Board of Directors Meeting Minutes

June 2009 Board Meeting Summary

Virden's Ron Graham Elected President of IESA Board of Directors

BLOOMINGTON -- Ron Graham of Virden was elected president of the Illinois Elementary School Association (IESA) Board of Directors at its regular June meeting Friday (June 19).

Graham, who starts his 17th year in the Virden school system, has been its superintendent since 2007. From 1993-2002, he was principal of Virden Middle School and from 2002-2007 he was principal of the 6-12 school. Before joining the Virden system, Graham coached football at Assumption for 5 years and Fairfield for 4.

Elected vice president was Craig Carr of Montrose Grove, and Jerry Birkey of Mt. Zion was re-elected treasurer.

Board Committee assignments were approved as follows:

The By-Laws Committee will include the new Board members from Division D, E, L and M.

Finance Committee includes Jerry Birkey of Mt. Zion, James Bunting of Watseka Glenn Raymond, Joe Buresh of Annawan GS, and Chris Collins of Glendale Hts. Glenside.

Staff Relations Committee includes Scott Herrmann of Niles Gemini, Taunya Jenkins of Peoria Manual Prep, Dana Isackson of Macomb and Chris Graham of St. Joseph.

Board members also are appointed on an annual basis as a liaison to each of the advisory committees. Advisory committee assignments for 2009-10 will be: Baseball - James Bunting, Basketball - Chris Graham, Cheerleading - Dana Isackson, Cross Country - Joe Buresh, Music - Taunya Jenkins, Scholastic Bowl - Division D representative, Softball - Chris Collins, Speech - Division L representative, Sportsmanship - Division M representative, Volleyball - Division E representative, and Wrestling - Scott Herrmann.

Board To Name Replacements for 4 Departing Members

Four members of the Board of Directors will be new with the 2009-10 school term. Executive Director Steve Endsley presented plaques at Friday's meeting to four Board members who are leaving it because of retirement or a move from the division in which they serve. Their years of service to the member schools and the students who attend them amounted to a combined 27 years. The four new members will be seated at the Sept. 11, 2009, meeting.

Retiring from the Board are president Joe Spiezio of Braidwood Reed-Custer in Division D, Ron Ervin of Auburn JHS in Division M and Dan Vaughn of Forrest Prairie Central in Division E. Scott Cameron of Assumption Central A&M will become superintendent at Beecher City, which is not in Division L. Spiezio was a member of the Board from 1995-2009, the last six as president. Ervin served from 2003-09, Vaughn from 2004-09 and Cameron from 2007-09.

Board Approves State Series Expansion Blueprint

The Board approved a series of recommendations from the Emerging Activities Committee that can lead to the addition of seven state series between the 2010-11 school year and the 2013-14 school year, as well as policy and procedure to implement expansion.

The recommendations were made with the benefit of the results of a survey of member schools regarding potential for expanding statewide competition in sports and activities. A total of 760 different member schools responded to the survey.

The following approximate timeline endorsed by the Emerging Activities Committee shows the 2010-11 school year for the start of competition in boys bowling, girls bowling and chess with only state final competition in them in the winter. In the 2011-12 school year, girls golf and boys golf series could begin with a state final only in the fall. In school year 2012-13 boys volleyball could get under way as a spring series with regional, sectional and state final levels. Soccer (coed) could start in 2013-14 as a spring series with three levels of competition.

The Board approved policy that it may consider recommendations to add a new state series when a sufficient number of the member schools express interest in participating in the activity as an IESA state tournament. Factors to be considered by the Board when the minimum required participation is demonstrated include: geographic proximity of schools to complete a schedule, impact of a new series on existing IESA school programs, pre-existing community based programs, availability of licensed officials, growth potential of the activity, gender equity criteria and the financial and staffing impact on the IESA.

All IESA by-laws, policies, rules and contest regulations will apply to member schools that participate in an emerging activity state series. After the IESA Board of Directors authorizes an emerging sport for implementation, member schools will be asked to declare their intent regarding participating in the respective state competition. The IESA Office will put together the state series structure and rules for participation based upon the reported intention of the potential participating schools.

Strategic Planning

Officials Action Team -- The following will be in place beginning with the 2009-10 school year:

1) If a state series assignment has been made by the IESA Office and there is an affiliation between the official and a participating team, the official will be reassigned or paid.

2) Member schools are responsible to insure that only officials who are qualified and properly trained to work contests actually do. When personnel from a member school are aware that another member school is not hiring licensed officials, they are instructed to inform the IESA Office of the situation. If a licensed official arrives at a game and his/her partner(s) are not licensed, the licensed officials should not work the game.

3) A recommendation that licensed officials who are placed on probation be ineligible for an IESA state series assignment at any level (regional, sectional, state final) did not receive a second. The Board was sympathetic to the concept, but the time when IESA hires the officials and the time probations are determined make it impractical.

4) Changes in the current pay scale for officials were accepted, as well as an increase in the fee for scholastic bowl state moderators to $30 per match.

Advisory, Board Committee Action

The Board acted on advisory committee recommendations in Wrestling, Music, Scholastic Bowl, Girls Volleyball, and Track and Field, and on recommendations from the Board of Directors Finance Committee.

Advisory committees are composed of one IESA Board of Directors member and coaches, administrators and/or officials with expertise in the respective sport or activity. Each sport/activity has an advisory committee and it 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. The Board took the following action regarding recommendations of these advisory committees:

Wrestling:

1) The weight certification process has been eliminated. Wrestlers will weigh in prior to every meet (regular season and state series) and will be eligible to compete only to the maximum weight in a respective weight class without any extra growth allowance. The wrestler will step on the scale prior to each meet (regular season and state series) and wrestle the weight for which the wrestler is qualified. During the regular season, wrestlers have to make scratch weight unless they meet NFHS Rule 4-5-5. During the state series, no weight allowance will be given to any wrestler even if the wrestler's school meets NFHS Rule 4-5-5. There will not be any weigh-ins on Saturday of the state finals. Wrestlers listed on the school's Regional Entry Form for a given weight class will be scratched from the state series if they do not make weight. They cannot move to another weight class.

2) A recommendation to change the team scoring procedure in the state series to allow only one wrestler in a weight class to score team points was tabled. Given that the recommendation was tabled, two wrestlers will still score team points in the 2009-10 state series. Under the proposal, the coach of a school that has two wrestlers in a weight class at the Regional, Sectional and/or State Final would designate at the weigh-in which wrestler at that weight class would be considered for team scoring in the respective level of competition in the state series. The Board instructed the IESA staff to survey member schools that compete in wrestling regarding the concept.

3) The Board approved a procedure for conducting competition in a weight class at the Regional where there are more than 16 competitors. By NFHS rule, a wrestler can compete in only five matches in one day. Under the new procedure, eight wrestlers will be seeded. At least one wrestler from those schools without a 1-8 seed will be drawn into a bracket of 16. The remaining wrestlers will be drawn into pigtail matches. Wrestlers who lose in the pigtail matches are eliminated from the Regional and will not be placed in the wrestleback. Seeds Nos. 1, 4, 5 and 8 will be in the top half of the bracket, and seeds Nos. 2, 3, 6 and 7 will be in the bottom half of the bracket.

4) In By-law 4.053, regular season tournaments are now defined "where opponents are determined through a bracketed format". Under the change, on nights where 4-5 teams may be in attendance but a school only wrestles two of those teams, the competition will count as a date and not a tournament. The by-law previously defined a tournament as any time four or more teams were in attendance at the same site.

5) The Board approved a change in the pass gate policy for the state final. Managers, statisticians and scorekeepers are not eligible to be placed on the pass gate list.

6) When seeding in the state series, a wrestler's won-loss record from any higher weight class shall be brought down to the lower weight class.

7) Host schools for Regionals and Sectionals will be required to designate a 45-minute block for weigh-in time and to inform schools competing in the Regional or Sectional of it.

Music:

1) All participant information must be entered online through the music entry center by the Friday four weeks prior to the standard Solo & Ensemble contest date. For next school year (2009-10), the deadline is Friday of Week 34 in the Standardized Calendar. The week in which the deadline date falls may change with the scheduling of the Solo & Ensemble contests, but it will remain four weeks prior to the contest date.

2) In Instrumental Choir, music designated as instrumental choir music or at least four-part music must be used. The change reduces the number of required parts from five to four.

3) The Board approved questions and answers designed to assist with questions from music directors. A music director cannot transpose a piece for a vocal student to a different key. The director must find the piece in the key the director wants to student to sing. The penalty for violation of the individual limits in Organization is the lowering of the final rating by one division and the loss of "Best of Day" award consideration.

Scholastic Bowl:

1) Procedures for conducting the Regionals were modified by the Board. After seeding is determined and Regional assignments posted by IESA, the team(s) with the longest travel will receive the bye in the first round of play. In pool play, seeded teams will be split with the higher seeded team in Pool A. Each Regional host school shall set the bracket playing order following online seeding.

2) A section containing procedures for correcting moderator errors and clerical errors will be added to the IESA Scholastic Bowl Rule Book.

3) The Board approved rules that address conferring, disruptions and switching sides during a match. No conferring will be allowed. Conferring is defined as giving or receiving aid including looking over a teammate's written material during or after the reading of a toss-up and then triggering the lockout system to gain a competitive advantage. Any disruption caused by a team member's communication device will cause that team to forfeit the right to answer the question at the time of disruption and the next question. Teams will switch sides at half at the request of either coach.

Girls Volleyball:

1) The schedule of the matches on Saturday in the state final tournaments has been changed to play the semifinal match immediately following the corresponding two quarterfinal matches. The upper bracket would play quarterfinal matches at 10:00 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. and the winners will meet in the semifinal match at 1:00 p.m. The lower bracket would play quarterfinal matches at 2:15 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. and the winners will meet in the semifinal match at 5:15 p.m.

2) Construction of a balanced playing schedule in five-team Regionals was approved for those Regionals that play quarterfinals and semifinals on the same day, or for those Regionals that play the entire tournament in one day or semifinals and final in one day.

3) Regionals involving more than five (5) teams must be played in two or more days.

4) Volleyball warm-up periods shall be 4-4-4-2 for all regular season and state series matches.

5) State series host schools will hire the floor officials for their Regional from a list of IHSA licensed officials and those hired must not have an affiliation with the host school (any competing school).

6) Line Judges used in regular season and state series matches must be at least 17 years of age.

Track and Field:

1) Procedures for conducting the high jump event at the state final were amplified. The event will be conducted in flights. All contestants in the event will be assigned to their respective flight in the order of sectional marks with the best sectional mark being last in order. Each competitor shall have three (3) trials at each respective height for which the competitor is eligible to jump. Designated heights have been established. Once the trials begin, the bar will be raised two (2) inches at a time until the designated height is reached. After the designated height is reached, the bar will be raised one (1) inch at a time. The designated heights are 7AG @ 4'8", 7AB @ 5'2", 8AG @ 5'0", 8AB @ 5'8", 7AAG @ 4'10", 7AAB @ 5'4", 8AAG @ 5'2", and 8AAB @ 5'10".

2) Field events at the state final meet may be conducted indoors if conditions deem it necessary.

3) The number of Sectionals in Class A and Class AA will be increased from 18 to 19.

4) Conversion of sectional marks from FAT times to manual times will be completed in the IESA Office.

5) These qualifying standards have been established for the 2010 state series: 7AA girls 100-meter dash at 13.2, 7AA girls high jump at 4'10", 8AA girls high jump at 4'11". The sectional starting height in the 8AA girls pole vault will be 6'6".

Board Finance Committee:

1) The Board approved a recommendation to set admission prices for the Cheerleading Championships and the Class A and Class AA State Track and Field Meets at $4 for students in K-8 and seniors and $8 for adults per day. The 2009-10 Cheerleading Championships will be Saturday, Jan. 23. The Class A state track meet will be May 14-15 and the Class AA state track meet will be May 21-22.

Other Business

Forfeiture of Contest By-law -- The time the host school must give a team traveling to the site of a state series contest before forfeiting it, in accordance with By-law 5.073, has been changed from 10 minutes to 30 minutes if the traveling team has made contact with the host school. The Board approved the change in the by-law and four questions and answers regarding it. The by-law provides for options available to the host school based upon circumstances surrounding the late arrival of a participant in the contest. The questions and answers clarify the parameters available to the host school. If a late school does not make contact with the host school, the game is to be forfeited at the 30-minute mark. If a school makes contact, every effort should be made to play the contest. Getting lost is not an acceptable circumstance for being late. The host manager has the responsibility to declare the forfeit.

Summer Team Cutoff Dates -- The Board modified By-law 3.042, which sets the cutoff date for participation in summer softball and baseball by students at member schools. The date on which softball players must cease participation with their summer teams remains Monday of Week 6 in the Standardized Calendar. The date on which baseball players must cease participation with their summer teams has been moved to Monday of Week 7. IESA girls softball begins one week earlier than IESA baseball and the girls softball state series begins one week ahead of the baseball state series.

Activity Passes -- After lengthy discussion the Board changed the policy regarding the School Activity Passes issued by the IESA Office to personnel at member schools. The passes allow the bearer and one guest free access to regular season and state series contests. Beginning with the 2009-10 (next) school year, each member school will be issued one (1) pass, plus one (1) pass per activity in which the school participates, to a maximum of four (4) to any school.

Scorer's Table/Bench Restrictions -- The Board adopted a policy that in regular season and state series competition in sports/activities where there is a scorer's bench that personnel at the scorer's table/bench are prohibited from having cell phones or any other electronic or digital devices during competition. This policy applies to softball, baseball, girls basketball, boys basketball, wrestling, girls volleyball and scholastic bowl.

Fine Arts Recognition Program -- The Board launched a new series of awards to recognize coaches at member schools in Speech, Music and Art. A Distinguished Service Award will be presented annually to a coach in Speech, Music and Art who has a long history of providing service, leadership and contributions to their activity. A Class Act Award will be presented to coaching newcomers in Speech, Music and Art who have made a significant impact to their activity in a short time in the coaching ranks. IESA Office Building -- The Board heard a progress report regarding the expansion and renovation of the Association's headquarters building. Plans for the project have been approved and work will get under way in mid-July. The work is expected to be completed by the end of the calendar year.

All-School Mailing -- The Board heard a review of modifications that will be made in the annual-all-school fall (pre-school) mailing to member schools. Many items included in the mailing will not be mailed but will be available to the membership via the Internet through the IESA Web Site. The Official Handbook and Calendar will continue to be mailed to member schools in the fall all-school mailing.

Computer System -- The Board authorized the purchase of a dedicated server, accompanying equipment and installation for the Association's computer system.

2010 Scholar Attitude Luncheon - The date for the 2010 Scholar Attitude Award presented by State Farm Luncheon will be Tuesday, April 27. It will be held at the DoubleTree Hotel and Conference Center in Bloomington.

Annual Golf Classic - The Board heard a report that the 2009 event was canceled because the required number of foursomes was not met. A total of 13 foursomes had registered to participate in the 21st annual IESA Golf Classic Monday as of the June 3 entry deadline. A year ago 19 foursomes participated in the 20th annual event at The Den at Fox Creek in Bloomington. That was a decrease of six foursomes from the 2007 total of 25. The event has been a year-end "thank you" golf outing open to foursomes from member schools, businesses serving IESA or its schools, and/or organizations that provide services to IESA or its schools.

State Final Sites - The Board finalized a majority of the state final sites for the 2009-10 school term. The lineup of state final sites approved thus far are posted on the IESA Web Site under State Hosts and Dates.

Special Projects Report - The Board heard a status report of sponsorships and state final programs.

Asst. Executive Director Report -- The Board received the summaries from the Cubbyhole state series apparel program and the Commerce Bank Division Sportsmanship Award program. The listing of schools winning the Sponsorship Award can be found on the IESA Web Site at www.iesa.org by clicking on the Division Awards icon in the Sportsmanship Section of the home page.

State Series Finances - The Board received financial reports for the 2008-09 boys basketball state series, the 2008-09 girls state volleyball series, the 2008-09 state wrestling series, the 2008-09 speech and art workshop composite, and the 2008-09 music solo & ensemble and organization state series.

Treasurer's Report - The Board 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. In addition, Board members also may make observations regarding the operation of the Association. Following is a report of those from the June 19 meeting:

Division L -- The Board discussed event conflicts at the state track and field meet when students conclude competing in a running event and then are immediately asked to make a try in a field event. Mr. Cameron related a situation involving an athlete from his division who finished running a 200-meter leg in the 4 x 200 relay and then had to make a try in the pole vault as soon as the athlete reached the staging area.