Bigfork High mulling switch to Class B

By JORDAN DAWSON / Bigfork Eagle

Bigfork High School received notice last week from the Montana High School Association (MHSA) that the school's athletics and activities programs have been recommended to compete in Class B competitions, rather than Class A, next year due to enrollment size.

The school was given the option to petition MHSA to remain in Class A, and that decision is to be made by the school board and administration at the Nov. 12 school board meeting.

"We are reviewing the information that we received from MHSA and are talking with our coaches to get their input on what they would prefer us to do," said Matt Jensen, BHS assistant principal and activities director. "It only affects the extra curricular activities. It will not impact our school or our staff in any other way."

The administration said that half of the coaches wanted the school to appeal the recommendation, and the other half felt that it was best for the school to move down to Class B. About 85 to 90 percent of the students at BHS participate in activities that will be affected by the transition, according to the school.

Jensen and Russ Kinzer, Superintendent of Bigfork Schools and acting BHS principal, put together a proposal to present to the school board. The board has the option to either hear the proposal and make the decision whether or not to petition MHSA to continue to compete in Class A activities, or the board can choose to not put the issue on the agenda and allow Kinzer and Jensen to make the decision on their own. The school must submit an appeal to MHSA by Nov. 14 in order for it to be considered.

"When we make decisions like this we try to break it down to what is in the best interest of the students," Kinzer said. "We try to look at it in a subjective way and make the best decision. Statistics don't always give you everything you need to make a decision."

Some statistical facts that the administration has considered are traveling distance, current and future school enrollment numbers, MHSA guidelines and cost estimates involved in the switch.

If the decision is made to allow the school to move down to Class B, Bigfork will still be eligible to play Class A soccer, because soccer is not played in Class B. All of the other sports and activities, with the exception of golf, would be played in Class 7B which currently includes the schools Thompson Falls, Troy, Plains, Lincoln County from Eureka and St. Ignatius. For golf, which is played in the spring in Class B and C, Bigfork would compete in Division 3, which includes Broadwater from Townsend, Lincoln County, Loyola Sacred Heart from Missoula, Manhattan, Manhattan Christian, Plains, Powell County from Deer Lodge, Seeley Swan, Sweet Grass County from Big Timber, Thompson Falls and Three Forks.

"We want our students to have a fair competitive chance," Kinzer said. "We have to think about what arena is going to be best for them. That can be hard to determine. We have to look at all of the sports across the board. You don't make decisions like this based on one or two sports. You try to look at the program as a whole."

Kinzer said that many of the concerns he has heard from the community about Bigfork moving down are about travel and college recruiting. The school's transportation department was working this week to determine if, and by how much, travel costs would increase if Bigfork was to compete in the Class B conference. There are also concerns about traveling further distances in the winter months, but Kinzer said that the school always watches the conditions before sending a team out of town, and they have professional bus drivers that are given the option to return the bus home if there are bad road conditions. Most likely, Bigfork will continue to play against some of the nearby Class A schools that it competes against now for some sports, especially basketball, which plays on a regional schedule created to decrease the length of road trips. Track, cross country and tennis already compete at one site for all conferences, so the switch will not affect their travel. The difference will be seen the greatest in football, volleyball and golf.

As for college recruitment, there is a concern among parents that their student-athletes will not be as likely to be looked at for scholarships if the school is competing at the Class B level. Kinzer said that from his experience at larger schools, that they do tend to have their athletes looked at more by colleges than smaller schools do.

"I don't think it's going to be an easy decision to make," Kinzer said. "There's pros and cons to each side."

He said that part of the motivation he has for not appealing the move is to improve the school culture.

"High school kids want to be treated fairly," Kinzer said. "If there's a belief that they are being put in an unfair situation it can create a negative culture. It's not measurable with statistics, but can be there and that's a problem."

New rules enacted as state enrollment declines

The MHSA Executive Board changed the athletic classification and districting plan in July 2007 to simplify assessment and make adjustments for declining school enrollment statewide. The new bylaws state that when classification for member schools is adopted that the classification remains in effect for two years. The previous system had the board reevaluating every school each year, which created instability within the conferences.

Classification is currently based on two consecutive years of enrollment data. Schools submit enrollment numbers in March and in November. The board takes an average of the previous spring and the following fall for two years, and then averages those two numbers.

In addition to the evaluation system being altered, the numbers used to base placement have been decreased by about 8 percent to reflect the 8 percent decrease in enrollment state wide over the last 10 years.

Now, Class AA is for schools with 826 students or more, Class A is for schools with 340-825 students, Class B is for schools with 120-339 students and Class C is for schools with up to 119 students. Schools that exceed the maximum enrollment levels by up to ten percent are allowed to remain in a lower classification for two years.

Bigfork averaged 347.5 students in 2007 and 319 in 2008, which is an average of 333.25.

"It's important that when schools are dropping in enrollment for them to be able to drop to a lower class and be able to compete with schools of similar enrollment sizes," said Mark Beckman, Executive Director of the Montana High School Association.

Bigfork, which is the smallest public Class A school in the state, was one of three schools to be asked to move from Class A to Class B. The other two schools, Billings Central and Butte Central, both of which are private schools, have already sent in appeals to remain in Class A. Billings Central had 313 students enrolled last year and Butte Central had 137 students. Ronan High School narrowly stayed within the Class A guidelines with an average of 340.5 students over the last two years.

Kinzer pointed out that if the school does appeal the move, and MHSA allows Bigfork to stay in Class A, that the school will more than likely find itself in this same situation in two years when the next evaluation is done because enrollment numbers are projected to continue to decrease.

"It's easy to engage in a lot of different topics on this subject, but I think it's important to go back to the MHSA guidelines," Kinzer said. "They are there for a reason and they shouldn't be ignored."

Although Class A seems to be a good fit for the private schools, Bigfork has only won three state championships since becoming a Class A school in the 1997-1998 school year, all of which were in cross country from 2001-2003.

Wayne Loeffler, the principal of Bigfork Middle School, was the BHS principal and activities director when the school moved up to Class A.

"We were excited to move up to Class A and had been preparing for it," Loeffler said. "We knew that the challenge would be great, but the transition went smoothly."

Bigfork moved up from Class C in the 1980-1981 school year and earned 22 state championships prior to moving all sports up to Class A, including a 12-year run by the girls tennis team, which was the third largest number of consecutive state championships in the nation at the time.

"The MHSA sets up these guidelines and they are there for a reason, and should be followed," Loeffler said. "We need to set our kids up in a situation where they can be successful and compete on a level playing field. We need to do what's best for the kids. That's what is important. They need to be able to compete and have fun. That doesn't always mean winning, but it needs to be at a level they can compete at so they feel good about themselves and that will lead to a positive culture within the schools.