Open Enrollment

[TheAmbassador]

Liberty does not bus kids that live out of the Liberty zone. I know cause I work in the system.

Ok, but the magnets over in Chattanooga bus them across the city if they want to attend that school.

[dtownfan364]

The schools I'm accustomed to still have their kids doing multiple fundraisers every year just to pay for a decent team shirt, equipment repairs and field paint.

Couldn't agree more with your statement. We're doing pretty good at Dresden to have a home & away jersey yet some schools seem to have a new uniform for every "theme" night. We were fortunate at Dresden to have Ned R McWherter funds to help renovate our facilities.

[RudyWasOffsides]

Your 500 students off at Maryville who has 1600 kids. Maryville wins because of execution, a great youth football programs, and hardworking and dedication. Your never going to make everyone happy so you just have to work your tail off and get better. My high school always played up against schools easily twice their size and didn't complain but got better and beat the larger schools.

Just going off of what tssaa says. Out of curiosity, how many kids were in your high school and was it a public or private school?

Edited October 28, 2015 by RudyWasOffsides

[RudyWasOffsides]

That would be more than the private multiplier in certain situations and will never happen. If every open enrollment school had to move up 2 classes there would be no one in 1A or 2a. There are more open enrollment schools than closed zone school now for education reasons. If what you said was true then you would have teams like North Greene high school playing in 4a when they already struggle in 2a. Yes their are some few outliers but that's at any level of high school sports

I think the everyone's point is if there was a multiplier, schools would stop the open zone policy in their school instead of moving up which would even out the playing field.

[Swipes]

Just going off of what tssaa says. Out of curiosity, how many kids were in your high school and was it a public or private school?

Here is a link to the actually #s. The numbers shown there is graders 10-12 is 1126 since that is the all who attend the high school. Maryville has a freshman academy or( Maryville Junior High School as shown in your picture)so with grades 9-12 the number is 1604.

 

http://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/high-school/2014/10/14/tssaa-enrollment-numbers/17262841/

 

There were 800 kids in my high school and we were public, there are no private schools in my county, just open zoned

Edited October 28, 2015 by Swipes

[Swipes]

I think the everyone's point is if there was a multiplier, schools would stop the open zone policy in their school instead of moving up which would even out the playing field.

I don't think they would Rudy. What people forget is that schools go to open enrollment for education reason and not for sports. My County has been open enrollment since segregation was ended. A school system which is built to educate our future generations can give a rats butt about sports. That's why the word STUDENT is before the word athlete.

[Creekbankbuttspank]

They only count the kids at the high school. If freshman attend separate school they don't count. The number is 1126 by that sheet for maryville

Edited October 28, 2015 by Creekbankbuttspank

[cardfan]

I say classify schools based on number of red lights in town and whether or not you have a walmart. No red lights 1a, 1 redlight 2a, 1 redlight plus a walmart 3a, 2 redlights 4a, 5 or more red lights 5a. That should fix everything. Oh more than 10 redlights would be 6a

[9oldschool5]

a multiplier for open zoned schools was not even thought of until the recent vote to not split public and private. the prevailing theory is that the private sector (schools) lobbied the tssaa to distract them from the real issue (privates having an unfair advantage). The rebuttal to the public private split was that open zoned schools its not fair either. They succedded in distracting away from the real issue and got the split voted down by the narrowest of margins. that's what you can do with money, you can use it to buy influence. the truth is open zoned schools (like Adamsville) have to work even harder to outfit and train any influx of kids gained by a legal open enrollment therefore putting them at more of a disadvantage. The tssaa dropped the ball on the split and now has the privates begging to punish open enrollments. Would we expect any different from the privates? No. Would we expect any different from the tssaa? No. They have shown time and again that they do not care about the majority (public 220 some odd schools or more), rather they cater to the (25 or so) privates. I can understand it from a private school coaches or athletic directors view.I would beg, plead, and barter not to have to play other privates on a level playing field. Playing like minded and like abilities, and like funded programs would hurt each others programs. Its much easier to pick on the public schools who are at a clear disadvantage open enrollment or not.

[tradertwo]

I'm in the rural/urban split camp. If you'd care to hear a long story...Scotts Hill's former geographic location was in two counties. The Henderson/Decatur county line is right through the gym, both systems used to hire their own teachers according to student population location, and provide operational funding in the same manner. About 25 years ago, DC School Board dropped all funding, and agree'd instead to pay "tuition" to Henderson Co. per student residing within a busing zone (of which they determined). Roughly 1/3 of Scotts Hill High students are Decatur Co. residents, with the families of which paying taxes in DC. We are also located less than 10 miles from Chester and Hardin Counties, but are unable to admit students from them, due to overcrowding (I've talked with parents who had payment of tuition, but were denied). When the new facility was built about two miles west of the old location (now an elementary/middle school), the agreement with DC was allowed to remain, due to the wishes of both School Boards. Both the southern portions of Henderson and Decatur Counties are sparsely populated...some students still have a 15 mile drive or 45 minute bus ride to the campus. That places us in a unique situation...no concentrated population to draw students from, but probably couldn't exist without being open zoned. Should we be penalized for being open zone? Seems to me that a population count within a fixed radius of all schools would do more to level the playing field than any other proposed solution. 

[Swipes]

I'm in the rural/urban split camp. If you'd care to hear a long story...Scotts Hill's former geographic location was in two counties. The Henderson/Decatur county line is right through the gym, both systems used to hire their own teachers according to student population location, and provide operational funding in the same manner. About 25 years ago, DC School Board dropped all funding, and agree'd instead to pay "tuition" to Henderson Co. per student residing within a busing zone (of which they determined). Roughly 1/3 of Scotts Hill High students are Decatur Co. residents, with the families of which paying taxes in DC. We are also located less than 10 miles from Chester and Hardin Counties, but are unable to admit students from them, due to overcrowding (I've talked with parents who had payment of tuition, but were denied). When the new facility was built about two miles west of the old location (now an elementary/middle school), the agreement with DC was allowed to remain, due to the wishes of both School Boards. Both the southern portions of Henderson and Decatur Counties are sparsely populated...some students still have a 15 mile drive or 45 minute bus ride to the campus. That places us in a unique situation...no concentrated population to draw students from, but probably couldn't exist without being open zoned. Should we be penalized for being open zone? Seems to me that a population count within a fixed radius of all schools would do more to level the playing field than any other proposed solution.

 

Would the fixed radius be straight across the board or dependent on the size of the County, since all counties are different sizes. My county for example is one of the top 5 largest land wise in TN but only has 65,000 residents with 5 high schools.

[tradertwo]

There was some talk of a 20 mile radius at the meeting...not sure if that would be twenty across (ten from the campus), or 20 from the campus. Lots of variables would have to be considered...a circle around our school of twenty miles would encompass several counties, and even ten would include Henderson, Decatur, Chester, Hardin, and McNairy Counties. I think that with some common sense, and maybe some tweaking, that this would be a compromise that would satisfy most on both sides of the public/private issue...and be the most accurate way to place schools in classifications with similar schools, both in enrollment and opportunity to attract student athletes.