Published: Sept. 10, 2014
Enrollment multiplier research data revealed
Committee comes up with 3 possible solutions
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
OCONOMOWOC — A proposed 1.65 enrollment multiplier is gone
and will not be adopted.
That much we do know after Tuesday morning’s WIAA area
meeting at Oconomowoc High School.
What we don’t know is what is the best solution moving
forward as an adhoc committee tries to solve the issue of competitive equality.
And that solution could include no action at all.
“I was really pleased by the process laid out because you
have a good representative body of people running through different scenarios,”
West Bend West Athletic Director Scott Stier said.
Three people represented the 21-member ad-hoc committee
Tuesday. The members on hand to present the research findings were David
Bartelt, Kettle Moraine Lutheran superintendent, Janet Bahr, athletic director
at Lake Country Lutheran, and Gus Knitt, district administrator at Pardeeville.
The presentation accounted for 46 minutes of the three-hour
meeting.
“There’s no perfect solution at this point; we still have
more studies to do,” Bartelt said. “It showed that this membership is very
engaged in the problem.”
The 1.65 multiplier proposed by members of the Six Rivers
Conference, consisting of schools in southwestern Wisconsin, has been thrown
out. The problem the committee had with the multiplier is it is not universally
applied to the membership. According to the committee’s research, Illinois,
which has the 1.65 number the Six Rivers Conference members used for its
proposal, has had issues with universal application.
The committee’s mission was to study competitive balance and
equity, and evaluate the current procedure of using enrollment for division
placement in postseason tournaments, plus offer a solution.
The committee explored nine viable solutions, which include
the original 1.65 multiplier, retain status quo, add a division that contains
no private schools (except football), long-term success, reduced/free lunch
students, equal distribution of private schools throughout division, sport
specific rules, geographic placement and out-of-feeder/ open-enrolled student
multiplier.
Three areas met the committee’s criteria for further study:
free/reduced lunch student multiplier, success factor and geography or
boundary-specific multiplier.
Minnesota uses the free/reduced lunch method in which 40
percent of the students in that category count toward enrollment.
Bahr said it’s worked well for Minnesota.
The success factor is an easy tracker. However, the
committee feared it would punish success.
The geographical boundary would establish a radius for
attendance regardless of open enrollment and add a multiplier for each student
beyond the boundary. The problem there is: Where is the boundary drawn?
The committee will reconvene Oct. 1 after all the WIAA area
meetings to go over notes and formulate a proposal, which may include no action
be taken.
“This is an issue not unique to Wisconsin,” Knitt said.
“It’s an issue across this country.”
Knitt also said the committee is confident it will meet the
deadline where it will present a proposal for the WIAA’s Board of Control
meeting in December.
At that time, the board will decide if the proposal will be
advanced to next spring’s annual meeting in Stevens Point, which appears likely
will happen.
The main thing the committee wanted was to not single out
any segment of the membership.
“Our solution had to be flexible,” Bartelt said, adding if
modifications needed to be made, a solution had to be possible.
While school administrators have been kept up to date
through email about the committee’s progress, it was good to hear the progress
directly from the committee.
“I think they’re working very hard to find a solution, which
everyone can appreciate,” Slinger Athletic Director Dan Karius said.
“I give them a lot of credit,” he added.
“They’re going about the process the way I had hoped,” East
Athletic Director Shane Hansen said. “I learned quite a bit.”
The parting message from Knitt was the committee is focused
on the big picture. And given the research data presented, there is a better
feeling about the issue of competition equity going forward.
“I came out of the meeting with a positive mind frame,”
Hansen said.
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