Published: March 13, 2014
Equality changes looming
Nonpublic schools could face enrollment multiplier
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
Equality within the WIAA may have new meaning if the
organization’s membership votes in favor of a new and likely controversial
proposal.
In a stunning move, the WIAA has announced a new amendment
proposal that would multiply the enrollments of all nonpublic member schools by
1.65 for tournament placement purposes in all sports. It will be voted on during
the WIAA’s annual meeting April 16 in Stevens Point. “After the initial
surprise and second thoughts and consideration, I was comf ortable with the
fact that members were engaging and exercising their rights,” WIAA’s Executive
Director Dave Anderson said Wednesday.
In most cases, proposed amendment changes go through a
process of being introduced to the WIAA. It is a three-step process, starting
the Sports Advisory Committee, then the Advisory Council and then the Board of
Control. Once through that process, the amendment is voted on at the WIAA
Annual Meeting each April. That’s not how this proposal came about.
In the WIAA Constitution, a proposed amendment can be
generated from the membership based on 10 percent support by member schools.
There are 505 member schools in the WIAA.
Anderson said about 70 schools have signed off on the
proposal, which is why it is now in the hands of the membership. And that’s
why, according to some in the area, this proposal is shocking.
“It took me by surprise because I didn’t even know they were
considering it,” Kettle Moraine Lutheran boys basketball coach Todd Jahns said.
“To me, it’s like where did it come from?”
For KML, its enrollment, based on the multiplier, would go
from 392 (the projected 2014-15 enrollment) to 646.8. Living Word Lutheran’s
would go from 155 to 255.8.
Anderson said it is hard to foresee the impact of the rule,
if passed, adding it all depends on each school’s particular situation.
For Living Word Lutheran Principal Dave Miskimen and Jahns,
this proposal, if passed, would be devastating.
“It doesn’t work,” Miskimen said. “The research shows in
other states that it doesn’t work.
“I do also believe that there’s a component to it that
thinks private schools have it easy and they don’t have to work that hard. ...
I’ve never understood the rationale of it.”
“I think there’s a misconception that private schools
recruit,” Jahns said. “That’s just not the reality. That’s not true. ... With
open enrollment, kids can transfer from public school to another public
school.”
Looking at the 2013 WIAA football playoffs, of the 224 teams
that qualified for the postseason, 43 would have played in a different division
(20 percent), including Slinger, which is a public school.
The football playoffs are broken up into seven 32-team
brackets and are placed based on enrollment.
If this rule was in place last season, Slinger would’ve
competed in the Division 3 playoffs, instead of Division 2. Germantown and
Kewaskum would’ve remained the same.
However, schools like Division 6 power St. Mary’s Springs
would’ve played in Division 4. Milwaukee Pius, Winnebago Lutheran Academy,
Manitowoc Lutheran, Lake Country Lutheran and Burlington Catholic Central
would’ve gone up two divisions.
“You’re going into very delicate areas,” Jahns said. “It
becomes a hard sell for getting kids motivated to play. It will create some
very huge issues. If it passes, there will be some backlash.”
Miskimen said the proposal is discriminatory.
“If recruiting is a problem, multipliers aren’t the
solution,” he said. “Unethical recruitment is not a private school issue.”
The 1.65 number was set because that’s the rule in Illinois.
“There are a number of other states where multipliers are in
place,” Anderson said. “If they are discriminatory, I struggle to understand
how they’re able to exist in other states.
“I think any time a segment of a membership (is) singled
out, then certainly someone will scrutinize it.”
He added, “It’s premature to speculate.”
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