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Tuesday, May 17, 2011
After Competitive Balance Proposal fails, what’s next in public-versus-private debate?
The Ohio High School Athletic Association’s Competitive Balance Proposal failed on Tuesday, 332 votes to 303.
The previous vote on competitive balance came in 1993, when a referendum item to create separate public school and private school state tournaments was defeated 482-240.
The issue, though, likely won’t take another 18 years to get back to a vote. In fact, many officials believe a vote on some resolution for the public-versus-private issue could come as soon as next May.
Dave Rice, superintendent of Triway Local Schools in Wayne County, said he and other superintendents in that area “are probably prepared” to move forward with a petition to place a referendum on next year’s ballot to create separate public and private school tournaments.
The Wayne County superintendents began the events that created the Competitive Balance Proposal that was voted down Tuesday. Last year, they studied the frequency of private school state championships (45 percent of those played) and surveyed statewide superintendents about their possible support for separate state tournaments.
According to the Wayne County group, 72.5 percent of those surveyed said they would support separate tournaments.
Rice said Tuesday afternoon his group would likely meet before the end of the month to discuss the petition possibility.
“We’ve talked about doing another quick survey of the superintendents to gauge where they’re at now,” Rice said. “I want to try to do something that people feel is better than what we’re doing now, and that’s a legitimate concern.
“This vote was so close, which might indicate a lot of people out there who seriously want something else.”
A petition would require at least 75 signatures from member school principals, including at least six from each of the six OHSAA districts, and be submitted to the OHSAA office between Aug. 1 and Dec. 1.
Some private school officials have said they would consider forming a separate private schools association outside of the OHSAA if member schools approved separate state tournaments. To counter that possibility, some believe language in a separate tournament referendum would forbid public schools from playing non-public schools who are not OHSAA members in the regular season.
The OHSAA could also form another Competitive Balance Committee, like the 28-member body that created the current proposal. In the press release announcing the failure of the current proposal, Dan Ross, the OHSAA commissioner, said the OHSAA Board of Directors would decide whether to form another committee.
“Our Board of Directors will have to provide direction on whether to reconvene the OHSAA Competitive Balance Committee to review other ‘competitive balance’ options, so I cannot speculate on whether or not that possibility exists,” Ross said in a statement.
“At the same time, we’re also hearing that discussions to file a petition may be taking place by some member schools that are seeking to separate our tournaments totally between public schools and non-public schools. Again, whether that occurs or not, it’s too early to tell.”
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TweetHighly debated Competitive Balance Proposal fails in vote by principals
The search for competitive balance in Ohio high school sports will go on.
The Ohio High School Athletic Association’s Competitive Balance proposal, which would have used several factors to move schools up or down divisions in eight team sports, was defeated in a May vote by member school principals, the OHSAA announced Tuesday.
The issue was voted down 332-303.
Many school officials have said they feel there is competitive imbalance in the state favoring non-public schools, so the issue likely won’t end with Tuesday’s voting results. Some feel a petition will circulate to place a referendum seeking separate state tournaments for public and private schools up for vote as soon as next year.
The proposal would have increased or decreased a school’s enrollment, creating an “athletic count,” using boundary, socioeconomic and tradition factors. The athletic count would have increased for schools having loose or no boundary for drawing students and those that reached the regional level or above in the previous four state tournaments. The athletic count would have decreased depending on the number of free lunch participants in a school.
The proposal would have affected eight sports: Football, boys and girls soccer, volleyball, boys and girls basketball, baseball and softball.
The OHSAA formed a 28-member Competitive Balance Committee to address the issue of private schools winning a large number of team sport state championships. The committee first met in April 2010.
The concerns were raised by a group of superintendents in Wayne County, which conducted a study that found non-public schools won 45 percent of 616 Ohio state titles from 1999 through the 2009-10 academic year.
The superintendents also surveyed school districts statewide about possible support for separate public and non-public state tournaments in certain sports. Of 319 responses, 72.5 percent responded they would.
OHSAA Commissioner Dan Ross met with the superintendents and agreed to form the committee to study the issue. The committee broke into four sub-groups, each studying a possible resolution.
One group studied separate tournaments.
Another studied pairing public and non-public teams in regional or state semifinals to ensure a public school in the final, whenever possible.
Another studied placing public and non-public schools in the same division, but with enrollments measured only against their peers. For example, if a public school were in the top fourth in enrollment of public schools and a private school were in the top fourth of enrollment of private schools, both would be in Division I.
Another studied a formula that would increase or decrease enrollment numbers, which became the proposal up for vote.
“I think everyone on the committee would say, ‘Is there an issue here? Yes,’ ” Ross said last month.
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