NEWS

TSSAA to present options on public-private debate

Tom Kreager
tkreager@dnj.com

HERMITAGE – The TSSAA's Legislative Council will receive four options next month when it meets in a work session to discuss the issue of public and private schools continuing to play together in the same division within the Tennessee high school athletic association.

In an interview with The Daily News Journal this past week, TSSAA Executive Director Bernard Childress said he and his staff have information on four different plans to present to the council for discussion at its June 11 meeting at the Embassy Suites & Convention Center.

That information came out of a specially formed committee that included administrators and coaches from both public and private schools. The committee met for more than a year.

The four options could change the landscape of high school athletics today. They include:

• Keep the current system the way it is. Schools that provide need-based financial aid will remain in Division II. The remaining schools compete in Division I.

• Move all schools together for the regular season, then separate all private and public schools in the postseason.

• Move all schools together and come up with a successive advancement opponent, which several states already have in place. In this scenario, schools would be bumped up in class by success on the playing field.

• Complete split in regular season and postseason.

"The decision made could definitely change the landscape of the TSSAA," Childress said. "It is a huge decision. Our job as a staff is to provide and educate as much information for the council that they can make an informed decision. That is why we have requested this study session."

Childress said that at the June meeting he will request a specially called July meeting for the Legislative Council to decide on what it wants to do. A decision would not go into place until the next classification period beginning with the 2017-18 school year.

"We just ask that the decision be made before school starts," Childress said. "If there is a total split, we have to start over in every sport and every class that we have. We've got to look at what is the proper number of classes that we need to have for that particular sport.

"That would be in Division I and Division II. That would be a huge undertaking."

'Level playing ground'

At the root of the public-private debate is whether it is truly equal competition for independent schools to play public schools, Childress said.

"If we do stay, we'll have those upset that feel it's not a 'level playing field,' however they define it," he said.

However, if the Council did vote on a complete split, Childress pointed out that those public schools remaining in Division I would be readjusted in each classification. That could mean successful programs in one class may be bumped down a class to keep the classifications equal in number.

Childress said the staff also will address what could be the larger issue — if this is about public versus private or is it about open-zoned schools versus schools with defined geographic zones.

Childress said the TSSAA staff has looked at 16,000 postseason contests in all sports that the association sanctions. Schools with open-enrollment status won over 60 percent of the time in that span.

Open-enrollment schools include private schools, charter schools, magnet schools or schools that don't have a distinct boundary.

"Do we have a public-private issue or is this more about boundary versus non-boundary schools," Childress said. "I think that is the issue that every state in the national federation is dealing with.

"We'll have information that we'll share at that time in what other states have done and are doing now along the lines of public-private and boundary versus non-boundary schools."

Contact Tom Kreager at 615-278-5168 or tkreager@dnj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Kreager.