COLUMBUS, Ohio ? A vote to separate public and private high schools in the state playoffs was called off this morning, less than six week before it was to begin. Instead, Ohio schools will vote on a revamped competitive-balance referendum in May.
Dave Rice, Superintendent of Triway Schools in Wayne County, agreed today to pull the separate playoff referendum that was a the result of a petition he submitted to the Ohio High School Athletic Association last November.
The OHSAA Board of Directors then voted 9-0 to place a new competitive-balance issue on a referendum ballot to be voted upon by member schools May 1-15. Rice said he supports the new item, which would go into effect in August 2015 if passed by a majority vote.
A look at the public-private debate through the years
The competitive-balance proposal would place an addition onto a school's initial enrollment count on a sport-by-sport basis that is based on the number of students on a team's roster who reside outside the school's district or designated attendance zone.
For private schools, their attendance zone would be attached to the public high school in their district. For example, Villa Angela-St. Joseph would be attached to Collinwood, and any team member from outside the Collinwood attendance zone would be subject to the new formula.
If VASJ's boys basketball team has five members who are outside the district, that number would be multiplied by a factor of five, adding 25 to VASJ's enrollment figure and potentially moving it up a division. The factors have not been finalized and will vary. OHSAA Commissioner Dan Ross said a factor of two was being considered for football.
The other sports subject to the enrollment addition are volleyball, soccer, baseball and softball, and their factors probably will fall between two and five, Ross said. A competitive-balance committee will study that issue.
?It's the fairest proposal and the best one so far,'' Ross said. ?It deals with about where kids come from that play for your school. It only deals with the kids that are playing in that sport. It hits the crux of the issue.''
Ross said an appeal process will be included for teams that are not competitive, but would be forced to move up according to the new math. Standards for those appeals remain on the drawing board.
