Annual Meeting held Thursday, Commish announces vote outcome

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CHAPEL HILL-- The North Carolina High School Athletic Association held its Annual Meeting on Thursday at the Smith Center in Chapel Hill, and one of the items of business was an announcement by NCHSAA commissioner Davis Whitfield.

Whitfield announced the results of a ballot involving two proposals relating to the NCHSAA Constitution and By Laws.  Principals of six member schools, in accordance with the terms outlined by the constitution, submitted requests for changes that required a vote of the membership.

An affirmative vote of not less than three-fourths of the total ballot of 390 is necessary for a change, and neither garnered the three-fourths of the total ballot required to be enacted. The voting was conducted during a recent eight-day span prior to the Annual Meeting.

The first proposal had to do with membership of the non-boarding parochial schools in the NCHSAA:

ARTICLE FOUR, MEMBERSHIP

CURRENT: "Any North Carolina public or non-boarding parochial high school is eligible for membership provided it is accredited by State Department of Public Instruction and provided it adopts and maintains the following code of participation in high school athletics…"               

PROPOSED CHANGE: "Any public secondary school in North Carolina is eligible for membership provided it is funded as a 'free public school' in accordance with provisions in the state constitution and adopts and maintains the following code of participation in high school athletics…"

The vote for the proposal to change the language concerning non-boarding parochial schools was 234 in favor of the change, 51 against.

The second proposal had to do with charter schools, currently members of the NCHSAA, playing in a separate charter school bracket in team playoffs after qualifying for post season play.

BYLAW VI, CLASSIFICATION

PROPOSED ADDITION TO THE BYLAW: "Charter schools with a high school athletic program are eligible upon request for assignment by the NCSHAA to an athletic conference, and as such are on equal standing with all schools in that conference until the conference season concludes. At that time, if two or more teams from charter schools qualify for a playoff berth in a bracketed sport that culminates in an NCHSAA state championship, they will be consolidated into a separate playoff bracket for that team championship.

"Individuals from member charter schools who qualify for playoff competition in non-bracketed sports above the conference level will compete with athletes from other public high schools in the NCHSAA."
 
The vote in the charter school proposal was 197 for and 81 against.

"We followed the constitution and by laws and distributed a ballot for the membership's use in this vote. We tabulated the results and will move forward since the proposals did not receive enough votes to initiate a change. The Board of Directors has commissioned the NCHSAA to convene a committee to discuss potential solutions for some of the issues related to these proposals."