Board of Directors Meeting Minutes

Golf State Final Contract with Peoria Park District Extended; Track Qualifying Standards Revised; IESA Board Acts on Committee Recommendations

The IESA Board of Directors summer meeting was held on Friday, June 20. The Board voted to extend the contract with the Peoria Park District which will keep the IESA golf finals in Peoria through 2017. "The golf division of the Peoria Park District has simply done a tremendous job of working with IESA to make our state golf finals a wonderful state final activity for the participants," said Steve Endsley, IESA Executive Director. "Bill Woolard and the staff at Kellogg Golf Course put on a first class show last fall and we are pleased that they will continue to serve as the home course for our golf state finals." The girls and boys finals will be held on Saturday, September 13, 2104. Due to the number of entries in the boys division, there will be a sectional qualifying round before the boys will advance to the finals. In all likelihood there will be three sectionals held around the state on Saturday, September 6 with the top 24 individuals (and ties) advancing to the finals. It is anticipated that beginning in 2015, the girls will also have a sectional qualifying round but for 2014 only the first 96 girl golfers will be entered into the finals.

Two of the more significant changes the Board made were accepting the recommendations for changes to the 2015 track and field qualifying standards. Those standards will be soon be posted to the IESA website. Also, the libero position in volleyball will be added beginning with the 2015-16 season.

In addition to the above two changes, the Board also acted on recommendations from the advisory committees in the following activities/groups: Scholastic Bowl, Music, Track and Field, Wrestling, Volleyball, Chess, Bowling, and Officials; on recommendations from the Board of Directors Staff Relations Committee; on staff recommendations; and tied up other loose ends.

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.

Scholastic Bowl:

A recommendation was approved to advance teams in brackets when teams drop their Scholastic Bowl entry after the online seeding date. For example, in a six team regional if the #3 seed withdraws from the regional, the #4 seed would move into the #3 slot, #5 would move into the #4 slot and the #6 seeded team would move into the #5 slot. The regional would then be held as five team regional. Also approved were the following recommendations: In pool play with 5 or 6 teams assigned to a regional, Pool A will consist of seed 1, 4, and 5 while Pool B will consist of seeds 2, 3, and 6; If a team drops from a three team regional, the two remaining teams will play a best of three competition to determine the regional champion; Individuals will now only have 10 seconds to answer a toss-up question. Previously, they had 15 seconds. A recommendation to add a "communication official" to all IESA state final matches was not approved. The Board did not approve a request from the committee to survey schools about changing the format for how bonus questions are read and rebounded.

Music:

The Board approved an increase to the admission fees at IESA state contests. The new admission fees will be $2.00 for K-8 students and $3.00 for adults. The Board did not approve a recommendation to increase the solo and ensemble entry fees beginning in 2015-16. The Board did approve the following: The deadline for the solo and ensemble entry fees was moved one week earlier; clarified the percussion bonus scale to include rudiments; and approved a paid 30 minute meal for music judges at contest.

Track and Field:

The Board tabled a recommendation to add a second alternate for each relay. They did not approve a recommendation to allow schools to buy individual team medals for teams that place 1-4 at the state meet. They did approve wording in the Terms and Conditions that the 800 and 1600 races at the sectional level must use two-lane alleys for the start of the race.

Wrestling:

The Board did not approve a recommendation that would allow only one wrestler from each weight class to score at the regional level. They also did not approve a recommendation that the semi-final rounds of the wrestlebacks be cross bracketed with walkovers still in place. Scratches for the state meet must now be reported by 12 noon on Thursday preceding the state meet for there to be a substitute wrestler.

Volleyball:

As mentioned above, the libero position will be added beginning in 2015-16. Schools that will use the libero position may need to get a proper uniform for this position. With the libero position now approved, the host school for regular season matches be required to provide a libero tracker who is separate from the official scorer. Uniform warm-ups will now need to be removed after the 2 minute shared warm-up time; teams will be restricted to their side of the playing court during timed warm-ups and shared warm-up time; and the individual player limitations in volleyball were also changed. Volleyball players will now be allowed to play in six (6) sets a night and a maximum of 110 sets in the season. This change will now allow a 7th grade student to play in all 3 sets of a 7th grade game and all 3 sets of an 8th grade in the same night if both matches were three set matches.

Chess:

A sixth grade division for the chess competition was approved. There are now three divisions--a 6th grade division, a 7th grade division, and an 8th grade division. Schools still have the option of entering a 6th grader into the 7th grade or 8th grade division if they feel the 6th grade student should or wants to play at that level. There were some minor changes made to the Terms and Conditions that will be outlined in the information sent to all participating schools.

Bowling:

The Board approved a slight change to the Friday time schedule. There were some minor changes made to the Terms and Conditions that will be outlined in the information sent to all participating schools.

Officials:

The Board approved the purchase of software to create an online Officials Center. Also discussed and approved was the elimination of the shell allowance for sectional track starters. Instead, host schools will now be responsible to supply the shells for the starter and a line item for that expense will be added to the sectional host financial report.

Staff Relations Committee:

The Board approved salaries for Assistant Executive Director John Venerable and the IESA support staff for 2014-15.

Other Business:

State Final Sites - The Board approved almost all of the state final sites for the 2014-15 school term. The lineup of state final sites is posted on the IESA Web Site www.iesa.org. Click on State Hosts and Dates under Activities. A host is still needed for the 8th grade Class 4A boys basketball tournament.

Assistant Executive Director Report - Mrs. Cochran informed the Board of the schools who won the Division Sportsmanship Award. The listing of schools winning the award in 2013-14 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 IESA home page. Information was given to the Board on the final merchandise totals for the 2013-14 school year. A recommendation to play the golf state finals on the next available day in case of rain was approved as were minor changes to the officials used at the state track meet.

Executive Director Report - Mr. Endsley informed the Board he recently met with the Michigan State High School Association to present information about IESA to their state. He also met with Rawlings to discuss the baseball used in the IESA state series. The Board was provided with an update on the NFHS Summer Meeting, which will be held in Boston, MA from June 29-July 2. The IESA will make a presentation at the meeting on middle school athletics.

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

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

Weekly Grade Check - The Board approved a clarification change to the procedures a school should use when conducting the weekly eligibility grade check.

Contests Played Before Seeding - Effective immediately, schools must have played three contests before the seeding meeting (in sports/activities where a state series is conducted) to be eligible to participate in the first round of the state series. Previously, schools were required to have scheduled three games before the seeding meeting.

Home School Eligibility - The Board did not make any changes to the home school eligibility By-Law. Home schooled students are only eligible at the public school they would regularly attend and then only when the public school would accept the home school student.

Mixed Gender Teams - On the advice of legal counsel, a slight revision was made to the By-Laws and the Questions and Answers regarding mixed-sexed participation. The revision mainly involves when a school has a girl participating on a boys team. A school simply must notify their opponents that they have a girl on the team. Schools will not offer a new contract to their opponents.

Forfeiture of Contests due to Weather - In the sports/activities of golf, cross country, wrestling, bowling, scholastic bowl, and track only when the majority of the teams assigned to the level of play cannot attend the contest due to weather shall the contest be rescheduled. For example, if only one school assigned to a 15 team cross country sectional cannot attend the sectional because of weather, the sectional shall still be held and the school not in attendance may forfeit without penalty.

Bowling Co-op - Bowling was removed from the listing of activities in which a school can co-op.

Co-op Fees - The Board reiterated its stance that all schools participating in a co-op must pay the entry fee for the co-op activity.

Sponsorship Agreements - The Board approved renewing sponsorship agreements with Sports Authority and Slammer Systems.

Certification List - Schools no longer will be required to keep a Certification List on file. All schools have the responsibility to insure that any student participating in an IESA contest of any type meets all of the IESA eligibility guidelines.

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 20 meeting:

Division A - Dr. Herrmann received an email regarding the IESA rule allowing schools to make the decision as to whether or not students can play on a school team and a non-school team in the same sport at the same time. No action was taken.

Division C - Mr. Zwemke was contacted about the use of electronic devices by a participant at the state track meet.

Division F, H, & J - Mr. Frost, Mr. Ingold, and Ms. Isackson were all contacted about the large number of students who qualified for the state track meet and some of the problems as a result of the crowds. It was explained to them that the new qualifying standards that are being proposed should alleviate many of the problems that the large number of competitors and fans created at the meet.

Division G - Mr. Lee was contacted about IESA hiring regional basketball officials. This has been brought up many, many times over the years. Given the size of the IESA Office staff along with the fact that schools can choose the dates of the regional from the listing of available dates (rather than IESA mandating the regional must be held on exact dates) makes it nearly impossible for IESA to assign regional officials. No action was taken.