Announcements

All 11 proposals on the ballot in the annual Illinois High School Association (IHSA) member school referendum were approved in voting by the membership last month. The online ballots were tabulated and certified in the IHSA Office Wednesday (Jan. 8).  All the by-law changes take effect on July 1, 2014, with two exceptions. Proposal 3 will take effect in 30 days (Feb. 7, 2014). Proposal 8 will take effect at the end of the next school term, that is, the week of June 28 to July 4, 2015, will be the first summer "dead week".

Here is a summary of the proposals and the vote totals:

• Proposal 1 (passed 355-106): Requires that, for a coop agreement to be extended, written approval of the conference(s) involved be submitted with the renewal application.
• Proposal 2 (passed 417-44): Requires that the mandatory rules video be watched by the head coach of a sport or activity program in order to receive credit and avoid probation or suspension.
• Proposal 3 (passed 304-157): Makes the Travel Policy a By-law; allows a school team to travel any distance on an out-of-state trip as long as no more than two school days are missed, including travel to and from the competition; allows two such trips per school year per team.
• Proposal 7 (passed 280-181): Removes the one-year period of ineligibility for a transfer student enrolling in his or her home boundaried public school for the first time.
• Proposal 8 (passed 240-220): Makes the week that includes July 4 a "dead week" during which coaches may have no contact with athletes during the summer contact period; does not apply to summer baseball and softball.
• Proposal 10 (passed 447-12): Raises the academic requirement for participants in non-athletic activities from 20 to 25 credit hours of high school work per week, the same standard used for athletes.
• Proposal 13 (passed 336-120): Allows boys football practice to start two days earlier (Monday of Week 6).
• Proposal 14 & 17 (passed 360-88): Moves the start of competitive cheerleading and competitive dance practice one week earlier (Monday of Week 17) and the start of competition two days earlier for competitive cheer (Monday of Week 18), making the dates for both sports identical.
• Proposal 15 & 19 (passed 340-109): Raises the team contest limitation in competitive cheerleading and competitive dance from 5 meets to 6 dates, exclusive of the IHSA State Series.
• Proposal 16 (passed 350-98): Establishes an individual contest limitation in competitive cheerleading of 6 dates, exclusive of the IHSA State Series.
• Proposal 20 (passed 352-94): Establishes an individual contest limitation in competitive dance of 6 dates, exclusive of the IHSA State Series, and requires that a dance team member be part of the winter game-day performance team (similar to the restriction already in place for competitive cheer team members).

A total of 463 of 808 member schools (57.3%) participated in the amendment vote, a small decrease from last year's 57.8%.
Following is a summary of member school participation in the amendment process since 1996-97.