The Fremont-Mills Board of Education has declined to approve a contract and hiring of a transgender music teacher the district had offered a position to earlier this summer.
At its regular monthly meeting last week, the Fremont-Mills Board of Education rejected the contract offer to Ace Rios it made to the high school music and band teacher in July for the 2026-2027 school year.
Rios identifies as a transgender male.
The vote of the five-member board ended in a 2-2 tie. Jennifer Wyant and Mary Beth Korver voting to approve Rios’ hiring while Shannon Smith and board president Eli Forney voted against. A fifth member of the board, Wes Hill, abstained from voting, according to the school district.
School board policy states a tie vote means the resolution fails. All new district staff hirings must be formally approved by the board.
The agenda for the Aug. 19 meeting included nine personnel decisions, including eight new hires and one resignation. Of those nine, eight were approved by the board. Rios’ contract was the lone resolution voted down.
Rios, according to published reports, has said he believes his gender identity was the reason he was denied the job.
A former Omaha Public School substitute teacher, Rios was offered and accepted the Tabor position and was already decorating his classroom just days before the start of school when he was informed by school administrators last week his employment would not be moving forward.
Fremont-Mills Superintendent Dave Gute declined an interview request about the Rios decision.
In an email, Gute said, “In accordance with law, the district does not comment on individual personnel matters. All teacher hiring decisions are informed by the application and interview process, and subject to board approval, with the goal of providing an effective learning environment for students.”
The Opinion-Tribune reached out to all five members of the Fremont-Mills Board of Education for comment. Board member Jennifer Wyant was the lone response.
“In accordance with law, the district does not comment on individual personnel matters,” Wyant said by email before going on to direct future correspondence to Superintendent Gute.
Rios has been quoted in the media as saying he plans to consult with an attorney on what he feels was a discriminatory decision by the board.
While discriminating in hiring based on sexual orientation remains illegal in Iowa under state and federal law, “gender identity” was removed as a protected class in the state’s civil rights code in 2025. That addendum, Senate File 418, also goes on to further define gender as binary, requiring birth certificates to indicate sex, and restricting teachers discussing “gender theory” from kindergarten through sixth grade in the state.
Transgender and nonbinary workers, however, remain protected under the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964.
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