Three charter schools drop gender-balanced admission lotteries

What happened

On November 4, 2025, the board approved contract amendments removing gender-balancing rules from the admission lotteries at three FNSB charter schools: Chinook Montessori, Watershed, and Boreal Sun. Previously, each school reserved open seats to keep roughly even numbers of boys and girls in each classroom (for example, Boreal Sun capped either gender at no more than 60% of a class; Watershed's rule kicked in once one gender reached 14 of 22 seats in a classroom; Chinook allowed only a 1-seat deviation for siblings). Going forward, none of the three will use gender as a factor when filling open lottery spots.

Why it matters to families

This changes how open seats are filled at three charter schools families apply to by lottery, removing a rule that previously could affect a child's odds of admission based on their gender. Watershed's own board minutes say the change came about because of a legal challenge to the lottery rules, though the record collected here does not name the specific challenge.

The evidence

Each school's signed contract amendment, dated November 4, 2025, quotes the prior gender-balancing language from its charter application or contract and states the school 'will no longer balance its classes by gender.' Watershed's APC minutes from October 2, 2025 independently describe the same change ('Lottery no longer specifies gender due to a challenge to the lottery rules'), and Chinook's APC agendas from September through November 2025 track the same policy update moving toward the November 4 school board vote.

The source