impossible to see if multiple students were in the locker room at the same time.
Chapman brought the co-ed locker room to the public’s attention on December 8, when she highlighted an email from Rep. Tammy Schmersal-Burgess (R-Mexico) on the facility.
During that meeting, Chapman highlighted an older 2022 floor plan, which included a segregated locker room, and contrasted it with the version that was ultimately constructed, which did not have a dividing wall.
Chapman previously told The Maine Wire that board members were not asked to discuss or vote on the changes.
“Speaking for myself, in my nearly two years serving on this board, I have neither heard any presentations nor been asked to deliberate and/or vote on any agenda item related to your above questions,” said Chapman in an email to The Maine Wire.
In response to concerns about the locker room, one board member claimed that the locker room was built to be co-ed in order to comply with the Maine Department of Education’s (MDOE) requirements for the construction project to receive funding.
Chapman could find no evidence of the MDOE requiring co-ed locker rooms, and board members refused to provide her with evidence that the requirement was real.
The MDOE’s most recent standards for school facilities do not appear to require co-ed locker rooms. Since RSU 10 has decided to separate their facilities, it seems that the board member who claimed that they did was incorrect, and it was within the district’s power to do so.
“The Maine DOE’s role in state-funded school construction projects includes supporting the local school district and its architect during the design development process; providing building plan review, alongside the Maine State Board of Education; and offering insight into nationwide industry standards,” and MDOE spokesperson told WMTW.
After Chapman first brought the facility to the public’s attention, RSU 10 Superintendent Deb Aiden issued a statement defending the co-ed facility and insisting that it be called an “athletic prep facility” rather than a locker room.
She pointed out that the stalls, some of which include changing rooms, showers, and toilets, are each completely separate. Notably, restrooms also have separate stalls and are still divided by sex, and Aiden’s defense did not seem to convince parents.
“In this area there are two offices for Phys. Ed Teachers or coaches to use and 22 doors floor to ceiling that any person can go in for privacy – all can be used for changing rooms, some have toilets and two have showers, all for single use. This is not, when we were teens, what we experienced as a locker room with gang showers and changing at bench areas,” she said.
Aiden’s letter laid out a timeline of the deliberations on the co-ed space. According to her letter, the prospect of a co-ed locker room was first raised after a 2022 conversation between an architect handling the construction and Scott Brown, the Director of School Construction at the MDOE.
Aiden claimed that, in March 2023, the MDOE met to discuss the Mountain Valley Community School’s co-ed locker room, though it is not clear why the RSU 10 school board was not also invited to meet on the proposal.
While the locker room will be separated, Chapman told The Maine Wire that she is concerned that there is still a co-ed restroom outside the school’s gymnasiums, and that there has been no indication that a separating wall will be placed there.
“There has been no indication, however, that a dividing wall will be built in the communal coed bathroom outside the two gymnasiums,” she said.
Aiden will hold an informational meeting in the Mountain Valley High School cafeteria on December 30 to discuss the facilities causing parental concerns.
