By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
Juab School District is not in favor of the proposed athletic region realignment which would affect the school’s football team for the 2009 through the 2013 school years.
A new proposal by Superintendent Kirk Wright will be presented and discussed by school districts who also have concerns. The meeting will be held on Wednesday in Nephi.
“I am a lay superintendent,” said Wright. “I have no authority on the board of trustees.”
In the past, he has served on the realignment committee for the Utah High School Athletics Association but has no vote on that group this year. However, he said, the proposal he is making would cut travel and, by doing that, would cut fuel costs.
“I am trying to keep schools with similar demographics in the same classification,” said Wright.
He said there was some support for his proposal and some who were not in favor of it. He was working to rally majority support.
The proposed UHSAA 3A Classification (which would include 21 schools between 400 and 999 census) would have a North, East, Central and South group.
The Central group, as proposed, would have five schools which would include Delta with 469; Emery with 481, Juab with 440, Manti with 448, and North Sanpete with 533.
North would have five schools: Bear River at 976, Ben Lomond at 976, Grantsville at 460, Judge Memorial at 601 and Morgan at 511.
East would have six schools: American Leadership, 374, Carbon with 796, Juan Diego with 562, Park City with 992, Union with 581, and Wasatch with 898.
South would have five schools with Desert Hills at 837, Hurricane at 905, Canyon View at 788, Cedar City and 769, and Richfield at 450.
Wright proposes that Juab be kept in a 2A classification which, under his plan, would have 13 schools with a census range between 275 and 549 with a ratio of 1.99.
Juab would be in the north region with eight or nine schools depending on decisions to be made by Whitehorse with a studentbody of 160 and Monument Valley with 106.
Other schools Juab would play under this proposal would be: Grand with 362; South Summit with 294; American Leadership with 374; Morgan at 511; and Grantsville at 460. Juab with 440 would be the third largest school.
“This looks like a decent proposal travel-wise,” said Stacy Brooks, board member. “If gas prices continue to rise, the question will be if you should travel at all.”
Wright asked board members for support for his proposal.
The UHSAA board of trustees (BOT) will hold hearings on March 18 at 9 a.m. Each school will be allowed 20 minutes to make its case, and then the board will release draft No. 2 and vote on it on April 3.
If the UHSAA proposal is adopted, fans will see West High competing as a 5A school in a region with Viewmont, Davis, Cyprus and Granger. Juab, Richfield and Manti will move from 2A to 3A and Uintah will be in a 4A region with Springville, Spanish Fork and Payson.
“This is proposal No. 1,” said UHSAA executive director Evan Excell. “Then we’ll have the hearings and come up with draft No. 2. If we need to have more hearings, then we’ll do that and have a final proposal by June.”
June is the deadline for the board to vote on a final realignment for the 2009-2013 school years.
“It’s always an interesting process,” Excell said. “Hopefully our board members are not too territorial, and they’re looking out for their regions and the whole state before their individual schools. I have every confidence that is what they’ll do.”
The board of trustees voted to change the population numbers that delineate each classification. Therefore, in the board proposal, there is not much about the current alignment that will remain.
The current 5A Region 1 will be joined by Roy, but Davis and Viewmont will move into a region with Cyprus, Granger, West and Kearns. All of those schools, except Kearns, are currently 4A.
Bingham, Copper Hills, Hunter, Riverton, Taylorsville, West Jordan and a new school in Herriman set to open in 2010 will make up a third region and Alta, American Fork, Brighton, Jordan, Lone Peak and Pleasant Grove make up a fourth 5A class.
The 4A classification increases from 27 schools to 35 schools due to several new schools opening in Nebo, Tooele, Alpine and Washington counties. Bonneville, Box Elder, Logan, Mountain Crest, Ogden and Sky View become the new northern region, while Bountiful, East, Highland, Stansbury, Tooele and Woods Cross make up the second region. Cottonwood, Hillcrest, Murray, Olympus and Skyline make up the third region, and Lehi, Mountain View, Orem, Provo, Saratoga Springs, Timpanogos, and Timpview are the fourth.
Maple Mountain, Payson, Salem Hills, Spanish Fork, Springville and Uintah become the fifth region. Dixie, Pine View, Snow Canyon and Tuacahn form the sixth region.
There were discussions about trying to move some of the 4A schools up or down, but because of population numbers, it was voted down. The population numbers that make up 4A are 1,000 to 1,600 students.
“The numbers are pretty firm,” Excell said. “It would take a two-thirds vote to violate those numbers.”
Waterford moves back down to 2A, at the request of the school, and is in a region with South Summit, Rowland Hall, North Summit, Maesar (an associate member), Layton Christian and Duchesne, which is currently a 1A school.
The category of 5A was changed from three regions of eight teams each to four regions of six or seven schools. A private school multiplier of 1.5 was proposed, but it failed to pass.
At the November 15 meeting of the UHSAA Board of Trustees, the realignment for the years 2009-13 began. Chairperson Steve Laing met with the BOT (which comprises the alignment committee), reviewed the results of the surveys that had been returned, and set some parameters, determinants, assumptions and expectations for the process, which will be completed in June 2008.
It was determined that the UHSAA would remain in a five-classification system.
The soft numbers (these may change with the proposals) for classifications will be: 1A: Under 150; 2A: 150-399; 3A: 400-999; 4A: 1000-1499; 5A: 1500 and above.
Enrollment counts furnished to the Utah State Office of Education after October 1, 2007 will be considered in the alignment process. These counts are for grades 10-12 only and do not include special education students (self-contained) or home and hospital students.
For the complete draft proposal see the UHSAA Web site at www.uhsaa.org.
