A couple of brief updates for the week:
·
The choir and band put on a wonderful concert
Wednesday night. Hats off to Mrs. Mahr,
Mr. Loes, and all the students for their wonderful performance.
·
On Thursday our local priests approved subsidy
for the 2014-2015 school year. This is the first step in the budget process.
·
On Friday a tuition increase of 3% was
recommended by the finance committee.
As I mentioned last week, I wanted to give an update on the
conversation about District football. Historically,
Assumption has played 4A football in the MAC conference, despite being the
smallest school in the conference with an enrollment that qualifies us to play
in 3A. The reason for this is that, unlike other sports, 4A football teams must
qualify for playoffs, and because we play against all 4A teams in the MAC
conference, we qualify for the 4A playoffs. Other teams who “play up” to 4A in
Iowa include Wahlert and Xavier. 1A, 2A and 3A divisions compete in district
competition, not conference competition, and the state decides who you compete
against in playoff games.
In 2012, the state called a meeting in Des Moines to discuss
moving division 4A schools away from the football conference structure and
toward a district structure. Coach King put a lot of time and research into determining
what would be the best option for Assumption if the proposal became a reality. At that time, we believed if the state
decided to move 4A to district competition there would cease to be a MAC football
conference, and it would make the most sense for Assumption to compete at our
enrollment level, 3A.
At the state meeting it was announced that the decision had
been made to switch the 4A teams on the west side of the state to district football
and allow the east side of the state to continue to play conference football.
If you think this sounds confusing, you are not alone. We were confounded by
this decision, and at that point decided we would continue to play 4A
football.
Fast forward to this year. We were contacted toward the end
of the summer by Dubuque Wahlert to see if we would partner with them in asking
the state to revisit the decision to separate the state into east and west halves
for football. Wahlert school officials had decided that the best thing for
their program was to play at the 3A level. This caused us to reconsider our best
options, and it was determined that making the change to 3A was still the best
choice for us.
A few weeks ago Wade and I attended a meeting in Cedar Rapids
with the east side 4A school administrators and state officials to discuss the
possibility of 4A district football on our side of the state. We also hoped to
determine which path Wahlert and Xavier were thinking of choosing. At the time,
it was obvious that the state was not going to force the 4A schools into 4A
districts. Our conference football coaches felt it necessary to pursue
competition outside of the MAC conference, which lead to a conversation about a
“super-conference;” in other words, a combination of the MAC and MVC
conference. This could create negative consequences for Assumption including increased
travel time to games and the potential to lose some rivalry games.
This Wednesday we also learned that Wahlert and Xavier have
decided to drop down and play 3A football. This would leave us as the only
school playing above their enrollment level. With this decision, it appears
that the majority of the 4A schools on the east side of the state now support a
switch to 4A district football. This leads to a choice for us: we can continue
to play up at the 4A level, or we can play at our enrollment level, 3A. After discussing and analyzing some of the
benefits and drawbacks, at this point it appears that pursuing the 3A option is
the most logical choice, but I would like to discuss this with all of you
before we commit one way or the other.
Have a great weekend!
Andy
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