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3128) Q. If two schools form a cooperative team, may they redraft their cooperative agreement and add a third school to the cooperative at the end of one year?A. Yes. With the approval of all the schools involved, the conferences (if applicable), and the approval of the Executive Director, a school may be added to a cooperative team at the end of the first year. (By-law 2.030)29) Q. If two schools form a cooperative agreement, and then after the season for that sport begins, interest wanes and there are not sufficient students participating to sustain the team, what is the status of the agreement if the boards by mutual consent terminate the team’s existence?A. Note that each cooperative agreement is for a minimum of two years. Even if the team for which the agreement is established does not compete, the schools are committed to the agreement for the two-year period. They may not terminate the agreement early, nor may they enter another cooperative agreement with another school during the lifetime of such an original agreement. Furthermore, if students from either of the schools should enter the IHSA state tournament series as individuals in the sport for which the cooperative was established, they would have to be entered under the auspices of the cooperative team, not their own individual high school. (By-law 2.030)30) Q. Can a cooperative team form for only one year?A. No. Cooperative team agreements are for a two year period. Consolidation or annexation of a school in a coop could allow a coop to end prior to the completion of its two year cycle. (By-law 2.030)31) Q. If two schools have established a cooperative team, and the cooperative dissolves prior to the end of its two-year agreement, may either of the schools participate as an individual school in that sport before the termination of the cooperative agreement?A. Yes, provided the reasons for dissolution of the cooperative team are extenuating circumstances accepted by the IHSA Board of Directors. However, a school in this situation may not enter another cooperative agreement in this sport until the end of the two-year time period of the original cooperative agreement. (By-law 2.030)32) Q. In the event two schools, each of which is a member of a different conference, form a cooperative team, how will the requirement for conference approval be administered?A. According to By-law 2.030, cooperative teams must be approved by the conference(s) of which the participating schools are members. They must also be approved by the conference in which the cooperative team will participate or by seven schools on the cooperative team’s schedule if it will not compete in a conference. To illustrate:(a.) If the new cooperative team will compete in the conference of which one of the cooperating schools has been a member, both that conference and the conference(s) of which other schools in the cooperative have been members will be required to approve the cooperative team.(b.) If the new cooperative team will compete in neither of the existing conferences but in another conference altogether, then both the previous conferences and the new conference must approve formation of the cooperative team.(c.) If the schools forming a cooperative team have been members of conferences but will compete as an independent team under their cooperative agreement, then the conferences of which they have individually been members, along with seven (7) schools from the proposed independent team’s schedule, must approve formation of their cooperative team.(d.) If one school entering a cooperative has been a member of a conference and the other school entering the cooperative has been independent, and the cooperative will compete as an independent, approval of the cooperative team must be obtained from both the conferences of the one cooperating school and from seven (7) schools on the new cooperative team’s schedule.33) Q. How is the term “seven schools” defined with respect to requiring approval by “seven schools on its schedule” in the event the co-op team will not compete in a conference?A. “Seven schools” means seven actual and different individual IHSA member high schools from seven different competitions included on the cooperative team’s proposed schedule for the succeeding school year. (Constitution 1.420 & By-law 2.030)34) Q. Assume that a school drops out of a conference where it has participated in a particular sport and then enters a cooperative team agreement to participate in that same sport in another conference. Do the schools in the original conferences have any recourse, especially if they are not able to reschedule new opponents?A. Formation of cooperative teams does not automatically negate all existing contracts. In general, contracts may be dissolved or altered only by mutual consent on the part of all involved parties. (By-law 2.030) In this situation, however, approval of the formation of a cooperative team by a conference will be interpreted to indicate tacit acceptance of the dissolution of all contracts between conference members and the school(s) involved in the cooperative. Therefore, schools in a conference which approves a member leaving the conference to form a cooperative team that will compete as an independent or in another conference, may lose games they had