South Eugene Axemen

9/18/06
Copied below is a brief update on the OSAA redistricting issue from Joel Devore, the attorney representing the Eugene 4J School district.

There won't a lot to report on the redistricting controversy this fall.

On August 31, 4J filed its opening brief with the Oregon Court of Appeals. Medford joined in Eugene's brief. Salem-Keizer will file a separate brief soon. Although not required to do so, the state school superintendent Castillo has elected to intervene in the appeal to ask the court to uphold her order. OSAA and Superintendent Castillo will file their opposing briefs in seven weeks after Salem's brief. .4J, Medford, and Salem-Keizer will file reply briefs three weeks after OSAA's and Castillo's briefs. A three judge panel will hear oral argument in early 2007 and a decision will follow some months later.

Meanwhile, Go Axemen

4J Appeals OSAA Decision

Friday, June 9 State School Superintendent Susan Castillo supported the OSAA six-class athletic division plan, capping a series of legal and procedural moves by the OSAA and the Eugene, Medford and Salem-Keizer districts, which had objected to the plan.

Under the plan Sheldon and South Eugene will travel to play Roseburg, North and South Medford, and Grants Pass in a southern Oregon league, instead of traditional local rivals North Eugene, Churchill, Willamette, Springfield and Thurston.

The Eugene 4J school district has appealed the ruling to the Oregon Court of Appeals. A Court of Appeals decision is expected to take a year or more, and the 6-class plan will stand at least until that time.

Castillo stated that while she shared the concerns of the three appealing districts, the law prevented her from deciding any other way. In a June 13 editorial the Portland Oregonian blistered Castillo's ruling as "lame" and "odd" in an editorial captioned: "Superintendent ducked responsibility to Oregon students"

Thanks to Jesse Springer - Springer Design & Illustration for the OSAA cartoons!

Superintendent Castillo's ruling means that the six class plan will go into effect. An appeal cannot suspend it. An appeal will take a year.

The ruling decided that local facts do not matter. It reasoned, if any one school challenges its placement in a distant district as contrary to the placement standards (geography to lost class time), that the question will be converted into a different question: was the decision to redistrict the entire state consistent with the placement standards?

In effect, the ruling gave an interpretation of the law that made all appeals futile, since any one school is always part of a statewide redistricting. In effect, the placement standards are unenforceable and will not protect any local schools anywhere. If one school is hurt, but others aren't hurt, then every appeal will be rejected under today's interpretation.

Legislation to set priorities (safety and academics) is a terrific idea, but even those priorities won't protect Oregon students, if today's ruling stands. Legislation to list priorities won't protect students if the test of every appeal is to treat the appeal like a statewide challenge to all schools' placement, rather than a look at local facts. If Eugene appeals, it will contend that today's interpretation of existing law is a mistaken reading."

AxemenFootball.com's webmaster was one of the concerned Eugene parents attending the OSAA redistricting hearing Monday, May 8 in Salem. It was my first opportunity to see the OSAA try to defend the sports redistricting plan that puts South Eugene and Sheldon in a league with the Grants Pass, Medford, and Roseburg high schools.

At the hearing OSAA staff and their Attorney offered suggestions for how to cope with the new alignment. These include scheduling all games on weekends, eliminating league play for JV and freshmen teams, and eliminating league dual-meets for the track team and swim team.

Coaches and athletic directors testified that they have not been able to schedule many non-league competitions with local schools because the other local schools are committed to a full schedule in a different league, which has more teams in it than the new Southwestern league. OSAA staff called that a “scheduling issue”, and said that scheduling is up to the leagues, not the OSAA, although of course it is the OSAA that has created this unworkable league.

Some interesting information that came out in the hearing:

4J has only two buses (for all schools at all grade levels) that can be used for out-of-town travel, whether it is for academic field trips or sports. If these are not available the only option is an expensive charter bus.
There are roughly 1,000 students participating in inter-scholastic athletics at South and Sheldon.
The girls basketball team missed one hour of class time due to travel last year. In the schedule for next year in the new league they will miss 11 half-days of school.
The estimated additional travel cost to the 4J school district because of the new league is $60,000, which does not include any adjustment for current gas prices. Other expenses combined with lost revenue could make the total cost closer to $150,000 if the district commits to try to maintain a comparable program under the new alignment. Program cuts are more likely than finding that kind of money in the district budget.
Because the new "Southwestern League" has only 6 teams, compared to 9 in the present league, sports such as basketball and volleyball will need to play triple round-robin schedules in order to schedule a normal amount of league games. Triple round robin will give 15 league games in the new league, where the old league had 16 games in a double round robin format. That means for a 15 game league season there will be 7-8 trips to Medford/Grants Pass/Roseburg per season!

For more on the OSAA issue see:

Joel DeVore letter to State School Board. Joel DeVore is the attorney representing the Eugene 4J School Board in the appeal. This letter presents issues for the board to consider in adopting a rule to govern appeals such as the appeal of the OSAA redistricting plan.