VHSL PLAN WOULD LUMP SCHOOLS BY GEOGRAPHY, NOT BY ENROLLMENT

BY JUSTIN RICE

While many details of the Virginia High School League’s proposed six-classification alignment plan remain unclear, several changes seem likely in the radical departure from how the VHSL currently arranges schools for regular-season and playoff competitions.

“It’s radical,” said Mountain View Principal Jim Stemple. “Not radical in a bad way, but radical in that it’s a big departure from what we’ve been doing.”

The keystone of the VHSL’s proposed makeup would be the expansion from three classifications—currently Groups AAA, AA, and A—to six.

“This topic has been discussed at least the last five years,” said James Monroe Principal John Gordon, a member of the VHSL’s executive committee. “Group A, AA or AAA—there was always someone with opposition. They put this task force to work, and said we need to come up with something right now.

“I’m a proponent. But I just need to make sure all aspects are being covered.”

The two-year cycle of redistricting and realignment was already set to affect Fredericksburg-area schools.

Culpeper and Eastern View will move in 2013 from the Battlefield District to the Evergreen, a better geographical match with schools from Fauquier and western Prince William counties.

Orange will leave the Commonwealth District—where it’s playing Stafford and Spotsylvania county schools that are up to an hour’s drive away—and return to the Jefferson, partnered with schools from around Charlottesville.

And more alignment changes released Monday include moving Albemarle to the Jefferson, too.

Whereas now schools such as Albemarle—the only Group AAA school in the Charlottesville area—have to travel up to 90 minutes to play district games against similar-sized schools in Stafford and Spotsylvania counties, the new arrangement will keep schools close to home for the regular season.

Geography, and not enrollment, will be the driving factor in how districts are shaped.

This could net a huge cost savings for travel—Stemple estimated as much as $80,000 per year for Albemarle—as well as reducing classroom time missed when athletes must leave early for an away game.

Regional tournaments would be eliminated, and districts would exist more for scheduling purposes, and less for determining postseason positioning.

State tournaments would be expanded, taking all schools of similar enrollment from around Virginia to determine—in the most popular sports—up to six different state champions.

Smaller sports, Gordon and Stemple both said, would probably be combined into grouped classifications. Currently, Group AA and Group A field hockey teams play a combined state tournament, and that arrangement would probably be used for many sports.

Group AA and A basketball already divide to produce two state champions per classification. And football already has six divisions with separate state tournaments.

Group A this year eliminated region play in football, and instead divided its Division 2 and Division 1 schools into Western and Eastern Sectionals, which each played down until the final four teams in each division met in the state semifinals.

The shape an expanded state tournament would take is still an important issue that must be resolved.

Seeding a state playoff—when one school has faced a considerable competitive disadvantage playing the regular season in a district full of schools twice as large—is problematic.

Monday’s Redistricting and Realignment plan included 18 “mixed districts”—where schools of vastly different enrollment will play in the same district.

The Piedmont District would include Martinsville, with 857 students this year, and Halifax County, with 1,702 students. The Seminole District would pair Liberty–Bedford (879) and Rustburg (874) with Franklin County (2,195).

This facet of the plan would have minimal effect on the local Commonwealth and Battlefield districts, where most of the schools have similar enrollment figures.

“There are a couple different ideas for that,” Stemple said. “You could have everybody gets in, and then you have a sectional type of play. But how is that seeded? Those kinds of things haven’t been determined yet.”

Gordon also said he has concerns that expanded state playoffs could lead to more travel costs.

“The main concern is how much of the costs will be placed back on the schools,” he said. “That could be an issue.”

The new realignment plan is not finalized and many questions remain, Gordon and Stemple agreed.

The six-classification plan will be presented to the VHSL’s executive committee on Feb. 22. The Redistricting and Realignment committee will continue to make small changes to the current alignment proposal over the coming months, especially once March 2012 enrollment numbers are finalized.

Sept. 11 is the final day schools may appeal decisions by the R&R committee, and the alignment plan should be presented to the executive committee on Sept. 20.

The final decision for a six-classification plan will come down to an executive committee vote.

There is time allotted for public comment at executive committee meetings, but VHSL spokesman Mike McCall said the best approach for individuals with questions about the plan is to go through their local school officials.

“I think it’s going to happen in some form,” Gordon said. “But it’s too early right now to give all the details.”

Justin Rice: 540/368-5045
jrice@freelancestar.com