Leading off today: The current hot issue in New York high school sports is back in the hands of the NYSPHSAA's 11 sections. It's up to them to determine how the New York State Public High School Athletic Association proceeds on the question of whether private and charter schools should continue competing head-to-head with their public school counterparts in the postseason.
The subject re-emerged late last year when a large group of Section 1 superintendents expressed displeasure with the NYSPHSAA's latest solution to the ongoing controversy. It reached the front burner in February when the Section 1 representatives on the Executive Committee raised it as a sectional concern at the quarterly NYSPHSAA meeting.
In response, the NYSPHSAA revived its Schools Without Borders ad hoc committee. It was just last fall that the committee culminated 14 months of study with a recommendation that saw the Executive Committee adopt a new classification process for private and charter schools by a 20-2 vote, with only Section 1 dissenting.
That ad hoc committee met March 11 in Saratoga Springs, this time bolstered by a superintendent representative from each of the 11 sections and some special guests. They were sent home tasked with laying out the options for how the state's largest governing body for scholastic sports should proceed.
Three options last year resulted in new power for an existing committee
The original
ad hoc committee, chaired by Alden Superintendent Adam Stoltman, who is first VP of the NYSPHSAA, started the previous go-round by developing eight potential options to a new approach for handing private and charter schools in postseason competition.
That list was pared to three last spring:
• Creating large- and small-school classifications for all private and charter schools to conduct playoffs parallel to the existing state championships.
• Creating a Class 3A in football and 4A basketball to house the private and charter schools only in those sports.
• Establishing uniform criteria for sections to classify the non-public schools then giving the existing but toothless Classification Oversight Committee the final say on appeals.
The ad hoc committee voted 9-2 (Sections 1 and 11 dissented) to put forward that third option, leading to the overwhelming approval vote by the Executive Committee last fall.
Under the new procedure, sections submit their fall, winter, and spring classification decisions for the non-public schools on a standardized calendar. The state office staff compiles the submissions and sends the full list to the sections, who then have 15 days to appeal decisions by other sections.
Sections have to evaluate any team from a private or charter school that met one of four criteria in the previous season:
• A .750 winning percentage in their league, in games within their state class, or overall.
• Winning a league's season or playoff championship.
• Reaching a sectional semifinal.
• Winning a NYSPHSAA championship.
Because of the late adoption date, the new rules only kicked in for the just-started spring season. The sections have already submitted their data for next fall's sports and will be evaluating their potential winter classification changes this month.
Last month's meeting covered a lot of ground
In a letter to the executive directors from Sections 1 and 9 dated last Dec. 26, the Section 1 superintendents group (the Lower Hudson Council of School Superintendents) called for "a proposed plan developed through inclusive, statewide feedback to the membership no later than the Central Committee meeting scheduled for July 28-29, 2026."
Hitting the requested deadline could be a tall order, but last month's meeting of the ad hoc committee in Saratoga Springs didn't start from scratch; the group's first iteration documented numerous pros and cons of multiple concepts for change. They frequently updated the Executive Committee and respective sections, leading to it narrowing the list to three options and ultimately settling on one.
There were two significant differences when the committee reconvened three weeks ago: the addition of a superintendent from each section and the presence of executive directors from four other states to offer insight into how their membership has dealt with an issue that has popped up in numerous states recently.
Mark Uyl (Michigan), Heath Harmon (Alabama), Eddie Bonine (Louisiana), and Colleen McGuire (New Jersey) each offered perspectives, with two being particularly relevant: Alabama just went through a seismic change (fueled in part by a state-level political battle) that saw private schools completely separated from the public schools, and New Jersey's proximity has made it the figurative poster child for observers eager for separate playoffs in New York.
The New York State Education Department and representatives of private and charter schools also attended.
(Side note: The presence of top officials from other state sanctioning bodies was deja vu-ish. When the private vs. public issue popped up in New York in a big way a decade ago, Davis Whitfield, chief operating officer of the National Federation of State High School Associations, and Bernard Childress, the influential executive director of the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association, came to the state to help facilitate the discussion in a similar-style meeting. Their insights carried a lot of weight in the room.)
After the executive directors spoke, it was time to go around the horn and hear from each section to flesh out core issues and concerns.
Nearly every section reported at least some degree of concern about participation by private and charter schools, generally focused on regional-level playoffs and beyond. Of course, that was also the case in July 2024 when the previous round of problem-solving began. A decade earlier, there was scant interest in change from anyone other than a subset of Section 5 superintendents.
However, some delegates also referenced last year's findings, including potential cost and logistics problems associated with having to add two classes to state championships.
Maybe most interesting to me, however, is a provision in the model for completely separate postseasons that hasn't garnered any attention outside the NYSPHSAA. Forwarded for consideration by Section 1, it calls for schools with a certain percentage of students who "tuition-in" (chiefly those who live in one district but attend school in another) to be lumped in with the private and charter schools. The number currently in play is 30%. It sounds like a high trigger to hit, but there apparently are smallish school districts that will fall into that category.
(Side note: One of the eye-openers last year for some committee members, not to mention critics of private schools, was the number of public school districts across the state that allow students from other districts to tuition-in or allow the children of employees living outside the district to attend.)
Another year, another three options to consider
The March 11 meeting concluded with an assignment for the reps from the 11 sections: Go home and lay out three options for how to move forward. They are:
• Stay with newly implemented process and evaluate effectiveness for two years.
• Continue to examine potential revisions (a hybrid model, additional classifications, separation in select sports, etc.)
• Consider complete separation of non-public and charter schools for postseason competition.
Section 5 Executive Director Kathy Hoyt said her section will utilize a referendum procedure, with each of the approximately 125 schools submitting a vote. Other sections may have different approaches.
Sections have been instructed to announce their choice during a Zoom meeting on April 24. In the event that the room wants to abandon the current process for one of the other options, work will begin promptly on figuring out the path forward.
