Tahoe-Truckee Save Our Sports

10/09/2026

🍎A MESSAGE FOR OUR TTUSD TEACHERS:🍎

First, we want to say thank you.

You pour your hearts into our kids Monday through Friday, and we know your work doesn’t end when the school day does. Not even close.

There are the late nights preparing lessons, the weekends spent catching up on work, the evenings devoted to special school events, and the extra hours you stay after school to help a struggling student or meet with parents. There are early mornings, too, when you’re out on the blacktop supervising students before the first bell even rings.

Being a teacher is not a typical 9-to-5 job.

You educate our kids, encourage them, challenge them, and help shape them into the adults they will become. Teaching demands extraordinary patience, compassion, and skill. Your dedication to our children goes way beyond the hours you’re paid to work.

You deserve far more recognition, appreciation, and compensation than you receive.

We also understand that many of you are parents yourselves, raising kids in the very district where you work. Some of you are coaches, too, dedicating countless additional hours to mentoring student-athletes on top of your teaching responsibilities. You’re coming home late, traveling to competitions, and building the programs our community is so proud of. 💙❤️

We know that many of you have experienced firsthand how decisions made by TTUSD leadership affect not only your students, but your own children and families. You have just as much at stake in those decisions as the rest of us, if not more.

As this school board election approaches, we recognize that organizations may publicly endorse candidates and speak collectively on behalf of their members.

Those organizations have every right to make their endorsements. But an organizational endorsement should not be interpreted as the personal opinion of every individual member. People within the same profession or organization have different experiences, concerns, and priorities.

Your voice belongs to you. Your vote belongs to you.

No teacher should feel pressured to support a particular candidate because of workplace relationships, professional expectations, career affiliations, or the opinions of others—whether at school or outside of it. And if you have ever found yourself in that position, we understand how difficult and uncomfortable that can be.

You are educators, but you are also parents, neighbors, community members, and individuals entitled to have your own views and make your own decisions.

You deserve the space to consider each candidate and every issue, and to vote according to your own judgment, values, and what you believe is best for your families.

We see you. We see how much you give to our children, and words cannot express how much we appreciate you.

Your voice in our community is deeply valued. And it deserves to be heard—not spoken for.

Tahoe-Truckee Save Our Sports❤️💙

10/08/2026

MR. MOONEY, YOU LEFT SOMETHING OUT.

At the televised school board candidate forum, the candidates were asked about the move from the NIAA to the CIF. The incumbent, Mr. Mooney, appeared to answer that question by reading from a prepared statement claiming that keeping our student-athletes in the NIAA has “always” been the Board’s priority. You can listen to his statement below.

However, the public timeline tells a different story. The fact is TTUSD announced its plans to leave the NIAA before the CDE issued its mandate. Families then spent weeks challenging the district’s decision and urging the Board to change course. Here’s how the events unfolded:

• April 2, 2025 — The NIAA releases its revised student-athlete eligibility policy. Approximately one month passes before TTUSD announces that our schools will leave the NIAA. When did district leadership learn of the policy change, and why weren’t families included in discussions before the move was announced?

• May 2, 2025 — Before the CDE mandate: Superintendent Kramer emails parents telling them that Truckee and North Tahoe high schools will leave the NIAA for the CIF beginning that fall. Families receive an announcement of the decision—not an invitation to discuss it. Community members are caught off guard by the consequential decision and begin pushing back. You can read Superintendent Kramer’s announcement in the comments.

• May 7, 2025 — Before the CDE mandate: Five days after announcing the move, Superintendent Kramer presents the district’s justification for leaving the NIAA at a Board meeting. The district’s own slides document community concerns about “Lack of Transparency and Community Input,” Donner Summit winter travel, and impacts on athletic programs. Staying in the NIAA appears under “Community Requests for Reconsideration and Alternatives.”

• May 14, 2025 — Before the CDE mandate: Following mounting community opposition, the Board changes course and directs a one-year delay—but its plan remains to leave the NIAA for the CIF. The delay does not resolve families’ concerns about student travel safety and threatened sports programs. The community continues challenging the move.

• June 25, 2025 — Before the CDE mandate: Following weeks of sustained community pressure, the Board reverses course again and directs Superintendent Kramer to keep our athletic programs in the NIAA.

• June 27, 2025 — Before the CDE mandate: Two days after the Board directs that our schools remain in the NIAA, the CDE receives a complaint challenging that decision. The complainant’s identity is redacted in the publicly released report.

As the timeline clearly shows, community members repeatedly urged the TTUSD Board to reverse the district’s plans to move our schools to the CIF until the Board finally directed the district to remain in the NIAA on June 25, 2025. All of this happened before the CDE mandate. Mr. Mooney’s statement leaves that part out. He cannot now reasonably describe that record as an unwavering commitment to keeping our schools in the NIAA.

Throughout this nearly 18-month ordeal, parents, students and community members have given their time and energy to a fight they should never have had to carry. That sustained advocacy is not TTUSD leadership’s work to claim.

Now, with a contested election approaching, Mr. Mooney says the Board’s negotiations are making headway toward a resolution, while legal confidentiality limits what they can share publicly. While that information is reassuring, we find the timing and parameters of this announcement convenient.

The latest update listed on the district’s athletics transition page is dated March 18, 2026. It is now October and a new school year. Families deserve a current, official district update explaining what is happening with this move, even if some of that information must remain confidential. Why are we hearing about claimed progress through an incumbent’s prepared statement at a televised candidate forum?

If our community succeeds in keeping our schools in the NIAA, we caution district leaders against taking a victory lap without acknowledging the district’s decision to leave in the first place—before there was a mandate. That would be like setting a fire and then expecting recognition for offering a glass of water to put it out.

The hard work of this community—especially the brave student-athletes who spoke out meeting after meeting to oppose the move to the CIF—should not be repackaged as an incumbent’s accomplishment during an election in which his seat is being contested.

Parents and students kept pushing. Make no mistake: the community’s persistence is what kept this issue in public view and kept its demand to remain in the NIAA on the table.

While we welcome Mr. Mooney’s stated commitment to stopping this move, it does not erase TTUSD leadership’s decision to leave the NIAA before there was a mandate. Mr. Mooney, you were serving on the Board when that call was made. That’s the part your prepared statement left out. Our community remembers.

Tahoe-Truckee Save Our Sports💙❤️

10/05/2026

Interested in hearing more about Craig Shaffer’s plans for TTUSD? This week offers several opportunities to hear from him, ask questions and get involved.

TTSOS❤️💙

Come to support events!!
➡️Tonight (10/5) at 6 PM - Truckee Democrats meeting where I will be presenting and answering questions

➡️Tomorrow (10/6) at 5 PM - Truckee Chamber of Commerce candidates forum. TTUSD Board is up at 5:15.

😍➡️ Saturday (10/10) Meet at 10 AM - Sign waiving day!! More info to come but block a few ours in your calendar to help get the word out.

Can't join? You can support through a donation too, we need funds to get us to the finish line!
www.shafferforttusdboard.com

10/04/2026

OUR SAFETY CONCERNS, VALIDATED.

This initiative 100% validates the concerns TTUSD parents have raised for over a year about forcing our student-athletes to repeatedly travel over Donner Summit for sports.

Yet while some of our elected leaders are sounding the alarm about the dangers of this I-80 corridor, others are mandating that our kids travel it regularly—including in the winter.

The contradiction is staggering. What will it take for the California Department of Education and Tahoe Truckee Unified School District leadership to finally act? When will common sense prevail?

Tahoe-Truckee Save Our Sports 💙❤️

10/01/2026

⚠️ IF LEADERS ACKNOWLEDGE THERE’S A PROBLEM, WHY ARE OUR KIDS PAYING THE PRICE?

A January 2025 New York Times/Ipsos poll found that 79% of respondents—including 67% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning respondents—said transgender female athletes should not compete in women’s sports. [1]

That question was about sports eligibility. Transgender students deserve to live with dignity, feel supported at school and be treated with kindness. We whole-heartedly believe that. We also believe fairness in girls’ sports deserves an honest conversation, guided by compassion for everyone involved.

It seems more and more Democratic politicians are now willing to publicly discuss transgender participation in womens’/girls’ sports and the fairness concerns this raises. Governor Gavin Newsom has called the issue “deeply unfair” and told the Associated Press, “I haven’t been able to figure out how to make it fair from my perspective.” James Talarico has said, “Every sport has to be safe and fair.” Pete Buttigieg has said he takes seriously both parents concerned about fairness in sports and parents who want their children protected from discrimination. [2][3]

The Associated Press recently reported that some Democrats are “recalibrating their approach to transgender issues.” With elections approaching and polling showing broad opposition to allowing transgender female athletes to compete in women’s sports, it’s reasonable to ask whether political considerations are contributing to some leaders’ public positions. We cannot know what motivates any individual politician. But whatever the motivation, Gavin Newsom has told us what he thinks about fairness in girls’ sports. So, why hasn’t he spoken out about what is happening to our school district in his own state? [2]

The California Department of Education is forcing Tahoe Truckee Unified School District to leave the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association for the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section because of the NIAA’s policy on transgender participation in sports—even though TTUSD told the CDE in its January 21, 2026 letter that “no student has been excluded from participation.” Yet, that reckless mandate will send our teams over Donner Summit for competitions and require visiting teams to cross the pass to play here, including in winter. It would expose more kids, coaches, staff and families to potentially dangerous conditions on the pass.

The CDE has been warned repeatedly about the risks to student safety, missed class time, inadequate facilities and serious threats to TTUSD’s sports programs. Families fear that some programs could be lost altogether, along with coaches and rivalries built over more than 40 years. This decision reaches far beyond our approximately 800 student-athletes: it could affect thousands of people on both sides of the mountain, most of them kids.

Governor Newsom: You’ve called transgender participation in girls’ sports unfair. It appears the majority of Americans agree with you on that point. Yet you’ve stayed silent while your own state forces Tahoe-Truckee’s kids to bear the consequences of this policy conflict. Tony Thurmond and the California Department of Education have been warned repeatedly about the harm this move could cause. Please speak up about what is happening here. Address those warnings. Help keep our students in the NIAA.

Our children need more than a change in political messaging. They need leaders willing to act to protect them—regardless of what the polls say or whether an election is coming.

Tahoe-Truckee Save Our Sports ❤️💙

*As always, we welcome respectful discussion. Any inappropriate comments—particularly comments targeting transgender individuals—will be removed. Please keep the focus on this policy dispute, the decisions being made by our elected leaders and the students affected by them.

🔗 Sources

[1] New York Times/Ipsos poll—January 2025, question 32:
https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2025-01/NYT%20Ipsos%20Poll%20Topline%201.18.2025.pdf =14

[2] Associated Press—Newsom, Buttigieg and Democrats’ approach to transgender issues:
https://apnews.com/article/transgender-sports-newsom-trump-democrats-9a35dc54a9869b57a49e916260f46d40

[3] Texas Tribune—James Talarico’s comments:
https://www.texastribune.org/2026/09/09/james-talarico-trans-sports-reversal-lgbtq-rights-texas-us-senate-race/

09/28/2026

If you believe high-stakes decisions affecting our kids’ safety and opportunities should never again be made without proper community input, please vote for Craig Shaffer for TTUSD School Board.

You can help him get there in simple ways: add your endorsement on his website, put up a yard sign, share his posts, volunteer a little time, or donate whatever you can. Small actions from many neighbors can put a common sense voice in the room when the next consequential decision about our kids is made.

Tahoe-Truckee Save Our Sports❤️💙

https://www.shafferforttusdboard.com

Endorse my campaign today! Donate if you can help. Together we can be heard
https://www.shafferforttusdboard.com

09/25/2026

THEY CAME FOR TAHOE-TRUCKEE ATHLETES FIRST. DON’T LET THEM COME FOR THE OTHER SCHOOLS NEXT.

The RGJ Reno Gazette Journal reports that Todd Cutler will not take the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association executive director job, leaving the organization searching for someone to fill the position. The article also highlights Truckee and North Tahoe’s forced move to the CIF—and includes a point California leaders, including State Superintendent Tony Thurmond, need to hear.

Cutler, the superintendent in South Lake Tahoe, says winter travel west can be very difficult. “Regionally and geographically, it really does make sense for those schools to compete in Nevada,” he told reporter Jim Krajewski.

He’s right. Truckee and North Tahoe have competed in Nevada for decades, largely because of that geography. South Tahoe, Coleville and Needles are California schools competing in the NIAA too. Their students deserve the chance to keep playing where it makes sense.

We stand with all of them. We do not want the California Department of Education to hand those schools the same thoughtless and reckless mandate it handed ours. And we believe the CDE should reverse its decision against Tahoe Truckee Unified School District as well.

A complaint against our school district may explain why we were handed a mandate first. It does not justify making our students take the bullet for a deeply unpopular policy dispute they had nothing to do with. They should not have to bear more winter travel over Donner Summit, disrupted seasons, lost instructional time, the possible loss of coaches and longtime rivalries, and threats to athletic programs built over more than 40 years.

And the effects reach far beyond our district. CIF Sac-Joaquin Section teams would have to travel to compete against Truckee and North Tahoe, too. Thousands of students and families could be affected by this one mandate. If the state takes the same approach with South Lake Tahoe High School, Coleville Schools and Needles USD, how many more will be drawn into it?

Forcing mountain and rural schools out of the leagues that make sense for them—especially when student safety is at stake—is a lazy and irresponsible way to resolve this. The CDE should withdraw its order against TTUSD and ensure no other school community has to fight the same battle.

Thank you to Jim Krajewski for keeping TTUSD’s forced move to the CIF in the news. We’re grateful that you’re giving these student-athletes and their communities a broader voice.

Read Jim’s article: https://www.rgj.com/story/sports/high-school/2026/09/24/new-niaa-leader-vows-to-bring-30-football-schools-back/91912835007/?gnt-cfr=1&gca-cat=p&gca-uir=true&gca-epti=z11xx29p000750c000750e006600v11xx29d--33--b--33--&gca-ft=125&gca-ds=sophi

*South Lake Tahoe, Needles, Coleville and the CIF San Joaquin Schools, we’re in this together.

Keep fighting,
Tahoe-Truckee Save Our Sports 💙❤️

After being selected by the Board of Control, Todd Cutler said Thursday he and the NIAA "were unable to come to an agreement."

09/24/2026

📣 WHY WE’RE BACKING CRAIG SHAFFER

Good morning, Tahoe-Truckee!

Many of you have asked whom we’re endorsing for the Tahoe Truckee School Board. We’re backing Craig Shaffer, and this video shows why.

We’re relieved to hear Craig say he intends to address the CDE’s mandate to move TTUSD sports from the NIAA to the CIF immediately upon being sworn in. He’s even spoken with our Assembly member in Sacramento about it. Families have been calling for someone on the Board who will get involved and fight for our student-athletes, and Craig is already doing that.

But as Craig makes clear in this video, he has so much more he wants to accomplish for our schools:

🍎 Teachers and support staff: Make them a top priority by fighting for the resources, compensation, community backing, a voice in policy and the job security they need.

💻 Students and technology: Teach students to use AI responsibly while listening to families and educators and considering ideas from Wait Until 8th and Schools Beyond Screens.

📊 Growth and the budget: Prepare for the financial pressures that come with new housing and a growing community. Craig has managed multimillion-dollar budgets and worked with stakeholders who have competing needs.

Please watch Craig’s video and support his candidacy today by endorsing him on his website (it only takes a minute and costs nothing). And if you’re able, please consider donating to his campaign at: https://shafferforttusdboard.nationbuilder.com/

This local election is crucial for our kids. TTUSD students deserve a Board member who will listen to parents, ask hard questions and act when our children’s safety and opportunities are at stake. Craig has shown he’s ready to do that.

Vote Shaffer in November,
Tahoe-Truckee Save Our Sports❤️💙

09/22/2026

THE DOUBLE STANDARD FOR FORESEEABLE HARM
Serious Safety Concerns—But “Not Yet Ripe”

The California Department of Education (CDE) handed down a devastating mandate requiring the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District (TTUSD) to leave the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association—because of the NIAA’s policy governing transgender student-athlete eligibility.

This happened even though TTUSD reported that no student had been excluded from participating in district athletics.

Despite that fact, TTUSD leadership now appears to have fully acquiesced to the mandate, agreeing to move Truckee High School and North Tahoe High School into the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section.

But before apparently abandoning the fight—and leaving its student-athletes to twist—the district acknowledged serious and foreseeable consequences in its own filings with the CDE.

TTUSD told the CDE that CIF competition “requires regular travel over Donner Summit” and “presents safety concerns for student transport during the winter months.”

The district also said that moving certain athletic programs into different seasons “poses severe operational challenges” in our high-altitude climate and projected a high volume of weather-related cancellations and a significant loss of home games.

Although TTUSD made these warnings while arguing against an immediate transition, the underlying problems are not temporary. Another year—or even several more years—will not move Donner Summit, change Tahoe-Truckee winters, eliminate the consequences of increased travel, make snow-covered fields and courts playable or erase the threat this move poses to beloved programs like boys tennis and girls soccer.

Yet when parents filed complaints with the district raising many of those same concerns, TTUSD refused to address them on their merits. Instead, the district said CIF competition was still in the future and declared the complaints “not yet ripe.”

In other words, the harms haven’t happened yet—and TTUSD expects families to wait until they do.

Shortly thereafter, TTUSD leadership removed athletics as a standing item on School Board meeting agendas.

Taken together, these actions are troubling. They suggest TTUSD did not want to hear the parents’ concerns—much less confront them.

Ironically, the district’s filings with the CDE and the parents’ complaints to TTUSD sought the same thing: action before student-athletes suffer the consequences.

TTUSD wanted the CDE to take these foreseeable risks seriously before they occurred. Yet when parents asked TTUSD to do the same, the district stonewalled.

TTUSD cannot have it both ways.

Although this post focuses on athletics, the concerns extend far beyond this one issue. This episode offers a window into how TTUSD leadership makes decisions, responds to concerned parents and prioritizes student safety.

If district leaders will not confront risks they identified themselves, our community has every right to question the judgment, processes and priorities guiding their other choices that affect our kids.

Parents should not have to wonder whether consequential decisions are being made without meaningful public input—or whether serious concerns about their children’s safety will be ignored until after the harm occurs.

Unfortunately, it now appears that the School Board has left parents to fight this reckless mandate entirely alone. In light of that, voters should ask whether its members are doing the job they were elected to do—and whether they can be trusted with the other high-stakes matters facing our district.

TTUSD cannot warn the CDE about foreseeable harm—then dismiss that harm as premature when it is raised by the very families whose children will live with the consequences.

We need leaders who will stand shoulder to shoulder with TTUSD parents to protect our children’s safety and opportunities.

Let’s remember that when we cast our ballots this November.

Tahoe-Truckee Save Our Sports💙❤️

09/16/2026

🎾❤️ AN UNDEFEATED TEAM
AND A MANDATE THAT THREATENS
ITS FUTURE. ❤️🎾

Truckee High School boys tennis is not a struggling program.

It is growing—and winning. A lot.

The Wolverines currently have 39 players on their public roster, including a large group of freshmen and sophomores. They are undefeated at 9–0 and sit in first place in their league. They even defeated South Tahoe for the first time in eight years.

Needless to say, this has already been an extraordinary season for a team experiencing extraordinary momentum.

These athletes should be looking forward to continued competition, camaraderie and many future opportunities to represent their school.

Instead, their program is in jeopardy.

Following the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association’s change to its policy governing eligibility in girls’ sports, the California Department of Education is forcing the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District out of the NIAA and into the CIF. Under the transition our district has scheduled for the 2028–29 school year, boys tennis would move from its existing fall season to the CIF spring calendar.

Unfortunately, the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section calendar indicates that practices are to begin in late January, with matches starting in February.

Late January and February in Truckee are not spring.

They are the dead of winter.

Truckee currently practices and hosts competitions at the outdoor Tahoe Donner Tennis Center. Unless TTUSD secures an appropriate indoor facility—or develops another workable solution—where will these kids play? Where will they compete and host matches when their courts are covered by snow?

This is not a scheduling inconvenience.

It is a fundamental threat to the viability of Truckee boys tennis.

The Wolverines have already demonstrated that they love this sport and possess the talent, dedication and grit it takes to compete at a very high level.

They have answered the question of whether Truckee students want to play tennis—39 times over.

The question now is whether the adults responsible for implementing this forced move to the CIF will protect a thriving program before an incompatible calendar takes that opportunity away.

Although this post highlights Truckee’s remarkable season, the threat is not limited to one school. North Tahoe also has a beloved boys tennis program whose athletes rely on outdoor courts and would face the same conflict with a midwinter schedule.

Their program and their opportunities deserve our protection, too.

Our students need leaders who will not bury their heads in the sand and cross their fingers in the hope that everything works out. They deserve a concrete plan explaining where and how boys tennis will practice, compete and survive when its season begins in the middle of a Truckee winter.

School sports teach our children essential life skills. Join us in protecting these programs from a state mandate that threatens to take those opportunities away.

Congratulations to the Wolverines on an already epic season of boys tennis. You have talent for days—and a community that has your back.

Parents: stay the course, keep speaking up and let our leaders know they have underestimated us.

TTSOS❤️💙