Board of Directors Meeting Minutes

Spring IESA Board of Directors Meeting Synopsis

The Illinois Elementary School Association (IESA) Board of Directors met on Friday, April 5. Several items of business were discussed and acted on at the meeting. Those items included:

• Heard a report from the Association's attorney concerning the responsibility of a school to make reasonable accommodations for disabled student participation in extra-curricular activities.

• The Board heard a report about the selection of the 15 Scholar Attitude winners for 2013 and the plans for the upcoming luncheon scheduled for Tuesday, April 30, 2013, at the DoubleTree Hotel, Bloomington.
• Approved most of the state sites for the 2013-14 school year. State Hosts are still needed for 8th Grade 4A boys basketball; 7th grade 1A and 3A girls volleyball; and 8th grade 2A and 4A girls volleyball.
• Approved a revised policy for staff responses to unsolicited emails.
• Approved the following date changes for the bowling championships: In 2014, the event will be held April 4-5; in 2015, the event will be held April 17-18; in 2016, the event will be held April 15-16. Changes were necessary due to calendar conflicts with spring break and Easter. The bowling championships will continue to be held at the Town and Country Lanes in Joliet.
• Approved a new contract with A & M Products, Princeton, IL who provides the trophies, plaques, and ribbons for the Association.

The Board took the following action regarding advisory committee recommendations:

Boys/Girls Basketball: The committee had five recommendations for the Board: 1.) that games be played with seven-minute quarters instead of the current six-minute length; 2.) that the decision made in June, 2012 which now allows students to play school and non-school basketball at the same time be rescinded; 3.) that all official scorers and timers for regular season and state series games be 18 years of age or older; 4.) that in sectional play only, the school hosting the tournament always be the home team on the scoreboard if they are playing in the contest; and 5.) that three officials be hired to work the championship game of the basketball regional. None of the five recommendations submitted by the basketball advisory committee was approved. "Advisory committees have the responsibility to discuss items related to their respective activity," said Steve Endsley, IESA Executive Director. "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. In this rare instance, they simply did not approve any of the basketball committee recommendations. That is their responsibility and prerogative to do so."

Cheerleading: The Board approved a date change for the 2014 competition. The 2014 IESA cheer competition will be held on January 11 at the Civic Center in Peoria. The Board did not approve a recommendation to implement a cheerleading award based on citizenship and community service. However, the Board did authorize the IESA administrative staff to discuss the possibility of implementing a similar type of award that would be open to all activity programs.

Other Business Items

Treasurer's Report: The Board received and accepted the treasurer's report for the fiscal period through February 28, 2013.

Financial Reports: The Board accepted the financial reports for the state series in boys and girls basketball, 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. President Birkey requested for the Finance Committee to review the financial reports for basketball in particular and report to the Board any recommendations for changes to the allowed expenses.

Board Meetings: There is one regular meeting remaining in the 2012-13 school year. It is scheduled for June 14, 2013.

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 5 meeting:

Division G: Mr. Lee expressed appreciation to Mr. Endsley for attending and addressing the regular meeting of Corn Belt chapter of the IASA.

Division K: Although Mr. Graham was not in attendance, he had asked that an email he received concerning the cancellation/postponement policy during state games due to weather be discussed. The current policy is that the decision to not attend a state series game due to weather is made by each school and not the host school. Mr. Graham had been contacted by a school in his division asking that the host school make the decision to cancel for weather related reasons as opposed to each individual school. After discussion, no changes were made to the current policy.

Division O: Dr. Stuart was contacted by a member school concerning the number of free admissions some schools have at state series events relative to the number of paid admissions from the same school. After discussion, no action was taken.