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Officials from Milwaukee Public Schools issued statements in the past week expressing disapproval of a non-football conference realignment proposal being considered that would move two Milwaukee City Conference schools to the Southeast Conference.
The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association’s Conference Realignment Task Force Committee in January advanced an amended proposal impacting six Milwaukee area conferences by a 10-6 vote. The task force meets again Feb. 19 to hear appeals from impacted schools, before the proposal is recommended for inclusion on the agenda at a WIAA Board of Control meeting March 10. The Board of Control can then approve, deny or remand it back to the realignment task force.
Among the realignments in the proposed plan is moving Milwaukee Reagan and Carmen South & Carmen Southeast to the Southeast Conference, where they would join existing members Kenosha Bradford, Kenosha Indian Trail, Kenosha Tremper, Racine Case, Racine Horlick and Racine Park.
Milwaukee Recreation senior director Anne Kubes said MPS has filed four formal appeals with the realignment task force throughout this process on behalf of Milwaukee Reagan, including the one that will be heard Feb. 19. Kubes said the latest appeal is based on community feedback from concerned Reagan district families.
"The district is particularly concerned about the negative impacts this realignment could have on access for families and fans, increased transportation demands and related costs, staffing challenges for athletics programs, and student safety – especially for students traveling later in the evening," a Kubes statement to the Journal Sentinel read in part. "The proposal would have broader implications for co-op teams, other MPS schools, and the overall stability and competitiveness of the Milwaukee City Conference as a whole."
Megan O'Halloran, MPS school board director representing District 8 which includes Reagan among its member schools, also issued a statement Feb. 6 after holding a community feedback session earlier in the week. In expressing her opposition to the proposed plan, she said it would "fail students, families, and staff" while undermining the district's "responsibility to ensure equitable access to education and extracurricular opportunities."
Her statement went on to list three specific areas of concern, pointing first to the impact on education due to varying schedules between MPS, Racine and Kenosha schools.
"Because of school start times, travel distances, and block scheduling, students and staff would frequently be forced to miss the last period of the school day to attend athletic events. With rigorous academic expectations and extended class periods, missing even one block can set students significantly behind," O'Halloran's statement read in part.
Her statement also asserted that for teachers who serve as coaches on various athletic programs, their early departure to travel to athletic events would disrupt education as well, creating inequities for students with their peers.
"Many parents work multiple jobs, care for multiple student-athletes, or lack access to reliable transportation. Requiring frequent travel outside the city makes it far more difficult for families to support their children through attendance and engagement – support that we know is critical to student success," her statement continued.
O'Halloran also criticized the proposal on the basis that it "ignores current transportation realities" for the district.
"Our region is facing a bus driver shortage, which already impacts athletics. Milwaukee Public Schools often relies on Milwaukee County Transit to transport students to nearby venues. That option would not be available for events outside the county, leading to higher transportation costs at a time when we are being asked to stretch every dollar," O'Halloran said.
Her statement concluded by asking the task force to reject the proposal, which she claimed has advanced in "an inherently unfair process" without families having a meaningful opportunity to provide feedback on how it would impact them.
Carmen South and Carmen Southeast officials did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The realignment task force is considering this latest iteration of a proposal crafted as a response to requests made by a dozen Milwaukee area schools. Schools can make requests for realignment from Oct. 1 through Nov. 1. WIAA records indicate requests filed by Brookfield East, Divine Savior Holy Angels, Franklin, Germantown, Grafton, Sussex Hamilton, Kenosha Tremper, Marquette University High School, Menomonee Falls, Oak Creek, Wauwatosa East and Wauwatosa West were combined into what has become the modified Milwaukee area proposal impacting six conferences that was pushed forward in January. When considering each request, realignment task force co-chair and Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln superintendent Ronald Rasmussen said the committee looks at school enrollment and geography.
"Generally geography is considered if you are within an hour of each other, that is considered to be pretty much normal geography," Rasmussen said. "Now that varies a little bit in each part of the state, such as in Milwaukee, in an hour you can go by a lot of schools. When you're up in my part of the state or even further north, your closest conference opponent may be 35 minutes away."
Rasmussen said the committee also looks at different levels of play at each school in a proposed conference, in order to maintain schedules that support junior varsity levels offered at each school. He added that the goal is to get schools across the state in conferences of eight teams or more that meet the aforementioned criteria, though exceptions can occur on a case-by-case basis.
"One of the difficulties in the Southeast part of the state is you only have two directions to move because of the lake and the border, so when you're looking at schools and similar enrollments within that hour of geography, you can't go east and you can't go south really, so you're looking really at two directions at that point when you're looking at schools that might be similar, that offer similar levels of play within that hour of geography and have similar enrollment," Rasmussen said.
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The original Milwaukee area proposal based on school requests included Milwaukee Rufus King and Reagan as the schools moving to the Southeast Conference, but was modified in response to an MPS appeal to remove King and replace it with Carmen South & Carmen Southeast.
"We attempt to get to eight [teams in a conference], although the committee is generally OK with seven. So that was really an attempt as well to try and get a conference to seven schools, knowing that some of the Kenosha and Racine schools co-op some of their athletic programs when it comes to all sports," Rasmussen said.
He also maintained that impacted schools have the right to file appeals and be heard at various stages of the realignment process, up to and including the March 10 Board of Control meeting.
"The task force really takes every proposal very seriously moving forward, understand and realize that we know we're not going to please every school district or every school," Rasmussen said. "That's why we do the appeal process, and that's why the committee, between December and January, did make changes, because we listened to those appeals and take those appeals very seriously. That will continue in February."
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Reagan appealing potential move to Southeast Conference
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The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association’s Conference Realignment Task Force Committee in January advanced an amended proposal impacting six Milwaukee area conferences by a 10-6 vote. The task force meets again Feb. 19 to hear appeals from impacted schools, before the proposal is recommended for inclusion on the agenda at a WIAA Board of Control meeting March 10. The Board of Control can then approve, deny or remand it back to the realignment task force.
Among the realignments in the proposed plan is moving Milwaukee Reagan and Carmen South & Carmen Southeast to the Southeast Conference, where they would join existing members Kenosha Bradford, Kenosha Indian Trail, Kenosha Tremper, Racine Case, Racine Horlick and Racine Park.
Milwaukee Recreation senior director Anne Kubes said MPS has filed four formal appeals with the realignment task force throughout this process on behalf of Milwaukee Reagan, including the one that will be heard Feb. 19. Kubes said the latest appeal is based on community feedback from concerned Reagan district families.
"The district is particularly concerned about the negative impacts this realignment could have on access for families and fans, increased transportation demands and related costs, staffing challenges for athletics programs, and student safety – especially for students traveling later in the evening," a Kubes statement to the Journal Sentinel read in part. "The proposal would have broader implications for co-op teams, other MPS schools, and the overall stability and competitiveness of the Milwaukee City Conference as a whole."
Megan O'Halloran, MPS school board director representing District 8 which includes Reagan among its member schools, also issued a statement Feb. 6 after holding a community feedback session earlier in the week. In expressing her opposition to the proposed plan, she said it would "fail students, families, and staff" while undermining the district's "responsibility to ensure equitable access to education and extracurricular opportunities."
Her statement went on to list three specific areas of concern, pointing first to the impact on education due to varying schedules between MPS, Racine and Kenosha schools.
"Because of school start times, travel distances, and block scheduling, students and staff would frequently be forced to miss the last period of the school day to attend athletic events. With rigorous academic expectations and extended class periods, missing even one block can set students significantly behind," O'Halloran's statement read in part.
Her statement also asserted that for teachers who serve as coaches on various athletic programs, their early departure to travel to athletic events would disrupt education as well, creating inequities for students with their peers.
"Many parents work multiple jobs, care for multiple student-athletes, or lack access to reliable transportation. Requiring frequent travel outside the city makes it far more difficult for families to support their children through attendance and engagement – support that we know is critical to student success," her statement continued.
O'Halloran also criticized the proposal on the basis that it "ignores current transportation realities" for the district.
"Our region is facing a bus driver shortage, which already impacts athletics. Milwaukee Public Schools often relies on Milwaukee County Transit to transport students to nearby venues. That option would not be available for events outside the county, leading to higher transportation costs at a time when we are being asked to stretch every dollar," O'Halloran said.
Her statement concluded by asking the task force to reject the proposal, which she claimed has advanced in "an inherently unfair process" without families having a meaningful opportunity to provide feedback on how it would impact them.
Carmen South and Carmen Southeast officials did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Realignment proposal a response to area school requests
The realignment task force is considering this latest iteration of a proposal crafted as a response to requests made by a dozen Milwaukee area schools. Schools can make requests for realignment from Oct. 1 through Nov. 1. WIAA records indicate requests filed by Brookfield East, Divine Savior Holy Angels, Franklin, Germantown, Grafton, Sussex Hamilton, Kenosha Tremper, Marquette University High School, Menomonee Falls, Oak Creek, Wauwatosa East and Wauwatosa West were combined into what has become the modified Milwaukee area proposal impacting six conferences that was pushed forward in January. When considering each request, realignment task force co-chair and Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln superintendent Ronald Rasmussen said the committee looks at school enrollment and geography.
"Generally geography is considered if you are within an hour of each other, that is considered to be pretty much normal geography," Rasmussen said. "Now that varies a little bit in each part of the state, such as in Milwaukee, in an hour you can go by a lot of schools. When you're up in my part of the state or even further north, your closest conference opponent may be 35 minutes away."
Rasmussen said the committee also looks at different levels of play at each school in a proposed conference, in order to maintain schedules that support junior varsity levels offered at each school. He added that the goal is to get schools across the state in conferences of eight teams or more that meet the aforementioned criteria, though exceptions can occur on a case-by-case basis.
"One of the difficulties in the Southeast part of the state is you only have two directions to move because of the lake and the border, so when you're looking at schools and similar enrollments within that hour of geography, you can't go east and you can't go south really, so you're looking really at two directions at that point when you're looking at schools that might be similar, that offer similar levels of play within that hour of geography and have similar enrollment," Rasmussen said.
VOTE NOW: Vote for high school athlete of the week, presented by Piggly Wiggly
The original Milwaukee area proposal based on school requests included Milwaukee Rufus King and Reagan as the schools moving to the Southeast Conference, but was modified in response to an MPS appeal to remove King and replace it with Carmen South & Carmen Southeast.
"We attempt to get to eight [teams in a conference], although the committee is generally OK with seven. So that was really an attempt as well to try and get a conference to seven schools, knowing that some of the Kenosha and Racine schools co-op some of their athletic programs when it comes to all sports," Rasmussen said.
He also maintained that impacted schools have the right to file appeals and be heard at various stages of the realignment process, up to and including the March 10 Board of Control meeting.
"The task force really takes every proposal very seriously moving forward, understand and realize that we know we're not going to please every school district or every school," Rasmussen said. "That's why we do the appeal process, and that's why the committee, between December and January, did make changes, because we listened to those appeals and take those appeals very seriously. That will continue in February."
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Reagan appealing potential move to Southeast Conference
Continue reading...
