Leading off today: It's true in the construction business as well as everyday life: Sometimes you strike oil by digging and sometimes you unexpectedly hit a gas line and have to stop until you're sure nothing will blow up.
Wednesday's quarterly meeting of the New York State Public High Athletic Association Executive Committee served as a reminder. As usual, representatives of the 11 sections wrapped up some ongoing business by casting votes on upcoming championship venues and sport rule changes, etc.
But they also continued discussions on topics that will also culminate in voting somewhere down the line, though potentially a little later than seemed possible before the week began. And that's good; they may have hit that proverbial gas line but they didn't rupture it.
As promised in the previous blog that summarized most of the meeting fodder, here is the breakdown of where two important issues now stand.
There are three ideas in play regarding private and charter schools in the playoffs
As so happens every few years, the NYSPHSAA is in the midst of examining whether private and charter schools can and should -- "can" and "should" are separate and complex issues -- be split from their public-school counterparts in the postseason.
"We've done it occasionally over the history of our association," Executive Director Robert Zayas said after the quarterly meeting in Saratoga Springs, "but I think this is another example of us looking at all aspects of the situation."
The last exhaustive look into the subject came a decade ago, at which time several options were studied. I thought the one with the most potential if the NYSPHSAA was adamant about acting was the creation of two new sections that were actually overlays of multiple existing sections across New York.
The idea was that the private and charter schools could thereby crown their own (very large) sectional champions, who could then come together with the champions of the 11 public school champions in the state tournaments. Though it generally seemed to make sense, the idea ruptured that pesky gas line once it became apparent the logistics, beginning with building the infrastructure for two new sections, were unworkable.
Fast-forward to two 2024 developments:
First, a state assemblyman introduced a bill that would require the NYSPHSAA to conduct separate playoffs for public and private schools. The author's grasp of details isn't impressive and his idea has not garnered the necessary support thus far to advance the proposal.
Second, the NYSPHSAA formed a study group to revisit the issue of private and charter schools. Headed by NYSPHSAA 1st Vice President Adam Stoltman, it was branded as the "Schools Without Boundaries Ad Hoc Committee." As will be explained shortly, the choice of names proved prescient.
The committee was asked to solicit suggestions and compile options that felt plausible. They forwarded three ideas in late December:
(1) Create two private/charter playoff classifications, putting them on the same level as the existing five in football, six in basketball, etc.
(2) Create a Class AAA in football and Class 4A in basketball.
(3) Place classification decisions into the hands of a state oversight committee.
Some observations before getting to the meat of what happened this week:
• A football/basketball-only solution won't sit well with a certain cohort of parents and coaches in other sports, so I'd expect the proposed expansion to two classes to garner more support. Also, lumping all the private and charter football programs into one class creates the very disparity in enrollments that the NYSPHSAA has taken great care to avoid in its periodic classification revisions.
• There already exists a mechanism for one section to appeal another's decision on the placement of a particular school in a particular sport, but that's hardly ever been used. That sort of suggests that either the respective sections think their counterparts are already getting the job right or they're reluctant to stick their nose in someone else's business.
• I'm still not convinced that all charter schools should be treated differently than public schools. As a condition of being allowed to operate, many charters are only allowed to draw students from a specific area; I'd wager that boundaries in some cases exactly match the boundaries of the school district in which their campus exists.
• The NYSPHSAA has long embraced the combining of athletes from multiple public districts and/or private or charter schools as a mechanism to allow those schools to continue offering a particular sport, so boundaries are being breached by public schools.
• While it would technically be possible to accommodate eight classes of semifinals and finals in basketball into the existing four-day schedule in a single arena, it ain't pretty. I'm not sure some sports with two-day championship weekends can avoid expanding to three.
Anyway, this week's NYSPHSAA meeting allowed Stoltman, who is the superintendent of the Alden Central School District, to get the ball rolling. His committee meeting on Tuesday lasted four hours, and it brought them to the realization that there is plenty to consider before proceeding.
"We turned over a lot of rocks we weren't sure were there," Stoltman told me. "So that's why we kind of hit the pause button and said, 'Let's go back to discuss these proposals (at the sectional level) and we'll discuss them in May.'"
It's at this point that I get the satisfaction of saying "I told you so" to people who accused me of spreading misinformation years ago on the long-since-defunct Syracuse.com chat boards during the frequent spirited discussions about private schools. That's because it turns out that some public school districts allow students from other districts to "tuition in."
That point was raised on Tuesday, and it means it's possible for public schools to enroll student-athletes from outside the district if parents or guardians are willing to pay. And in Monroe County in the heart of Section 5, many do not have to pay. That's because more than a dozen suburban school districts participate in the Urban-Suburban program. Under that longstanding initiative, students from the Rochester City School District can enroll in schools in suburban districts. (It also works in the other direction.)
The combination of tuition-in options, Urban-Suburban programs, and union contracts in some districts that allow teachers residing elsewhere to enroll their children where they work was reason enough to pump the brakes -- and why calling it the Schools Without Boundaries Ad Hoc Committee instead of the Private and Charters Solutions Ad Hoc Committee is turning out to be a good call.
The bottom line is that there are public schools that fall under the heading of "schools without boundaries," and crafting a proposal that doesn't require them to be treated similarly to private and charter schools is going to require some impressive linguistic gymnastics.
(As I often do when I'm expressing a opinion or doing extensive analysis on this hot-button topic, I note that I attended a private high school from 1976-80, where I currently serve on its hall of fame committee. As such, you may choose to weigh that when considering the contents of this blog. -- John Moriello)
Don't confuse this DEI issue with the one that has become a 24/7 topic nationally
Rather than looking for a more delicate, diplomatic way of saying it, let's cut to the chase: The governing body of the New York State Public High School Association is very white, beginning with the officers and office staff and extending to the Executive Committee and broader Central Committee.
I don't say that in some sort of accusatory fashion. Rather, it's a fact, and even the people in charge of the state's largest high school sports sanctioning body will tell you as much.
It's been like that for years, and it starts at the local level. The 11 NYSPHSAA sections have few people of color on their own executive committees or in the role of sport coordinators. Those are the roles from which many members of the NYSPHSAA Central Committee come. But minorities historically do not apply for the positions in great numbers or get elected. When there are candidates, many work in the school districts of the state's largest cities.
Yes, the schools in those districts are represented through their respective sections. However, it's naive to suggest that ADs or school superintendents from suburban and rural districts are fully conversant with this issues their urban counterparts (like Central Committee member Carlos Alvarez from Buffalo City Schools) face, ranging from unstable enrollments to transportation coordination.
To that end, the Central Committee declared in 2022 that ensuring better representation would be a priority. One step in that direction has been the creation of a DEI committee consisting of representatives from each section as well as Jennifer Pyle, the executive director of the Conference of Big 5 School Districts.
(Officially, the Big 5 are Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Yonkers and New York City. The districts in Albany, Mount Vernon and Utica are associate members. New York City is irrelevant for purposes of this discussion since school sports in the five boroughs fall under the auspices of the PSAL.)
Most recently, the NYSPHSAA Executive Committee has been contemplating a significant step: adding representatives of the Big 5 to the Central Committee, Executive Committee, and the individual sport committees. It would require a change to the organization's constitution, which is no small matter.
Wednesday's meeting in Saratoga Springs included an update on the DEI committee's work on the topic. The Big 5's Pyle made a presentation and fielded questions, and the totality of the conversation amounted to one of the longest discussions I can recall in the many state meetings I've attended.
And it was there that another of the striking oil vs. striking a gas line moments popped up. I heard zero opposition in the room to the idea of more explicit representation for the Big 5 districts, but the elephant in the room did make itself known.
As it stands now, each of the 11 sections gets two votes in Executive Committee matters and an additional two for action items at the annual Central Committee meeting. If the constitutional change is approved, it raises the specter of some sections having more representation than others at the state level. The intent here wasn't to impugn anyone's integrity, but Executive Committee members during the discussion did raise concerns.
In simplist terms: If one of the Big 5 members with a vote represents the nearby Albany district, does he/she throw support behind Glens Falls when the next (likely contentious) bid battle with Binghamton comes along for the contract to host the boys basketball championship weekend? Do potential extra votes from those connected to upstate swing a lacrosse venue from Hofstra to Hobart?
In addition, there is the possibility of unintended consequences.
Before proceeding, let me offer some quick and dirty math. According to data that they provided, the Big 5 and its three other members account for 45% of enrolled students in New York. NYC accounts nearly seven of every eight students in that figure; so the enrollment of the others in the Big 5 amounts to just under 6% of students from NYSPHSAA membership.
That's not a massive constituency, but let's keep in mind that it is a segment that has nearly no direct representation compared to neighboring districts when it comes to NYSPHSAA governance. But when you break the data down differently, there are fewer schools from Big 5 members in the NYSPHSAA than there are private and charter schools.
And guess what? While it is true that administrators from those schools have been called upon to participate when the topic involves their schools, the private and charter schools are also relatively devoid of representation on the Central and Executive Committees.
If the Big 5 districts get voting rights, will the private and charter schools ask for another change to the constitution to get equal footing? An educated guess says there's no way they'll be able to round up the necessary support if for no other reason than a lot of public schools in the NYSPHSAA don't want then in their playoffs (see above).
Still, it could be a thorny issue and one that could influence the way NYSPHSAA members move forward with the Big 5.
