EXCLUSIVE: Emails provided to Fox News Digital show Maine Department of Education Commissioner Pender Makin writing memos for all the state's school districts after President Donald Trump began to make executive orders addressing public education.
The opening months of Trump's second term saw a highly publicized feud with Maine Gov. Janet Mills over the issue of trans athletes in girls' sports.
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"Dear Champions of Education, as executive orders continue to flow out of DC, there is increasing misinformation, disinformation, and confusion impacting our schools," read Makin's draft of a memo for all the state's superintendents, in a Jan. 28 email, which was provided to Fox News Digital by the group Defending Education.
"Last week, we advised schools to adhere to the Maine Human Rights Act and your local school board policies related to nondiscrimination. We encourage you to continue to keep all people safe and we reiterate the fact that, at present, neither our state law nor your local policies are diminished by the executive orders directing action at the federal level."
It continued, "Most of the executive orders pertain to federal agencies and federal laws over which Maine DOE has no authority."
Two days later, Makin corresponded with Maine Assistant Attorney General Sarah Forster, with a draft of a memo to schools. The memo included orders to avoid complying with Trump's "Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling," executive order.
"… this EO changes nothing for Maine schools," part of an email discussing the memo wrote. The memo draft said "Maine schools should continue to follow the laws of our state and the provisions within their local policies."
In Makin's email, she suggested cutting paragraphs from the memo that summarized the actual goals of the executive order out of the memo.
Then, in a Jan. 31 email, Makin drafted another memo to superintendents and school leaders addressing the executive order.
"The Executive Order does not alter the obligations of schools under state law, including the Maine Human Rights Act, and does not require any immediate changes to locally adopted school board policies," the memo read.
By defying Trump's "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports" executive order after it was signed on Feb. 5, the state allowed its winter girls' track and field season to conclude with an infamous podium finish.
A transgender athlete from Greely High school won first place in the girls' pole vault state championship on Feb. 17.
"I watched this male pole vaulter stand on the podium and we were all just like looking we were like ‘We’re pretty sure that's not a girl. There's no way that's a girl,'" Presque Isle High School girls' track athlete Hailey Himes previously told Fox News Digital. "It was really discouraging, especially for the girls on the podium not in first place. So that motivated me to fight for them."
The incident quickly thrust the state into the national spotlight over the issue. A Feb. 19 email, which was sent between two members of the Maine Principal's Association (MPA), whose names were redacted upon request of public records, made mention of another order that was sent from Makin's department to all Maine schools.
"The MPA is following the Maine Department of Education's priority notice that was sent out on Jan. 21st, 2025, instructing all schools in Maine to follow the Maine Human Rights Act," the email, which had the subject line "TITLE IX," read. The same message was circulated in another email between state education officials, whose identities were redacted upon a public records request, in early March.
Trump made it a point on Feb. 20 to call out Maine for allowing "men in women's sports" during a White House Meeting of GOP Governors, vowing to cut funding to the state if it didn't comply with his executive order. The very next day, on Feb. 21, during a bipartisan meeting of governors, Trump threatened to cut federal funding right to Mills' face when she said she wouldn't comply.
Earlier that morning, Makin sent a mass email to her Maine Department of Education colleagues, outlining impending defiance of Trump's executive order, disregarding his threats of federal funding cuts.
"Last night, the President directly referenced the State of Maine, declaring his plan to withhold Federal funding from Maine because of reports that a transgender athlete is allowed to compete in high school sports," the email read, giving more instructions to follow the Maine Human Rights Act.
"There are many congressional barriers and checks and balances of government that should prevent the president from acting on his statement."
That same day, the superintendent of the school district that Greely High School is a part of, MSAD #51's Jeff Porter, reached directly out to Makin, asking if the state would be changing its policies to follow Trump's executive order. Makin's response was redacted upon a public records request.
In the waning hours of that afternoon on the 21st of February, the U.S. Department of Education announced it would be launching a Title IX investigation against the state.
In the first week of March, Makin was involved in an email chain with the Maine Education director of communications, and director of special projects, after an employee at Freeport High School sent a request for Makin.
Freeport High School's girls' track team came in second place to Greely High School at the girls' track and field championships that the trans athlete competed in. The trans athlete's pole vault victory was pivotal in deciding the team finishes. However, the Freeport employee didn't appear to directly reference that incident in the email.
"Many educators are shaken and feeling vulnerable," the employee wrote.
"Hearing from you that we will stand together as a community would be a gift to Maine educators. I would like to hear in particular that the Maine DOE will offer support to any school or district targeted for investigation as a result of reports of ‘divisive ideologies and indoctrination’ or ‘illegal discriminatory practices at institutions of learning.’"
The email also referenced an apparent video Makin delivered at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which the employee claims helped boost morale.
The Education director of Special Projects wrote, in correspondence with Makin while discussing whether to honor the request, that they had received another request from Freeport.
"My vote is that the field needs to hear from you… they need reassurance from their leader and the silence is not helpful… we got another one over weekend from Freeport," the director of special projects wrote.
However, the director of communication argued that more responsibility should land directly with Mills to communicate with the schools.
"My opinion is that a bigger conversation with the Governor’s Office regarding communication to the field could be beneficial to us all," the director of communication wrote.
Makin responded, writing "None of that could be done without the [governor's office] first giving approval… I hope they will allow her to do something before she gets to the TOY Gala on Saturday."
It is unclear if Makin or Mills ever ended up fulfilling the Freeport employee's request.
The past controversy involving the Greely High School athlete had a wide-ranging ripple effect on the state's congress. Maine GOP state Rep. Laurel Libby was censured by the Democrat majority for a social media post that publicized the Greely student who won the girls' pole vault title in February.
Libby later filed a lawsuit that went all the way up to the Supreme Court over the censure.
The Supreme Court ordered the state legislature to restore Libby's voting rights in May. However, her speaking rights were still withheld until Maine House Assistant Majority Leader Lori Gramlich, a Democrat, proposed Libby's speaking rights be restored on June 25. The resolution passed by a whopping vote of 115-16, despite previously voting 75-70 to censure Libby months earlier.
Emails obtained by Fox News Digital from Gramlich's inbox show multiple self-described Democrat Libby constituents lambasting her and the party's handling of Libby's censure before Gramlich.
"I am a lifelong Democrat who first worked for Eugen McCarthy's Presidential bid," one email wrote to Gramlich, Fecteau, later adding, "Depriving Libby of her voice and her vote does not punish her. She and the GOP love it…
"Depriving her of her voice and vote is unethical, as it punishes her constituents. You have removed MY representative in the house. Depriving Libby of her voice and vote is the best thing that can happen to her in a long time. She is advancing her public profile dramatically, not just locally but statewide and nationally by playing the victim and claiming the role of protector of girls and women."
Another email from another of Libby's constituents wrote, "I believe that supporting women in government must include supporting women with differing opinions. Silencing an elected official for expressing a viewpoint — even a controversial one — sets a concerning precedent for both free speech and fair representation."
Fox News Digital has reached out to Gramlich's and Fecteau's offices to ask why they voted to restore Libby's speaking rights.
On June 8, Libby and the Maine AG's office agreed to drop the censure lawsuit. Libby provided a statement to Fox News Digital one day earlier on June 7, addressing her decision not to contest the AG ruling her lawsuit moot after her rights were restored.
"While the Attorney General now claims this case is moot, make no mistake—this is only because House Democrats backed down in the face of legal defeat. They rescinded the unconstitutional restrictions on my voting and speaking rights, and more importantly, they’ve put in writing that those restrictions cannot be reimposed for the same reasons in the future," Libby said.
"I will not contest the AG’s mootness argument—but only because the constitutional rights of my constituents have now been restored and the leadership has formally abandoned the punishment they once insisted was justified."
The state is now in a lawsuit against the DOJ after refusing to make an agreement to comply with Trump's demands on protecting girls' sports.
Residents organized multiple protests and marches on the state's capitol building in Augusta over the issue, wielding signs that echoed the messages of a national movement to "save girls' sports." Many of the protesters were girls' high school sports athletes like Himes, who marched on the capital to lobby for a state-level bill to keep girls' sports exclusively female in early May.
Trump's administration made multiple funding pauses to the state over the issue of trans athletes, which were later rescinded. The first was to the state's university system, UMS, on March 11. That pause ended after a Title IX compliance review. The second pause came on April 2, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture cut funding to all Maine public schools. That pause ended on May 2.
Amid the chaos, some school districts in the state even went out of their way to defy Mills and Makin, to comply with Trump on the issue.
MSAD #70, in mid-April, and RSU #24, in early May, each passed localized resolutions that ensured only females were allowed in girls' sports.
Still, the state's high school sports season in 2025 saw another transgender athlete for North Yarmouth Academy compete against girls in Nordic skiing and track and field.
The state's tornado of national attention came to a lull in early June when the school year and high school sports season ended. The trans athlete for Greely High School that thrust the state into chaos months earlier did not show up to compete in the girls' state finals on June 10.
Now, the state has a fall sports season to worry about in the coming months and a trial date with the DOJ in January as the state's Democratic leaders remain defiant of Trump. All the while, data suggests the state's residents don't support current policies.
A survey by the American Parents Coalition found that out of about 600 registered Maine voters, 63% said school sports participation should be based on biological sex, and 66% agreed it is "only fair to restrict women’s sports to biological women."
The poll also found that 60% of residents would support a ballot measure limiting participation in women’s and girls' sports to biological females. This included 64% of independents and 66% of parents with children under age 18.
"The Maine Department of Education is captured by activists who want to project their troubling ideology onto children, regardless of the unfairness or even danger this poses to young girls. If Maine’s officials truly cared about their athletes, they would have already reversed course years ago. Unfortunately, this is about pushing a dangerous ideology above all else," Defending Education's Casey Ryan told Fox News Digital of his opinion on Makin's handling of the situation.
Defending Education Outreach Director Erika Sanzi told Fox News Digital, "It's bad enough when an individual school is teeming with gender ideologues but when the state's department of education is also overrun with these activists, the well-being of students is at much greater risk."
Now, more than five months after Makin's initial guidance to Maine schools to defy Trump, the state's conflict with the White House may only just be beginning. And that defiance may not have even represented the desires of most Mainers to begin with.
Additionally, because of that defiance that Makin helped stoke initially, Libby's rise could foreshadow a wide-ranging impact on the state's political balance of power in the 2026 midterms and Maine's gubernatorial election.
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