Rockford’s smartest freshmen could be ineligible for one year. IHSA bylaw 3.031.1 changes eligibility requirements from school boundaries to attendance zones. That would decimate Auburn’s gifted program. It could also hammer kids who go to Jefferson for its auto mechanics class, East for its technology/construction class and Guilford for its English as Second Language program and scuttle charter and magnet schools across the state.
The IHSA’s Kurt Gibson said Springfield schools pushed the measure because its three public schools were fighting over athletes. Then let their superintendent sort it out. Or use the private school multiplier to push the three Class 3A schools to 4A. Boylan, Lutheran, Keith and all our private schools can use players from Wisconsin (the IHSA allows a 30-mile radius), but public schools can’t even go across town.
District 205 athletic director Carl Armato has been pleading Rockford’s case and Gibson says it should get worked out. But he also said the schools passed this bylaw, not IHSA officials, and the IHSA doesn’t point out any pitfalls unless asked. What kind of leadership is that? Gibson says the rule will allow for appeals, but after seeing Polo baseball player Brenden Kane ruled ineligible after moving from Arizona to be near his daughter, who can trust the IHSA to be fair, or even logical.
Check out bylaw 3.01.1 yourself here.
Love the part at the end where they say there are no cons to the rule. That’s what happens when 90 percent of the schools voting are one-school districts.
Peoria doesn’t sound worried about this, but then I don’t see anything about gifted programs or magnet schools there. The Peoria story makes it sound even more likely to happen when Marty Hickman, the man who said he could do nothing about the Kane case in Polo, said: “I don’t seen any problems with their initial eligibility. Provided they attend the school they’re supposed to.” That’s the whole problem, the IHSA deciding you are “supposed” to go to the school nearest you, even if the district allows you to go to a school with a special program that uniquely fits your needs.
