Board of Directors Meeting Minutes

Spring IESA Board of Directors Meeting Synopsis

The IESA Board of Directors acted on the basketball and cheerleading committee recommendations; addressed the Board of Directors election timeline, and tied up other loose ends at its regularly scheduled meeting on April 4, 2014.

The Board approved a recommendation by the Basketball Advisory Committee to allow a student to play eight (8) quarters a day in regular season competition. Previously, a student could only play 5 quarters a day in regular season play. "The decision to allow 8 quarters a day was not an easy one for the Board of Directors," said IESA Executive Director Steve Endsley. "We already were allowing students to play 8 quarters a day in all tournament play on the same day and when this was factored in with the problem that many schools, especially some of our smaller schools, are experiencing being able to play both a 7th grade game and an 8th grade game in the same night and stay within the current 5 quarter a day limitation made the decision a bit easier. Our intent is simply to give schools that cannot comply with the current limitation because they have such small numbers on their teams the ability to play a 7th grade and 8th grade game in the same evening without violating the rule. The message to our membership is not, 'play your 7th grader all four quarters of the 7th grade game and all 4 quarters of the 8th grade game just so you can win'. Schools that have plenty of participating students can certainly implement a local rule that would not allow a 7th grader to play all four quarters of the 7th grade game and all 4 quarters of the 8th grade game. Advisory committees have the responsibility to discuss items related to their respective activity. However, the Board of Directors has the ultimate decision-making power on committee recommendations. They have to balance the recommendations of a given committee against what they feel is in the best overall interest of the entire IESA program. While the change to the daily individual limitations might cause some to question why a change was made, the Board felt this was for the overall good for the majority of schools. The simple truth is that many of our smaller schools and even some of our 4A schools are having a difficult time abiding by the five quarter a night rule because the number of participants is dwindling."

The Board took the following action regarding advisory committee recommendations in basketball and cheerleading:

Boys/Girls Basketball: In addition to approving the above-mentioned individual limitation rule, the Board also approved the following:

**A season limitation rule restricting a student to a maximum of 132 quarters during the season. Because of this rule, a 7th grade student would not be able to play all four quarters of a 7th grade game and all 4 quarters of an 8th grade game should a school play the maximum of 22 games per year;

**The starting time for the basketball sectional games was changed from 6:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.;

**For state series contests, the official scorer and timer must be at least 18 years of age;

**School must have played at least three games prior to the Online Roster and Record Deadline. Failure to do so will result in the school not being allowed to play in the state series;

**Changed the mandatory season ending date for girls basketball to December 23 and the mandatory season ending date for boys basketball to Saturday of week 36 in the standardized calendar.

The Board did not approve the following recommendations:

**That the 8th grade games shall consist of 7 minute quarters;

**That the results of the online seeding be made available to all schools within the regional.

Cheerleading: The Board approved a recommendation that each division of the cheer championships receive four additional medals.

Other Business Items

Concealed Carry Act: Received a report from the Association legal counsel regarding responsibilities of the Association under the new Illinois Firearm Concealed Carry Act.

Golf Sectional Date: Approved a change to the sectional and state dates for golf in 2015-17 so they do not conflict with Labor Day.

Springfield Jefferson: The administration of Springfield Jefferson met with the Board to discuss some sportsmanship issues that took place in two of their boys basketball contests and one volleyball contest. The Jefferson administration informed the Board of corrective actions they are planning to implement. After the discussion, the IESA Board has placed Jefferson on probation for the 2014-15 school year.

Trainer at State Final Sites: Approved a staff recommendation that state final sites in baseball, softball, cross-country, girls and boys basketball, cheerleading, girls volleyball, boys wrestling, and girls and boys track and field must have a certified trainer or EMT on site during the IESA tournament.

Board Election Timeline: Approved a slight revision to the timeline for elections that are held for the Board of Directors. Prior to the change, the election process started on November 1 and lasted until December 15. Now that all voting is done electronically, the process will start on November 1 and conclude by November 21.

Regional Program Proposal: A request from McQuality Education Services to produce a program for all regional hosts was not approved.

Letter From the Office of Civil Rights: The Board was informed that the Association had a complaint filed against it with the Office of Civil Rights alleging discrimination on the basis of sex. The Complainant alleges the IESA subjected her daughter to discrimination on the basis of sex during the 2013-14 wrestling season, when it required her school's team to identify her sex on rosters it submitted to opposing teams prior to wrestling competitions, which resulted in the opposing teams frequently forfeiting matches against her daughter.

At-Large Board Member: The Board discussed adding an at-large board member. No action was taken and the issue will be re-visited at the June meeting.

Treasurer's Report: The Board received and accepted the treasurer's report for the fiscal period through February 28, 2014.

Financial Reports: The Board accepted the financial reports for the state series in boys baseball, girls softball, cross-country, girls basketball, and cheerleading, and speech. Concerns were raised with the amount of supervision and expenses some schools are charging causing many regionals and sectionals to run at a deficit. The Finance Committee will review allowable expenses and report to the Board any recommendations for changes.

Board Meetings: There is one regular meeting remaining in the 2013-14 school year. It is scheduled for June 20, 2014.

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 4 meeting:

Division F: Mr. Frost received a letter from a school regarding the individual limitations in basketball and volleyball and how the current rule does not allow their school to abide by them because of their low participation numbers. Because this issue was going to be discussed during the basketball advisory report, no action was taken.

Division G: Mr. Lee informed the Board that a school contacted him about IESA allowing schools to play non-school teams. Given that IESA is an association of member schools, no action was taken.

Division O: Dr. Stuart was contacted by a member school concerning the procedure that should be followed when a school has not paid an assessment for a state series contest deficit. Host schools that have difficulty in collecting such assessment should contact the IESA Office. He also had an inquiry regarding whether the current House Bill Resolution 895 would impact IESA. To date, IESA has not received any contact from any member of the General Assembly regarding House Bill Resolution 895.