Leading off today: Monday's blog ended on a cliffhanger as I predicted I'd be dropping Nick Muzashvili's name into my recap of Wednesday's NYSPHSAA Executive Committee meeting in Saratoga Springs.
Granted, that wasn't as compelling a cliffhanger as "Who shot J.R.?" Additionally, the meeting played out a bit differently than anticipated, though re-telling the story of Nick Muzashvili is important for context. It's a cautionary tale worth rehashing as I explain what's new in the discussion of whether private and charter schools should continue to compete head-to-head with public schools in New York State Public High School Athletic Association tournaments.
So, here we go.
A faction within the NYSPHSAA had a different target in its scope 30-something years ago: a not necessarily unreasonable discussion of whether participation by the CHSAA and PSAL schools in championship events for individuals detracted from or diminished the achievements of NYSPHSAA competitors.
A specific concern was how a NYSPHSAA competitor might feel if they finished behind two CHSAA athletes and one from the PSAL in the 800 meters. Sure, he or she would still be the NYSPHSAA champion, but it was awkward.
The 22-member Executive Committee voted in January 1994 to limit its season-ending events in five sports to NYSPHSAA schools, one of them being wrestling, beginning the next school year. It was a decision that most of the wrestling community panned. Back in those days, there was only one classification, and all of the associations sent their best to the Syracuse War Memorial. If you won your weight class at that meet, you absolutely were the best in New York and 6,000 people were there to see it.
With elected officials starting to get involved, the NYSPHSAA did include a provision that there would be a Federation wrestling tournament conducted the day after the 1995 state finals.
Well, the NYSPHSAA's 1995 champions were crowned on Saturday night. On Sunday morning, maybe a hundred spectators showed up at a local high school to watch those winners take on counterparts from the CHSAA and PSAL.
And then a funny thing happened. Or didn't happen.
With one exception, the NYSPHSAA kids declined to participate. Among their beefs, two were substantial: (1) Having to make weight one more time was absurd, and (2) They weren't the least bit bothered by sharing the much bigger NYSPHSAA tournament stage with "outsiders."
The one NYSPHSAA champ who did opt to compete was Unatego's Nick Muzashvili, who as a recent refugee from the war-ravaged Soviet Republic of Georgia wasn't much impressed by the scholastic brand of discord. The competition didn't bother him either; he scored two tech falls that morning to wrap up his scholastic career.
A year later, the Executive Committee retreated, all but admitting that they had put people through a needless rigmarole.
The NYSPHSAA is officially taking on the issue of private and charter schools again
As expected, Section 1 put the issue of private and charter schools competing head-to-head with public schools in NYSPHSAA championships back in play by flagging it as a sectional concern at Wednesday's Executive Committee meeting.
As noted in the previous blog, the Lower Hudson Council of School Superintendents, which represents 78 school districts and four BOCES operations across Dutchess, Putnam, Rockland and Westchester counties, got that ball rolling with a late-December letter to the executive directors of Sections 1 and 9. The organization said it is seeking "that this issue be reexamined through a process that reflects the collective feedback of school superintendents across New York State and results in revised practices that promote fair and equitable opportunities for both open-enrollment schools and public schools with district attendance boundaries."
Meeting in the same room last Oct. 21, the Executive Committee voted 20-2 (with only Section 1 dissenting) to adopt an ad hoc committee proposal to outline conditions under which the 11 sections would assess moving private and charter schools up or down in classifications. Further, the NYSPHSAA Classification Oversight Committee was empowered to make the final call on appeals by sections unhappy with the placement of schools from other sections.
The latter was a significant departure; the committee had previously only had the ability to send a decision back to the section for further consideration -- something that NYSPHSAA Executive Director Robert Zayas could recall happening only once in 10 years.
Now, Zayas is reconvening the ad hoc committee, this time supplemented by a superintendents representative from each section.
"If the membership says let's stick to what we have, great," said Zayas, who has been criss-crossing the state in recent weeks to hear the thoughts of multiple groups. "It needs to be membership-driven because ultimately that's who's making the decision on our next step."
That's where the story gets interesting and leaves me wondering if the Lower Hudson superintendents have a Plan B in mind in case they don't get their way -- widely believed to be something approximating the way New Jersey broke off its private schools into separate playoff classes.
Was there a breakdown in communication?
I spoke briefly with Todd Santabarbara, the Section 1 executive director, after Wednesday's meeting. Santabarbara shed some light on an overall concern for some of the schools he represents: The policy that moves successful private and non-charter schools up in classification makes the fields in the larger classifications -- where many of his members play -- more difficult to navigate in the fight for state championships. It's not an unreasonable concern.
But while the Lower Hudson superintendents may have similar concerns, at least some of their frustration stems from feedback from some of their colleagues.
"I think the lack of awareness that we reference in our sectional concern really stems from what our superintendents from the Lower Hudson Council were hearing from some of their colleagues in and around the state," Santabarbara said.
That rationale generated blowback from a room of Executive Committee members and other officials who routinely report back to their sectional Athletic Councils on what happens at the quarterly NYSPHSAA meetings. Significantly, the Athletic Councils include multiple superintendents. Kathy Hoyt, the Section 5 executive director, said her outfit's AC has nine superintendents.
Literally moments apart during the floor discussion, two recently retired superintendents who sit on the larger Central Committee pushed back. First, former Norwood-Norfolk district leader James Cruikshank lamented that the critics haven't given the system adopted last fall a chance to kick in. Afterward, Zayas told me that he'd already received a message questioning the placement of a non-public school based on the comprehensive fall 2026 reportig ledger that only become available shortly before the meeting.
Moments after Cruikshank spoke, Michael Graney, who formerly led the Bolton school district and was an apointee to the ad hoc committee, took exception to the idea that communication was lacking.
"Every section was represented," Graney said. "It falls on their people to keep people advised."
The Daily Gazette's Will Springstead noted some other objections:
"We have a process, and I want it followed," said Greg Ransom, the chair of the Championship Advisory Committee. "And if we start to react because a couple of groups stomp their feet, we're in trouble."
Added Pat Pizzarelli, who chairs the Handbook Committee: "We're membership-driven, and we voted."
To Ransom's point, it's unclear how many other superintendents are onboard with their Lower Hudson peers.
I contacted several superintendent groups around the state last week to ask if they have taken a stance on the issue. The New York State Council of School Superintendents responded that it has not formed an opinion. Western New York Administrators Association President Brian Farrell said his group has no stance, adding that the broader Empire State Supervisors and Administrators Association does expect to discuss what's going on at an upcoming stakeholder meeting with the New York State Education Department Commissioner Betty Rosa.
Carol Conklin-Spillane, president of the ESSAA said her group has not formally acted but "would support the request as stated by the superintendents."
As Plan B's go, having Rosa take their side would strengthen the superintendents' position. But the education commissioner has plenty of other matters on her plate at any given time, and the NYSPHSAA's now-expanded ad hoc committee swings back into action in Saratoga Springs on March 11 with plenty of meeting notes so that they won't be starting from scratch again.
"I think any time you can bring together all constituents representative of the state looking for a collaborative solution across the state, having those superintendents in the room to help make an informed decision is definitely a good step forward," Santabarbara said.
One aspect of this isn't being discussed nearly enough yet
If the NYSPHSAA is forced -- a 20-2 vote in favor of another solution less than four months ago suggests reluctance to go along willingly -- into moving private and charter schools into their own playoff class(es), there are going to be some challenges. I'm not saying it's not do-able, but a lot of logistics would have to be ironed out.
For starters, can some of the facilities that host six classes of championship weekend final fours accommodate two more classes? There are 91 private or charter schools in the NYSPHSAA, and size disparities would make it ludicrous for Smithtown Christian to have to play Aquinas in girls basketball.
That may necessitate cutting back to five public school classes in the bigger sports, ironically depriving that block of schools of a state championship that may not have been taken by a private or charter school in the mixed-field era.
And what about the less-popular team sports? I believe there are only four private schools and no charters that play field hockey. Sure, they would still have their regular season. But a state tournament would be silly, and the lack of one might be actionable in State Supreme Court.
By the way, there are a few instances of public and private schools joining forces on combined teams, another situation to resolve. It's especially worrisome in football, where three Class D programs rely upon public/private mergers.
Speaking of football, even going to two private/charter divisions looks unworkable; the teams playing Class B this fall are mostly too small to take on the six Class AA programs and too big to pit against Class D squads. If the survivors are to play semifinals and finals at the same venues as the public school peers, they're still facing the likelihood of at least two weekends off after the regular season ends.
That's less than optimal.
Beyond all that, the issue no one is talking about yet in the scenario of moving the non-public schools into separate classes brings us back to Nick Muzashvili, the wrestler you read about too many paragraphs ago.
Logic dictates that if you remove the non-public NYSPHSAA members from state championships in wrestling, indoor and outdoor track, and swimming, then you also have to remove the CHSAA and PSAL schools. (An aside: Adding non-public divisions in any of those sports has the potential to make the meets painfully long.)
The only way to proceed if you don't uninvite the other Federation associations is to lump everyone into one meet, for which figuring out the awards podium would be someone's full-time job and the PA announcer's worst nightmare: one ceremony to honor the overall top six, another for the NYSPHSAA public schools top six, then a third for the non-publics' top six.
Wrapping up
The Lower Hudson Council of School Superintendents wants "a proposed plan developed through inclusive, statewide feedback to the membership no later than the Central Committee meeting scheduled for July 28-29, 2026."
Regardless of what gets pitched at that meeting in Buffalo, here's hoping that we're done hearing about the issue for a long time after that.
