OSSAA proposal: excellent idea
The proposed change to Oklahoma high school classifications is excellent. Sounds like we’ve got some Solomons on the committee formed to adress inequities among schools in the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association.
Our man Ryan Aber wrote about the proposals in today’s Oklahoman, and the idea is this: use a multiplier for schools that control their enrollment. A .15 multiplier — thus a school of 100 students would be grouped as if it had 115 — for school that control their enrollment. That includes private schools, magnet schools, charter schools, boarding schools, etc. Also, an additional .15 multiplier for schools that charge tuition or offer financial aid (basically, private schools).
In essence, private schools would be given a 0.3 multiplier, so that a school of 100 would be grouped as if it had 130 students. All other schools that control their enrollment would be given a .15 multiplier.
This to me is a superb compromise. It does not automatically bump up schools that have an enrollment advantage, but it bumps up some. The earlier suggestions, mostly by Class 3A or close public schools, that schools be bumped up two classes was ridiculously punitive.
The controlled-enrollment schools do not have that much of an advantange. But they do have an advantage.
Controlled-enrollment means two things. Control the number. Control the individual students. Private schools, magnet schools and charter schools can set their limit of students: 300, 500, 800. Doesn’t matter. They basically can determine in which class they’ll be placed.
Public schools cannot. If 1,492 students show up to enroll at U.S. Grant, 1,492 is what Grant must take. That is not the case with the controlled-enrollment schools.
The other element of controlled-enrollment is individual control. If Bobby Delinquent shows up at Noble High School, Noble has to take him, no matter what kind of knucklehead he is. If Bobby Delinquent shows up at Mount St. Mary, the Mount can say, no thanks. Special education is part of this debate, too.
The basic truth is that schools that control their enrollment have an advantage, and reclassification is one way to address the inequities. The committee’s proposal, presented by Bethany superintendent Kent Shellenberger, seems fair and effective.
Let’s salute the committee’s work and urge all schools in Oklahoma to vote for the proposal.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
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Comments
Berry:
There’s a lot more to this that what you are assuming. I would like to see you do a video-debate between the Athletic Director at Mt. St. Mary’s and one of the vocal public schools,(was it BridgeCreek or Tuttle?).
Ask them both questions and give them a chance to address this proposal.
It would be real informitative to hear their input.
If I’m reading the charts correctly, Southwest Covenant will go from C to A. Oklahoma Christian Academy will go from B to A. Do their actual enrollments suggest that they can field eleven man teams?
Also, should districts like Oklahoma City and Edmond, which have alternative schools, add those alternative school enrollments back into the other high schools in the district numbers?
1. Be worth buying a ticket for the next Heritage Hall – Bridge Creek game.
2. I wonder do Union, Jenks, Clinton, and Ada recruit? When Edmond had one high school, I thought they recruited.
I like the proposal. A good compromise between unfair punishment and nothing at all.
Nit-picking–technically, the multiplier is 1.30, not .30.