January 8, 2008
All four proposals on the ballot in the annual Illinois High School Association (IHSA) member school referendum were approved in voting by the membership. The online ballots were tabulated and certified in the IHSA Office Tuesday (Jan. 8). All the by-law changes take effect on July 1, 2008.
By a vote of 469-4, the membership amended By-law 2.070 to allow a coach who retires from an IHSA member school to continue coaching at any IHSA member school without undergoing recertification. Under the current by-law, a retired coach who does not undergo recertification may coach only at the school he or she retired from.
The membership approved by a 417-56 margin a change to By-law 2.060 that allows multiple-school conference activities (events involving four or more schools from a single conference) to begin as early as 8 am on a school day. The earliest allowable starting time under the current by-law is 1 pm.
Schools voted 364-90 to amend By-laws 5.192 and 5.552 to add two more dates to the season in both girls bowling and boys bowling, raising the limit from 18 to 20.
Finally, by a vote of 370-102, the schools approved changes to By-laws 5.051, 5.251, 5.261, 5.291 and 5.301 to start practice in five fall sports (boys cross country, girls cross country, girls swimming, girls tennis, and girls volleyball) on the same date as the other fall sports, Wednesday of Week 6 on the standardized calendar.
The complete listing of all 12 original proposals can be found by clicking here.
A total of 473 of 765 member schools (62.0%) participated in the amendment vote.