Fourteen of the 21 proposals submitted to change the Illinois High School Association Constitution and By-laws were placed on the annual referendum ballot by the Legislative Commission at its second meeting Monday (Nov. 21) in the IHSA Office. Thirty-two of the 35 commissioners attended Monday's meeting.
Following are the proposas on the 2011 IHSA annual referendum: Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13 (which has been combined with 17), 14, 20 and 21. The others were rejected by the Legislative Commission after hearing feedback from member schools at town meetings around the state. (The text of the proposals as amended is available in a PDF document.)
The ballot containing the proposals will be available online to IHSA member schools in the IHSA Schools Center on Tuesday, Nov. 22. The deadline to submit the online ballot is midnight, Thursday, Dec. 22. The ballots will be tabulated and the results posted on Thursday, Jan. 5. A simple majority of votes cast on each proposal will determine whether it passes.
Here is a summary of the proposals on the ballot:
- Proposal 1 allows private schools with enrollments of 200 or less (before the 1.65 multiplier is applied) to be part of cooperative teams.
- Proposal 2 allows the Illinois School for the Deaf to compete against other schools for the deaf, even if they are not a member of their state’s high school association, with the permission of the Executive Director.
- Proposal 3 simplifies the language of the by-law regarding the qualifications needed to serve as a head or assistant coach.
- Proposal 4 requires any school entering a state tournament to have a member of its coaching staff watch the required rules interpretation presentation, even if the school has only an individual entry or entries.
- Proposal 6 allows a certificate of physical fitness to be valid for 395 days from the date it was issued (the current limit is 365 days).
- Proposal 7 requires students to be doing passing work in 25 credit hours of high school work per week. (The current requirement is 20 hours.) A physical education class may be counted as one of the five courses used to earn 25 credit hours, even if the school does not give credit for P.E.
- Proposal 8 requires students, except for incoming freshmen, to have received credit for passing work in 25 credit hours of high school work during the previous semester. (The current requirement is 20 hours.) A physical education class may be counted as one of the five courses used to earn 25 credit hours, even if the school does not give credit for P.E.
- Proposal 10 expands the exception to non-school participation to include competitions sanctioned by, but not necessarily sponsored or conducted by, the National Governing Body or its official Illinois affiliate, and approved by the IHSA Board of Directors.
- Proposal 11 creates the following new rules for summer football drills: (a) Before full pads are allowed during summer camp, teams must practice 2 days with helmet only and 2 days with helmet and shoulder pads only, and (b) Helmets, mouthpieces, and appropriate footwear may be worn during 7-on-7 scrimmages.
- Proposal 12 allows a school to compete in more than five contests in a wrestling tournament if that tournament takes place over two consecutive days.
- Proposal 13 (which has been combined with original Proposal 17) removes the restriction on the number of quarters a basketball player can participate in during the course of the regular season.
- Proposal 14 moves the date of the first contest in boys bowling three days earlier, from Monday of Week 19 to Friday of Week 18.
- Proposal 20 establishes a season limitation in Competitive Dance, with a season running from Monday of Week 18 to Saturday of Week 39.
- Proposal 21 restricts Competitive Dance squads to no more than seven competitions, excluding the IHSA state series.