IHSA Announcements

June 9, 1999

Board Begins Process To Seek Proposals To Host State Final Events

The process to seek proposals to host several major indoor Illinois High School Association (IHSA) state final tournaments was started by the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Board of Directors Wednesday (June 9) during its regular May meeting.

Terms of the present contracts to host the state final tournaments in girls volleyball, boys individual wrestling, girls basketball and boys basketball will end with the completion of the 1999-2000 (next) school term. It has been five years since the Association sought proposals to host these and other state final events. Currently, girls volleyball and girls basketball are held at Redbird Arena on the campus of Illinois State University in Normal. The individual wrestling is held at the Assembly Hall on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The boys basketball tournaments are held in Carver Arena of the Peoria Civic Center.

The Board spent time discussing the development of specifications to be included in proposals to host these events, as well as time frames for implementing the process. The Board instructed the IHSA staff to present completed specifications for approval no later than the regular July meeting. The regular July Board meeting is scheduled July 19-20.

"We hope to be in a position to meet with representatives of the venues and communities which have interest in hosting IHSA state final events early in the 1999-2000 (next) school term," said IHSA Executive Director Dave Fry. "That meeting will be in the IHSA Office. All the details for the process should crystalize rapidly following the Board's approval of completed specifications."

Board Action

  1. The Board approved several recommendations from the Strategic Planning action team responsible for developing strategies to increase the number of women and minorities in all entities of IHSA. Among the recommendations approved were those regarding advisory committees, staff employment policy and athletic officials recruitment.
    The Advisory Committee Policy Statement is that "The IHSA administrative staff should continue to take into consideration ethnicity, gender, demographics and the IHSA's classification structure when making appointments to advisory committees."
    The Employment Policy Statement is that "The Illinois High School Association is an Equal Opportunity Employer. When possible, every effort should be made to hire qualified minorities.
    The action team's recommendation regarding recruitment of officials includes that a sub-committee of the Officials Advisory Committee be charged with developing a recruiting plan that would consider from among: a poster campaign, student licensing, a public awareness campaign, an incentive program for current officials, curriculum for training officials, and partnerships with community colleges.
    The Board also reviewed the action team's proposal to increase the number of minorities and the under-represented gender on the Board of Directors and Legislative Commission through an appointment process.The Board charged the action team to develop a concept that would provide for the election of such representatives.

  2. Received the preliminary draft of the 1999-2000 IHSA Budget. The final budget will be presented for action at the regular July meeting.

  3. Approved a plan to make medical insurance available to staff members who retire prior to becoming eligible for Medicare.

  4. Approved adding EdVentures to the list of approved foreign exchange programs.

  5. Did not approve an appeal of the school classification for Olney (East Richland) for the 1999-2000 school term. Olney (East Richland) moved from Class A to Class AA status for the 1999-2000 school term.

Eligibility Rulings

  1. Sustained the Executive Director's ruling that a student be ineligible at Rockford (Lutheran) until Oct. 30, 1999, for noncompliance with transfer by-law 3.043. The student transferred from Rockford (Guilford) to Rockford (Lutheran) without a move to a new school district by her parents.
  2. Modified the Executive Director's ruling that a student has completed his eligibility at Woodstock (H.S.) for noncompliance with by-law 3.051. Based on new information, the Board granted the student eligibility for the upcoming fall (1999-2000) semester. He has completed eight semesters of high school attendance and will be attending Woodstock (H.S.) for a fifth year in 1999-2000.

Discussion Items

At each meeting of the Board of Directors, there are certain agenda items which the Board discusses but upon which it takes no action. Following is a report of those on the May, 1999, agenda:
  1. Action Team Survey: The Board heard a report of the findings of the membership survey regarding the components of the proposals generated by the non-school competition/instruction Strategic Planning action team. Responses were received from 432 IHSA member schools. The action team will reconvene and the data obtained from the survey responses will be used to create new proposal(s) for consideration by the membership through the Legislative Commission and annual referendum process.