IHSA Announcements

March 19, 2005

Board Acts on Public-Private Recommendations

PEORIA -- The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Board of Directors at its regular March meeting Saturday (March 19) approved a multifaceted plan that aims to restore competitive balance among private high schools, public high schools without fixed attendance areas, and public high schools with traditional attendance areas.

The plan, which will be implemented for the 2005-06 school term, grew out of the work of the Public-Private Task Force, which was formed in June, 2004. The Task Force met several times over the last year and made its recommendations to the IHSA Board of Directors on January 18. At its February 14 meeting, the Board of Directors asked the IHSA Staff to review the work of the Task Force and to make its own recommendations. Final action came today.

The plan encompasses changes in several areas.

Changes to Classification Cutoff

• The boundary between Class A and Class AA will be set at a fixed number of 735 students, based on a school's adjusted enrollment. The total of 735 was derived by averaging the cutoffs used for the last 10 years. The current method, except in boys and girls soccer, is based on a percentage of all member schools, with 61% in Class A and 39% in AA. The cutoff for 2004-05 is 755 students.
   
• All two-class sports and activities will use a single method of classification, the fixed cutoff at 735 students. Boys and girls soccer will no longer operate under the modified plan that divides schools participating in the sport on a 50-50 basis, resulting in cutoffs that have traditionally been in the 1200 to 1400 range.
  
  This change will move about 40 schools from Class A to AA in both boys and girls soccer. 

Enrollment Multiplier

• For purposes of classification, a multiplier of 1.65 will be applied to the enrollment of all "non-boundaried" schools with 450 or more students. The definition of a non-boundaried school will be revised to include all private, lab, charter, residential, and magnet schools.
  
  This change, combined with the fixed cutoff, will shift approximately 20 non-boundaried schools from Class A to Class AA in the two-class system (in soccer, these schools would be moved in addition to the 40 mentioned above).
  
  Enrollments in the football state series will continue to be computed with the "football enrollment" formula, using the adjusted enrollment (which includes the multiplier, where appropriate) in place of the actual enrollment. A school's "football enrollment," which is used for classification purposes, may be higher than its adjusted enrollment if it plays a schedule of larger schools. Football classes cannot be determined until the actual field of 256 is set. If the multiplier had been in effect during the 2004 playoffs, 15 schools would have moved up one class, 3 would have moved up two classes, and 21 would have moved down one class.

Changes to Expansion Policy

• Language was added to the classification policy affirming that the IHSA will hold tournaments that include all public and private, or boundaried and non-boundaried, schools.
   
• Bracketed team sports and activities (baseball, basketball, soccer, softball, volleyball, water polo, Scholastic Bowl) no longer have the option of expanding to three classes. These sports and activities still have the option of expanding to four classes if more than 600 schools participate in the state series. Boys basketball, girls basketball, boys baseball, girls softball, and girls volleyball already meet this criterion.
   
• Other (individual) sports and activities no longer have the option of expanding to four classes, but retain the option of expanding to three classes if more than 450 schools enter competitors in the state series.
   
• Language that stated how classification cutoffs would be determined in any future three- or four-class system has been removed. The IHSA Staff will develop a model three-class system for individual sports and a model four-class system for bracketed team sports and present them for discussion at the annual town meetings in November. Following the meetings, and with the Board's approval of the plan, an advisory referendum will be held to gauge the membership's interest in class expansion.
   
• In conjunction with these changes, the Board approved expanding the girls golf state series to two classes, beginning with the 2006-07 school term.

New Educational Component

• The IHSA Staff was directed to provide an educational component regarding IHSA recruiting rules and their enforcement, investigations, and the circumstances regarding certain transfers.
   
• The IHSA Staff was directed to develop an enrollment verification form that would detail, for each private school student, the home district and the grade school attended. This form would be filed along with student financial aid forms.

Amendment Proposals

• The Board approved the submission of two by-law amendment proposals that will be presented to the membership this spring in a special Legislative Commission meeting. Both proposals are designed to refine and clarify the recruiting rule.

Other Recommendations

At the same time, the Board did not act on two by-law amendment proposals that were forwarded by the Public-Private Task Force. These proposals may still be made by any member school:

• A by-law amendment that would have allowed a student to transfer from a public school to a private school one time without losing eligibility for 365 days, provided that the principals of both schools concurred with the transfer.
   
• A by-law amendment that would have allowed incoming freshmen to be immediately eligible at any public school.

Discussion Items

At each meeting of the Board of Directors, there are certain agenda items that the Board discusses, but upon which it takes no action. Following is a report of those on the March, 2005, agenda:

Competitive Cheerleading: The Board also heard a report prepared by Assistant Executive Director Susie Knoblauch on the deliberations of the advisory committees for Competitive Cheerleading and Journalism. Both of these activities will begin IHSA state series competition in the 2005-06 school term. The venues for these events and the terms and conditions of competition will be announced at a later date.