Two big changes could be coming to the New Jersey Interscholastic Athletic Association after its general meeting next month.
After Wednesday's Executive Committee meeting, ballots on two issues – charter school classification and recognition of women's ice hockey as an official sport – will be distributed to all NJSIAA members for voting at next month's annual membership meeting. officially approved to be done.
Both proposals passed first reading in January and could be approved by NJSIAA members next month if they pass the vote.
The new charter school classification, if passed by the full membership, would go into effect starting in the 2024-25 school year and change how charter schools are grouped. Under the proposal, charter schools and co-op programs would operate from classification until all public schools have been classified. Once all public non-cooperative teams are categorized, charter programs and co-ops are categorized based on the school's sports offerings, number of nosings, and enrollment.
“This is meant to provide stability not only for public schools that have their own independent programs, but also for smaller schools that have been negatively impacted by charter schools. You'll have a team and the next year you'll have a national team.' Those don't happen or new ones come along,'' Maguire said in January.
On Wednesday, Maguire expressed similar sentiments.
“Hopefully this will minimize the volatility that occurs at charter schools, where the status of varsity programs fluctuates from year to year, and at co-ops (from) where co-ops may disband or partners may disband. “It changes,” she said.
The ballot proposal would not allow charter schools to be classified as non-public schools or as anything other than how they have been classified. At least not yet.
But after Wednesday's meeting, McGuire said a newly created ad hoc admissions and classification committee would consider admissions issues related to public schools, including charter schools.
The commission, which will meet for the first time next week, will consider admissions policies for all types of public schools, including open enrollment, selective, and tutoring schools, where students enroll from outside the school's geographic boundaries.
As first reported by NJ Advance Media's Matt Stanmyre, the issue became especially evident during this basketball season. That's because College Achieve Asbury Park found a loophole in its men's team's first year that allowed it to bring in students from outside its geographic charter. .
“Maybe it's time for our classification to reflect that it can be registered across defined geographic boundaries,” Maguire said. “This review will go beyond charter schools. It will also look at all kinds of policies and what will happen to reflect new enrollment numbers for schools that allow schools to admit students from across regions. We will consider what that purpose is and what we can do about it.”
McGuire said the creation of the committee, which includes members of the NJSIAA executive committee and advisory committee, was not entirely prompted by College Achieve Charter's dominance in winning this year's Group 1 title. said.
“surely [College Achieve’s run] This got people's attention, but also about the situation in and around certain parts of the state where they're pulling kids away from a lot of schools, even though they're Group 1 schools for certain sports. Many people have contacted us. Other schools for athletic purposes,” Maguire said. “There has only been increased attention to this issue, but we have heard a lot of concerns over the years, especially from Group 1 schools.”
After College Achieve's 85-59 victory in the Group 1 final, several Group 1 coaches expressed concerns about the program, and College Achieve coach Dave Boff said his school had been separated beforehand. They even argued that they should be divided into groups.
Maguire did not commit to a timeline for when the Registration and Classification Committee would present its findings or present its ideas to the executive committee. Maguire also said the state is looking at how other states classify schools and could learn from ideas used in other states.
“I really don't want to set a schedule or even commit to whether anything will be implemented for next year,” she said.
Another thing that this proposal does not accomplish, as was feared, is that some schools in Group 1 would be upgraded to Group 2 due to the creation of charter schools in that section. From now on, all public classifications will be set before charters are added based on registration and northward numbers.
Another ballot item approved for a vote at next month's General Assembly meeting includes women's ice hockey, which if passed by a vote of the entire membership, will expand to 34 teams in the state for the 2024-25 season. It is likely to become the second sanctioned sport.
Jake Aferiat can be contacted at: jaferiat@njadvancemedia.com.please follow him @Jake_Aferiat.
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