Board of Directors Meeting Minutes

April 2009 Board Meeting Summary

Board Authorizes Renovation of IESA Office Building

BLOOMINGTON - A renovation of the IESA Office building was authorized by the Board of Directors at its regular spring meeting Friday (April 3, 2009).

The Farnsworth Group of Bloomington will be design engineer and will invite bid for general contractor for the project. Work on the project will get under way as soon as the design is completed and approved by the Board. The estimated cost of the project is $300,000.

IESA Executive Director Steve Endsley said space needs in the headquarters facility have expanded significantly since the Association moved into the building in January of 1993. "We had four employees in 1993 and today we have nine," Endsley said. "Then we had primitive communication technology and now we must continue to be state of the art. The activities and programs the Association sponsors have increased and there are emerging activities on the horizon. We've run out of space and the renovation addresses this need."

The Board also acted on the recommendations of two advisory committees, one strategic planning action team and the general business of the Association.

Boys/Girls Basketball Advisory Committee

The Board did not approve a recommendation that regional and sectional games not be played on carpeted or tile floors.

The Board approved a recommendation that teams playing two regional games in one day be given a minimum of three (3) hours between games.

The Board approved a balanced playing format for five-team regionals where four games are to be played in two days.

A recommendation that three floor officials be assigned by the IESA Office to work the sectional games failed to receive a motion and therefore was not approved.

The Board approved a recommendation that mandates a pre-game meeting with floor officials, head coaches and captains prior to the start of each regular season and state series game. Points of Emphasis: a) Ball handling will not be allowed at all state series sites prior to the start of warm-ups; b) Students who participate in any non-school competition in basketball during the IESA basketball sport season are immediately ineligible to play on their school team for the remainder of the school season.

The next meeting of the advisory committee is Thursday, March 4, 2010.

Speech Advisory Committee

The Board approved a new definition of Storytelling that provides better direction to judges and coaches as to the expectations and requirements of the event. In Storytelling, "the student will tell a story from his/her own life experience, from folk literature, from his/her family oral tradition, or from any other source. Storytelling is unique from most other contest events in that it should have a very spontaneous quality encouraging audience participation/interaction. The presentation should have a clear beginning, middle and end, and demonstrate the customary attributes of characterization, state presence, body and facial expression, articulation, pronunciation, fluency and eye contact. The presentation may include multiple characters and sound effects."

The Board approved recommendations that add "staging" as a new adjudication criteria and removed "understanding of selection" in the adjudication criteria.

The Board approved a change in By-law 2.128 to clarify that coaches serving as judges cannot judge students from the coach's school.

Points of Emphasis: audience protocol; problems on contest day; workshop of Sept. 18, 2009; props; judging and award inflation; adjudication criteria.

The advisory committee will reconvene Wednesday, January 13, 2010.

Fine Arts Action Team

A recommendation from the action team to develop a Fine Arts Recognition Program and the criteria for selection of five annual awards failed to receive a motion and therefore was not approved. The recommendation provided for awards as Music Educator of the Year, the Young Music Educator of the Year, the Speech Coach of the Year, the Young Speech Coach of the Year, and the Art Educator of the Year.

The entire action team will meet again Tuesday, February 23, 1010 at 10:00 a.m., while the music adjudication sub-team will meet Thursday, May 27, 2009 at 10:00 a.m. and the speech adjudication sub-team will meet Thursday, June 9, 2009 at 9:00 a.m.

Other Business

The Board took the following action regarding the other business of the Association:

Member School Team Participation Limits - The Board approved revisions to By-law 2.081 that enumerate the criteria for scheduling contests. Member schools teams may play other member schools; Illinois elementary attendance centers containing any of the grades five through eight which are not members of IESA; any school (Illinois or non-Illinois) containing grades five through eight as long as the contest is in Illinois; and elementary attendance centers in adjacent states which contain any of the grades five through eight. The states adjacent to Illinois are Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Iowa and Wisconsin.

High School Student Coaches - The Board approved a revision in By-law 2.110 that will allow a high school student to be assigned to assist with the coaching of the IESA member school team provided the student is under the direct supervision of an individual who is qualified in 2.110 to coach. The student cannot take over at a contest for a coach who is ejected from a contest, nor can the student conduct practice in the absence of the qualified coach.

Failure To Participate - If a member school enters a state series and fails to participate in its scheduled state series contest the school will be subject to a $50 penalty. The penalty fee will be forwarded to the host school.

Monetary Penalties - The Board approved monetary penalties to schools beginning in the 2009-10 academic year. If a school fails to attend two consecutive track and field seeding meetings the fine will be $250. If a school fails to attend two consecutive division meetings the penalty will be a) suspension of membership in the Association for one year and required attendance at a division meeting in the IESA office, or b) fine of $500 and required attendance at a division meeting in the IESA office. The Board authorized the Sportsmanship Advisory Committee to explore the concept of a monetary fine to a member school if it has two or more adult ejections (coach, fan or parent) in its overall program and/or a specific sport.

Division Meeting Attendance Revision - Member schools that enter only the IESA speech series or only the IESA scholastic bowl series will have another option to fulfill the school's requirement to attend an annual Division Meeting beginning with the 2009-10 academic year. Schools that enter only the IESA music series will have the second option beginning with the 2010-11 academic year. Schools that are IESA members in speech only or scholastic bowl only will receive credit for attendance at an annual Division Meeting by having a school representative attend the annual Speech Workshop or Scholastic Bowl Workshop held in the fall. Beginning in the fall of 2010, there will be a combined music/speech workshop. If a school that enters only one of these respective activities is not represented at the workshop, a representative from the school must attend the annual Division Meeting.

Injury Litigation - The Board heard a report regarding pending litigation involving an alleged injury to a spectator at a girls basketball game at Monticello Middle School on October 22, 2007. The Association is the defendant in the litigation. A floor official working the contest collided with the spectator, who is seeking financial damages.

Boys Basketball Season - The Board reviewed correspondence from Woodridge Jefferson Junior High School requesting that it be allowed to participate in the conference boys basketball tournament with the other member schools in the Southeast DuPage Elementary Athletic Association (SDEAA). The tournament is held after the Friday of Week 34 in the IESA Standardized Calendar. IESA boys basketball season concludes Friday of Week 34. Woodridge Jefferson is the only school in the conference that participates in the state basketball series. Following lengthy discussion, the Board voted not to set aside the current basketball season limitations in by-law 4.042.

Ineligible Players In Uniform - The Board adopted a new by-law 3.146 that reaffirms existing policy that prohibits ineligible players from being at a contest in uniform. Ineligible players may occupy a spot on a team bench, but they may not be in uniform which includes warm-ups.

50-50 Drawings, Raffles - The Board voted to delete by-law 3.143 which prohibits 50-50 or other drawings, raffles, or other contests for money-raising purposes at state series contests.

Rawlings Balls - Beginning next academic year (2009-10), and for the next five (5) academic years (through 2013-14), the ball that will be used in the IESA state series in baseball, softball, girls basketball, boys basketball and girls volleyball are those manufactured by Rawlings Sporting Goods. The ball models are baseball (RIESA), softball (IESA 12Y47L), girls basketball (COMPWIESA), boys basketball (COMPIESA) and girls volleyball (VB1001). The Executive Director reported to the Board that the agreement between IESA and Rawlings has been finalized. The Rawlings balls are the "official balls of IESA" and will be used in the respective IESA state series.

Online Seeding Update - IESA will launch online girls softball and boys baseball seeding this fall. IESA volleyball schools will continue online seeding which began during the 2008-09 academic year. Member schools competing in the softball state series must submit the required information about their team online by Wednesday of Week 8 (August 26, 2009) in the IESA Standardized Calendar. Member schools will then rank the teams online in their respective regional between Monday and Wednesday of Week 9 (August 31-September 2). Member schools competing in the baseball state series must submit the required information about their team online by Wednesday of Week 9 (September 2, 2009) in the IESA Standardized Calendar. Member schools will then rank the teams online in their respective regional between Monday and Wednesday of Week 10 (September 7-9). Boys and girls basketball seeding is scheduled to be implemented during the 2010-11 academic year. The Board directed the IESA staff to develop a policy to review seeds within a given state series regional that will require the involvement of the principal of a school seeking review of its seed.

Multiple Ejections - The Board heard a report that five member schools thus far have had multiple ejections. The schools and the sport(s) involved are: Chrisman Scottland (boys basketball), Normal Calvary Baptist (boys basketball), Peoria Pleasant Valley (girls and boys basketball), Ransom (boys basketball) and Springfield Grant (boys basketball).

State Final Sites - The Board approved sites for the 2009-10 State Finals other than in basketball and volleyball. The list of sites will be put on www.iesa.org by the end of the school year.

Girls Basketball Financials - The Board received the financial reports of the 2008 IESA Girls State Basketball Tournament series. A copy of the reports is available upon request by the principal of any member school.

Income and Expenses - The Board received the summary financial reports for the school year from July 2008 through February 2009.

Treasurer's Report - The Board received and accepted the treasurer's report for the fiscal period ending February 28, 2009.

Division Reports

At each meeting of the Board of Directors time is devoted for each board member to report on communication with and requests from the member schools in the member's division. In addition, Board members also may make observations regarding the operation of the Association. Following is a report of those from the April 3 meeting:

Division H: Mr. Ingold informed the Board that a member school in the division requested that a state series site rotation system be implemented. After discussion involving the pros and cons of such a system, the Board took no action on the request.

Division K: Mr. Graham reported to the Board the concern from a member school regarding IESA scheduling of the girls volleyball regionals on Saturday. The school involved hosts a tournament on that day and the conflict impacts the field in that school's non-regional tournament.

Division L: Mr. Cameron reported on a situation in the basketball regional tournament where one of the participating schools arrived at the site of the game 29 minutes after the scheduled start of the contest. The team from the school that was at the site on time to play the game warmed up, went to the sidelines, and warmed up again when the late team arrived. By-law 5.073 stipulates that "if a team cannot field the required number of starting players within ten (10) minutes of the scheduled game time. . . the game is forfeited unless there are extenuating circumstances beyond the control of the participating schools." After discussion, the Board directed the IESA staff to address the policy and the time limit and bring any the results of that review to the June 19, 2009 Board meeting.