It's the meeting every athletic director dreads: Parents arrive at your office with a Title IX complaint that is both legitimate and not easily fixed. That was the case for Mercer Island (Wash.) High School Athletic Director Craig Olson when three mothers of girls' basketball players complained of unequal funding for their daughters' team.

Olson, who has also been Associate Principal for the past 15 years, showed the concerned parents that both the boys' and girls' programs were receiving equal funding from the athletic department. But there was a big difference in what the squads were getting from booster club funds.

"Our boys' basketball program had a very well organized club," Olson says. "Its fundraising allowed the team to travel to national tournaments and hire additional coaches. But girls' basketball never had anything close to an organized fundraising group.

"When it came to Title IX, we had been very careful about how we scheduled facilities, what types of transportation was given to teams, and the number of opportunities we were providing for both genders," Olson continues. "But we were not doing a good job of monitoring booster clubs."

The first thing the school district did was hire a Title IX consultant who interviewed all the head coaches, handed out questionnaires, and wrote up a 16-page report pointing out areas of concern. There were a few smaller issues involving facilities and the number of coaches, but the biggest red flag was booster club operations.

"It's easy to regard booster clubs as separate and not worry about them, but the reality is we do have to worry," Olson says. "We can't ignore the fact that booster clubs fall under Title IX law."

Olson's solution was to dissolve the individual sport clubs and form one big organization made up of representatives from each sport. All parents would work together to support all teams. But that idea, he found, was easier said than done.

"Last year, we set up a new booster club council and we all met as a group," Olson says. "At the first meeting, I wanted to educate everyone on a booster club's role in interscholastic athletics. That discussion ended up lasting five meetings.

"The boys' basketball, football, and baseball boosters didn't understand that if we were going to spend money on additional coaches for baseball, we also needed to look at doing the same for the softball program," Olson continues. "I told them we were at the point where if they raised $20,000, we may have to refuse the funds if we couldn't distribute them equally. They just could not believe what I was saying--those first few meetings were very tenuous."

A year later, Olson says he and the boosters are finally on the same page. The key, he explains, was being patient and continuing to explain and discuss Title IX's nuances.

Another inequity found in Mercer Island's compliance review related to coaching support. Because the boys' teams had many more volunteer coaches than the girls' teams, the boys were receiving more assistance than the girls. "We pushed to find additional volunteers for the girls' teams, and if volunteers couldn't be found, we paid for additional assistant coaches," Olson says.

Another issue that popped up in the report was a discrepancy between facilities for baseball and softball. Mercer Island leases field space for both teams from the city, which has continually made more improvements to the baseball field than the softball field.

"Earlier this year, the city council was discussing making yet another improvement to the baseball field while the softball facility was just in tragic shape," Olson says. "I attended their meeting and told them I realized they don't have to worry about Title IX, but that I do, and to please not make more improvements to the baseball facility."

Olson was able to convince a majority of city council members of the inequity and over the summer it decided to make improvements to the softball facility instead of baseball. The field will be getting a turf infield, covered dugouts, covered bleachers, batting cages, lights, a concessions stand, and bathrooms.

"Being Title IX compliant adds a whole new element to the job," Olson says. "But whether someone complains or not, it's the right thing to do. The last two years have not been easy, but they've been rewarding. A softball player knows when she's not getting the same kind of treatment as a baseball player, and that bothers me. Until I'm able to demonstrate equality, the work continues."