Oregon Exploring Allowing Schools To Drop Class Level Due To Socio-Economics

The Oregonian, Jerry Ulmer

http://highschoolsports.oregonlive.com/news/article/-3798963893647703321/osaa-socio-economic-adjustment-could-allow-schools-to-play-down-one-level/

WILSONVILLE — The prospect of using socio-economic status as a mechanism to allow schools to drop a classification was the primary topic during public testimony before the OSAA classification and districting committee Monday.

In a recent survey of the Oregon Athletic Coaches Association, 75 percent of the state’s coaches said that they favor a process to allow schools to play down one level in an effort to enhance competitive balance.

Sunset athletic director Pete Lukich researched the potential impact of adjusting enrollment numbers for socio-economic status, using statistics for free and reduced-price lunches. He presented his findings to the committee, which is charged with formulating a classification plan for the four-year time block that begins in 2014-15.

Lukich showed that if 25 percent of the number of students that qualify for free and reduced-price lunches is subtracted from a school’s enrollment, one Class 6A school would drop in classification. If that number is increased to 60 percent, four Class 6A schools would be eligible to drop a level. The impact would be greater at the smaller schools.

“Maybe what Pete presented becomes a specific quantitative way to say, ‘If you meet these criteria, then you’re able to petition to play down,’” said OSAA assistant executive director Peter Weber, a liaison to the committee.

Lukich suggested that such schools could be placed down one classification and have the option of staying put.

“They won’t ask to go down a classification because there’s too much pride,” Lukich said.

The meeting generated little discussion about the three classification proposals that the OSAA released on its website last month – one with six classes, one with five classes, and one with five classes with a six-class exception for football. Feedback about the proposals has been “scattered,” according to Weber.

“It was more about, ‘My school is placed here in this draft, so I like this, or I don’t like this,’” Weber said. “We haven’t gotten 60 percent of the schools saying, ‘This is the direction we want to go.’ There are still options on the table. Do we want to send out three more drafts or do we want to tweak the ones we have?”

Class 6A and 5A athletic directors did not reach a consensus in a statewide straw poll last week. In Class 6A, nine favored six classes, 23 were for five classes and 11 were undecided. In Class 5A, it was 11 for six classes, 11 for five classes and nine undecided.

“We wanted to see if there was sentiment, something out there to move us, and it’s not there,” Lukich said. “There’s still a lot of indecision.”

Class 4A athletic directors, however, voted 37-5 in favor of the current six-class system, according to Stayton athletic director Evan Brown. He said that competitive balance was more important to them than travel concerns.

“We aren’t willing to go to bigger leagues at the sacrifice of the six-class system,” Brown said. “If big leagues are really important to us, we feel we can do it within a six-class system.”

The committee’s next meeting is Feb. 19. It meets five more times before giving its recommendation to the executive board in October.