The Illinois High School Association's Legislative Commission voted Monday (Nov. 25) to refer 11 proposals that would amend the IHSA Constitution and By-laws to a vote of the general membership. The Commission voted after hearing feedback from member school personnel at 28 town meetings, which are held around the state during the month of November.
The ballot containing the proposals will be available to each member school's official representative in the IHSA's online Schools Center, beginning Monday, December 2. The deadline to submit the ballot is midnight, Wednesday, January 1. The ballots will be tabulated and the results posted on Wednesday, January 8. A simple majority of votes cast will determine whether each proposal passes.
Here is a summary of the proposals on the ballot:
- Proposal 1: Requires that, for a coop agreement to be extended, written approval of the conference(s) involved be submitted with the renewal application.
- Proposal 2: Requires that the mandatory rules video be watched by the head coach of a sport or activity program in order to receive credit and avoid probation or suspension.
- Proposal 3: Makes the Travel Policy a By-law; allows a school team to travel any distance on an out-of-state trip as long as no more than two school days are missed, including travel to and from the competition; allows two such trips per school year per team; would take effect 30 days after passage.
- Proposal 7: Removes the one-year period of ineligibility for a transfer student enrolling in his or her home boundaried public school for the first time.
- Proposal 8: Makes the week that includes July 4 a "dead week" during which coaches may have no contact with athletes during the summer contact period; does not apply to summer baseball and softball. (The placement of the dead week was revised prior to the second meeting.)
- Proposal 10: Raises the academic requirement for participants in non-athletic activities from 20 to 25 credit hours of high school work per week, the same standard used for athletes.
- Proposal 13: Allows boys football practice to start two days earlier (Monday of Week 6).
- Proposal 14 & 17 (will be voted on as one proposal): Moves the start of competitive cheerleading and competitive dance practice one week earlier (Monday of Week 17) and the start of competition two days earlier for competitive cheer (Monday of Week 18), making the dates for both sports identical.
- Proposal 15 & 19 (will be voted on as one proposal): Raises the team contest limitation in competitive cheerleading and competitive dance from 5 meets to 6 dates, exclusive of the IHSA State Series.
- Proposal 16: Establishes an individual contest limitation in competitive cheerleading of 6 dates, exclusive of the IHSA State Series.
- Proposal 20: Establishes an individual contest limitation in competitive dance of 6 dates, exclusive of the IHSA State Series, and requires that a dance team member be part of the winter game-day performance team (similar to the restriction already in place for competitive cheer team members).
The text of these proposals, as amended is available in a PDF document.
The remaining proposals were rejected by the Legislative Commission. A total of 33 of the 35 commissioners attended Monday's meeting, which was held at the IHSA Office in Bloomington.