Jeff Hines, assistant principal, and Randy Heatherly, Girard Middle School principal decided to take action against class designations for private schools by going to Topeka in April to talk to officials at the Kansas State High School Activities Association.

Schools at issue are private schools in communities of 2 million residents at most, since most 4A schools operate in communities of 2,000 to 10,000 residents. One of the schools who fits into the category is Bishop Miege, Hines said. Miege is located in suburban Kansas City. More than 90 state championship banners decorate the basketball gymnasium. In it’s regular season play, Miege competes in the Eastern Kansas League, a 10-school conference comprised of nine Class 6A or 5A teams. It is the only member school in Class 4A Division I in which the football team beat 5A state champion Mill Valley 64-21 in the regular season before winning its third straight state title. The girls basketball team had won 63 games in a row before the streak was snapped by Lee’s Summit North on Dec. 16.

Hines and Heatherly have proposed KSHSAA and the legislature should apply either of two options:
▪ A multiplier rule that would tally the enrollment of each private school and then multiply it by a pre-determined number. In Missouri, which has had a multiplier rule for nearly two decades, all private-school enrollments are multiplied by 1.35 before they are placed in their respective classifications. At a single-gender school such as Rockhurst, the enrollment is multiplied by 1.35 and then doubled. Miege is the sixth largest school in Kansas Class 4A Division I.
▪ A modifier rule, a relatively new system in which private-school programs are only bumped up classifications based on their success. Such a rule would apply only to specific programs rather than entire schools. In Oklahoma, for example, a single sports program would be forced to enlist in a larger classification if it has finished in the top eight in three of the past four seasons in that sport.
Miege is the sixth largest school in 4A Div. 1.

In a survey to KSHSAA member schools 82 percent of schools who responded – an 80 percent response rate — supported change regarding private school classification.

The Kansas Senate Education Committee held a hearing over the bill on Feb. 13 and a week later deciding to take no action. The Kansas Senate is currently reworking the school funding formula.

At its April 28 board meeting, KSHSAA proposed new classifications which would expand 5A and 6A to 36 member schools and trim 4A schools to 36. Based on this year’s enrollment numbers, this would move area schools Bonner Springs, Bishop Miege, Ottawa and Basehor-Linwood to class 5A.

Hines said most schools would win if the state makes a change.

“Competition would become harder for private schools and public 4A schools would win more games at substate and state,”said Hines. “It would move a private school up one classification for any activity that they have finished in the Final Four three out of the last four years in.

Hines said schools are waiting for KSHSAA to start with the proposal, which is idle since Congress is rewriting the rules for funding, the first time since 1992. Congress has to pass the bill 72-130 before KSHSAA will make a move to change the classifications.