The Iowa Senate passed a bill on Tuesday to help schools that have been left out of an athletic conference and not provided an alternative solution.
Republican State Sen. Sandy Salmon said two schools – Waverly-Shellrock and Decorah – have been denied membership into a requested conference several times and have not received a recommendation to an appropriate alternative conference. That has left the schools no choice but to be independent, which reduces opportunities for their students and creates a “nightmare” situation for athletic directors.
House File 783 will require athletic associations to establish a conference realignment committee to direct reasonable conference affiliation between school districts if a school requests it.
The committee will consider a number of factors, such as:
*Current and projected enrollment
*Travel distance
*Comparability of instructional programs provided by high schools
*Comparability of athletic programs and other school-sponsored programs provided by the high school
*Traditional rivalries
*Number of schools currently in the conference
*Number of schools that may be added
*How the changes would impact all schools involved
If the committee rejects a school’s request, it must recommend an alternative conference or allow the school to be independent. Recommending an alternative conference is the most significant change to the current process, Salmon said.
Athletic associations will not be able to change conference alignment without approval from the committee, which will include nine superintendents from different geographical areas and nine athletic directors from different geographical areas. The 18-member committee will elect a chair and a quorum will be considered 10 members.
The bill passed with just one vote against it in the Senate.
