The Associated Press
No final decision was made.
Still, the schools in the Six Rivers Conference from the southwestern part of the state achieved their ultimate goal during the WIAA’s annual meeting in Stevens Point on Wednesday:
They pressed the issue of competitive balance in the WIAA into action on the association’s front burner — with a ticking clock.
Instead of voting on the private-school enrollment multiplier proposed by the Six Rivers schools, a record turnout of WIAA-member schools voted 352-77 to form an ad-hoc committee that will propose a plan to increase the competitive balance across the WIAA membership spectrum and its enrollment-based tournament divisions.
The mandate was clear: The committee is expected to build consensus on a solution that will be ready for a vote at the annual meeting in April 2015.
“We weren’t sure the multiplier … would work as the answer. But people are on edge. They want something done. And we believed coming in that something needed to be done quickly,” said Barneveld High School Principal Kevin Knudson, one of the architects of the Six Rivers petition.
“This was brought up out of frustration more than anything else,” said Don Moreland, Mellen athletic director.
The problem — one of a perceived uneven playing field between the state’s public and private schools, especially at the lowest enrollment divisions — has been a hot-button topic since the WIAA absorbed the state’s private schools into its membership in 2000.
Since those early days, thanks in large part to new rules allowing open-enrollment, vouchers and charter schools that apply to all Wisconsin districts, the issue has refocused on the advantages that urban schools — particularly in lower enrollment divisions — enjoy over their rural counterparts.
The issue has long been a touchy one for the WIAA and school administrators, not to be discussed in polite company. Bringing it to the forefront by forcing a vote has made the issue topic No. 1 for the WIAA — and that was the goal of the Six Rivers Conference administrators all along.
“You hear it all the time … We stand out in the hallway and talk about it. (But) decisions never get made,” said Knudson, whose Eagles girls basketball team has played in the past two Division 5 state girls basketball championship games, splitting the games with private Wisconsin Rapids Assumption.
Presented — somewhat as a surprise — at a WIAA Board of Control meeting in March, the petition made sure its proposal — to multiply the actual enrollment of every WIAA-member private school by 1.65 (65 percent) for classification in tournament divisions — would be placed on the ballot for the annual meeting.
The Six Rivers group knew its proposal was neither an ideal nor an ultimate solution. But they also knew it would take an official vote to finally bring the laundry out to be washed.
“The turnout today signaled that we understand there’s a problem,” Knudson said. “Our goal initially was to say ‘let’s get something done, let’s get a deadline.’ We got that done.”
A record number of schools were represented — 429 of the WIAA’s 500 schools, and 104 more than the 325 schools represented last year, according to WIAA communications director Todd Clark.
WIAA Board of Control president Dean Sanders of Lake Mills said he expected the ad-hoc committee would be about 20 members strong, representing public and private schools, urban and rural schools, and schools from every WIAA enrollment division and geographical district.
According to the motion, the committee will be tasked with presenting the membership with a series of proposed solutions by Sept. 1, for discussion at conference and area meetings. Then, by Dec. 1, the committee is expected to present its best option to the Board of Control to be placed on the ballot for the annual meeting in April 2015.
“It’s an aggressive timetable,” Sanders said.
The committee has carte blanche to come up with any solutions it sees fit, whether tried-and-true or novel. It could push for a multiplier or other enrollment-adjusting formula, or it could back a “success factor” bumping up schools that have enjoyed recent success.
But then, it could come up with more creative solutions such as rebuilding the entire tournament format, including adjustments to the number of divisions and qualifiers that make it to the state tournament in various sports. Other potential solutions include factoring in special-needs students at public schools, international students at private schools, and even the number of students who receive free and reduced lunch vouchers.
One thing is certain: The varied demographics, economic factors and other unique issues that face schools in various regions of the state make a single, simple solution impossible.
“In this debate, one size does not fit all. It does not fit all public high schools and it does not fit all private high schools,” said Green Bay Notre Dame administrator Robert Pauly.