Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 21, 1993 TAG: 9303210055
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: E11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
OCTOBER VOTE WOULD CHANGE HOW VHSL RUN
There is a movement afoot that will reform the Virginia High School League and force it to become a better organization.Principals at the legislative council meeting Friday were told there would be a vote in October to change how the VHSL is run.
The legislative council, with each of 278 schools getting a vote through its principal, makes all legislation that controls the VHSL.
The executive committee, made up of 26 voting members, rules only on appeals by schools and athletes while enforcing the rules that have been established by the legislative council.
In October, the legislative council will vote on turning over control of the VHSL to a new executive committee, which would consist of 25 voting members: 12 principals, eight superintendents, one State Department of Education representative, one School Boards Association representative, one supervisor of athletics, one citizen at large and one general assembly representative.
If the plan is adopted, the principals who now run the VHSL will be giving up their power. Their only voice will be through their regional representatives. The 12 principals will come from each of 12 regions of the state principals' association. The eight superintendents will come from the eight regions of the superintendents' association.
Will the principals, who have run the VHSL for so long in an unwieldy 278-member body, opt to permit a group of 25 people to control athletics? In most states, small executive committees run state athletics. In Virginia, the principals have been unwilling to let go of what some consider their right as school administrators to rule athletics.
The kicker is that if the principals don't turn over the power to the executive committee, it is likely the state legislature will place athletics in the hands of the Department of Education, leaving the principals no power.
"This is something we've been told [might happen] through the state superintendent group," said William Byrd principal Bob Patterson, the chairman of the executive committee.
When Patterson presented the option of making the executive committee the ruling body at Friday's legislative council meeting, he didn't tell the principals that if they didn't surrender power, the legislature might make a move.
VHSL programs supervisor Ken Tilley says the threat of legislative action was not presented to the principals for a reason.
"We presented it as reform, and if it fails [to pass], we didn't want to get into that. We feel we can sell it better and we don't want people to get defensive about it," Tilley said.
Tilley admits the current structure of the VHSL has drawbacks. The legislative council meets twice a year for about 90 minutes. In this time, all legislation must be discussed and voted on as a group. With 278 people, it's hard to get any work accomplished and people often have been confused about what has and hasn't passed.
A smaller executive committee can meet five times a year for two days each. There is more time for discussion and more thought put into decisions.
Tilley says that instead of presenting the threat of a takeover, the idea was to help principals decide if there is a better way to run the VHSL.
"It's up to us to sell it, and I think it can be done," said Tilley. "It's not the principals giving up power. It's putting faith in people empowered to make a decision. It's a representative form of government. This works in most states, and there's no need to think it won't work in Virginia."
Proposed legislation, say from principals, still might be acted on by the executive committee. In that way, principals still will have a voice.
Patterson hopes principals will talk to their superintendents before voting in October.
What do the principals think of the proposal? Patterson said some had been informed of the presentation by their superintendents before Friday's meeting. Others, like Shawsville's Nelson Simpkins, had no inkling of what was in store.
"I think most of us were pretty shocked," said Simpkins. "We didn't have enough background [to form an opinion]. As soon as he [Patterson] finished making his remarks, we just looked at each other."
There will be one other change in store for the VHSL starting with the 1994-95 school year. The organization, if it still exists, probably will be looking for an executive director to follow Earl Gillespie.
"I've told the legislative council that I'll tell them by October whether I am retiring," said Gillespie, who has said privately that 1993-94 will be his last year.
So the VHSL is likely to change both in terms of who runs the organization and how it is run. The question is whether this will be an orderly change or whether the principals will fight the loss of power and leave the next move to the state's general assembly.