Board of Directors Meeting Minutes

June 2012 Board Meeting Summary

Jerry R. Birkey Elected President of IESA Board of Directors; John Venerable Named New IESA Assistant Executive Director; Non-School Participation By-Law and Transfer Rules Changed

Mr. Jerry R. Birkey, Principal at Mt. Zion Junior High School, was elected president of the IESA Board of Directors at the regular summer meeting of the Board that was held on Friday, June 15. In addition, John Venerable's appointment to the vacant Assistant Executive Director position was approved by the Board and major changes to By-Laws 3.042 and 2.060 were approved. The Board also acted on the recommendations of several advisory committees as well as the general business of the Association.

Birkey's election to the Board President was necessitated by the retirement of Ron Graham, Assistant Superintendent of the Girard North Mac district.

Graham, who served on the IESA Board since 1996, was the President for the past three years. Birkey has served on the IESA Board since 1997 and becomes the 37th administrator to lead the Board of Directors. He has been the principal at Mt. Zion Jr. High School since 1994. Prior to that, Birkey served as the principal at Morrisonville from 1989-1994 and has also worked in the Momence and East Peoria #86 school districts.

Birkey was serving as the Vice-President of the IESA Board. With his election to the presidency, Mr. Tony Ingold, superintendent of East Peoria district #86 was elected to the vice-president position.

Venerable becomes the fifth person to serve as an Assistant Executive Director for the IESA. His appointment fills the vacancy that was created by the resignation of Administrative Specialist, Patrick Bodame. Venerable's duties will include the administration of girls softball, music, cheerleading, bowling, and scholastic bowl. "John Venerable will be an excellent addition to the IESA administrative staff," said IESA Executive Director Steve Endsley. "We had several quality candidates that applied for the position and John's passion for the position has us very excited for the future." Venerable is a 2010 graduate of Illinois State University and was the recipient of TV-10's Most Outstanding Senior in Journalism award. He has worked for ESPNChicago.com and this past year was a paraprofessional for McLean County Unit District #5 while also serving as an assistant football coach for Normal Community High School.

The Board approved a recommendation from a strategic planning action team that was formed to discuss By-Law 3.042. The By-Law prohibits students from participating on a school team and a non-school team in the same sport at the same time. The action team recommended to the Board that the By-Law be deleted. The Board approved the recommendation from the action team. For additional information about this change, please click here.

Students who transfer from one school to another will now be eligible upon the 11th day of attendance at the new school provided all eligibility requirements have been met. Previously, students were eligible immediately upon transferring provided all eligibility requirements were met. With the change, any student who transfers after the beginning of the school year becomes eligible on the 11 day of attendance rather than immediate eligibility at the new school.

However, schools may still have local policies in place that would prevent a student from participating at the new school once a given season has started.

Advisory, Board Committee Action

The Board acted on activity advisory committee recommendations in Cheerleading, Cross-Country, Music, Scholastic Bowl, Track and Field, and Wrestling; on recommendations from the Board of Directors Staff Relations and Finance Committees; and on staff recommendations.

Advisory committees are generally composed of coaches, administrators, and officials with expertise in the respective sport or activity. Each sport/activity has an advisory committee and generally meets once a school year. The advisory committee reviews the Terms and Conditions, administrative procedures and all other aspects of the sport/activity and makes recommendation to the Board of Directors. The Board committees are composed of IESA Board members and meet once a year.

Cheerleading:

Two recommendations were presented to the Board and both were accepted. Schools must now remain and compete in the division that they originally enter after Monday of week 28 in the standardized calendar.

Previously, schools were required to change divisions if for some reason the number of squad members dropped and the total number of squad members would place them in a small division. With the change, schools must remain in the original division. Also, the number of trophies awarded at the state competition in each division will be based on the number of competing teams. Previously, regardless of the number of competing teams in each division, a championship and a runner-up trophy were presented. Instead, the number of trophies will be based n the following scale: When there are 1-9 teams entered in a given division, only a championship trophy will be presented; when there are 10-19 teams entered in a given division, 1st and 2nd place trophies will be awarded; when there are 20 or more teams entered in a division, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place trophies would be awarded.

Cross-Country:

The Board approved the committee's recommendation to move to a 3 class system effective in the fall of 2012. Beginning with the 2012 state series, there will be 3 classes of cross country with each class have 1/3 of the total number of entries. Each class will have 7 sectionals with the top 3 teams advancing to the state finals along with the top 5 individuals not on one of the top 3 teams. There will now be 6 state races. "This change was necessary due to the increasing number of schools that enter the IESA state cross country series," said IESA Executive Director Steve Endsley. "Four years ago we had about 220 schools entering the state series and this past year we had almost 260 schools. While some will see this change as simply awarding more trophies to more individuals and more schools, the simple fact is that under the old set-up, the course at Maxwell Park in Normal could not safely handle 260 runners per race." The new set-up will feature 182 runners in each race. Plans are also underway to move the award ceremonies to Normal West High School which will help alleviate traffic in and around Parkside JHS.

Scholastic Bowl:

The Board approved a new set-up for the placement of the moderator during a match. The Board also approved changes in the scholastic bowl rule book related to use of articles in answers; responses within 3 seconds; and resetting of the lock-out system when two individuals are recognized to give an answer.

Music:

A recommendation to allow two or more schools to enter a music organizational event as one entry without forming a co-op was approved.

Previously, schools were required to complete a co-op application. With the change, in music organizational events only, schools will not have to complete the co-op application and provide the supporting material.

Track and Field:

A major change to the participation limitations was approved. Students will now be allowed to participate in any combination of four events. The only exception is that students are still allowed to participate in only two of the three relays and if they do participate in two relays, then one of the relays must be the 4 x 400. Other than this limitation, students may now participate in four running events, or four field events, or a combination of running, field, and relay events that totals four.

New qualifying standards in some events were approved as were changes to the sectional and state starting heights for boys and girls pole vault. The complete listing of 2013 qualifying standards will be posted in January, 2013.

Running events at the state meet will now start at 1:15 p.m. instead of 1:00 p.m. This change should allow the field events to continue for 15 additional minutes on Friday without any conflicts.

Honorary meet officials will now be selected to acknowledge those individuals who have made significant contributions to the IESA Track and Field state series.

Wrestling:

The Board approved a recommendation that only varsity matches may be used when seeding wrestlers for the regional. Eight wrestlers will continue to be seeded (assuming there are eight that meet the minimum number of varsity matches needed to be seed).

Staff Relations Committee:

The Board voted to renew the contracts of three IESA administrators: Steve Endsley, Nicole Schaefbauer, and Julie Cochran. The Board also approved salaries for the remainder of the IESA staff.

Finance Committee:

The Board approved an upgrade to the Association's computer system.

Other Business

Meeting with Cahokia Wirth - The Superintendent and Athletic Director from Cahokia Wirth addressed the Board regarding the violation of By-Law 3.081.

A coach knowingly allowed a student to participate in the track sectional under an assumed name. The IESA Board suspended the girls track team from participating in the 2012 and 2013 state track meets because of the violation. After their comments, the Board approved reinstating the Cahokia Wirth girls track team to the 2013 state series provided the coach who allowed the violation to occur does not coach in 2013.

State Final Sites - The Board finalized all but one of the remaining state final sites for the 2012-13 school term. The 8th grade Class 4A state basketball site still needs to be determined. The lineup of state final sites is posted on the IESA Web Site www.iesa.org. Click on State Hosts and Dates under Activities.

Assistant Executive Director Report -- Mrs. Cochran informed the Board of the schools who won the Commerce Bank Division Sportsmanship Award.

The listing of schools winning the award in 2011-12 can be found on the IESA Web Site at www.iesa.org by clicking on the Division Awards icon in the Sportsmanship Section Section of the home page. The Board received an update on the number of schools who have indicated they plan to enter the boys volleyball state series and coed soccer state series beginning with the 2013-14 school year. The Board has previously approved that a minimum of 40 schools must indicate they plan to enter the state series by September 1, 2012 in order to move forward with the state series.

It does not appear at this time that either state series will be held. As of June 15, a total of 25 schools have indicated they plan to enter the boys volleyball state series and 33 have indicated they will enter the soccer state series. Information was given to the Board on the final merchandise totals for the 2011-12 school year. The CubbyHole, Carlinville, IL, is the official merchandise vendor for IESA sectional and state final athletic apparel.

Associate Executive Director Report -- The Board received a report about the site and date of the chess competition in 2013, 2014, and 2015.

The competition will be moved from the U.S. Cellular Coliseum in Bloomington to the Bone Student Center on the campus of Illinois State University. In 2013, the competition will be held March 22-23. The following year, the venue remains the same but the competition will be held February 28-March 1 while in 2015 it will be held February 27-28.

The Bone Student Center was not available the last weekend of February in 2013 which necessitated a later date for 2013. Executive Director Report -- The Board was provided with an update on the NFHS Summer Meeting, which will be held in Nashville, TN from July 7-11. Mr. Endsley will be visiting with the Rockford schools on June 29 as they have indicated an interest in joining the Association. There are six public jr. high schools in the Rockford district. Approval was given to support the IPA cyberbullying workshop that will be held in August.

State Series Finances - The Board received financial reports for Scholastic Bowl, Music, Wrestling, Girls Volleyball, and Speech.

Treasurer's Report - The Board received and accepted the treasurer's report.

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. Following is a report of those from the June 15 meeting:

Division A -- Dr. Herrmann was contacted about the assignment of the track sectionals. No action was taken.

Division F -- Mr. Frost was contacted about the length of time for some of the field events at the state meet.

Division G -- Mr. Lee was contacted by a member school to express thanks to the IESA staff for their professionalism in conducting events.