NIAA board to vote on realignment proposals Thursday

RENO — About 15 Clark County School District principals boarded a plane Wednesday morning from Las Vegas intent on stopping their high schools from being placed into leagues they didn’t like. Twelve stood up and voiced their concerns about the existing proposal, then proposed an alternative.

Whether their trip will be fruitful remains to be seen.

The group presented its realignment proposal at the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association’s Board of Control meeting Wednesday at Whitney Peak Hotel. Their proposal eliminated the highly debated Class 5A classification and instead tweaked the current four-classification alignment.

The board will decide between the principals’ proposal that was presented Wednesday and the proposal presented by the NIAA’s realignment committee in December. Debate and a vote are scheduled for Thursday’s meeting, which begins at 8 a.m.

“Let’s build the foundation correctly and do it right the first time,” Silverado principal Jaime Ditto said. “We unanimously believe — and there are 32 principals now that believe — there shouldn’t be a 5A right now, that we don’t have enough accurate data, that the system we have and the rubric that we have is flawed and broken.”

The principals’ proposal took pieces of the realignment committee’s football proposal, including moving Chaparral, Desert Pines and Mojave up to 4A and dropping Rancho to 3A. It has three seven-team leagues and one six-team league.

The biggest change to the current system was the suggestion for playoffs, which kept two regions, but instead instituted a north-south alignment instead of the existing east-west configuration. That would mean that should traditional powerhouses Bishop Gorman and Liberty advance, they would meet for a region title instead of a state championship.

The proposal is similar for nonfootball sports, but Rancho remains in 4A, Chaparral and Mojave remain in 3A, and Tech moves to 4A.

The realignment committee last month suggested breaking the top division into two classifications, with a 12-team 5A for football and a 15-team 5A for all nonfootball sports, with the remainder staying in 4A.

The principals said they would not be opposed to a 5A in the future, but requested a two-year period to evaluate which schools should be part of it.

“It’s like a cake that’s half-baked,” Green Valley principal Kent Roberts said. “If there is going to be (a 5A), we want a bigger voice in how that’s created.”

The biggest point of contention Wednesday was a breakdown of communication. The principals said they felt out of the loop when the committee made its recommendation in December, and the committee said there was ample notice for the principals to make their voices heard.

Board vice president Rollins Stallworth called the principals’ proposal a “slap in the face” to the work of the realignment committee. Chaparral assistant principal Xavier Antheaume, a member of the realignment committee, questioned why the principals would want to wait two years for a 5A if they thought it would come eventually.

“I don’t think it was a negligent act in any way, shape or form, nor do I think anyone ignored the information,” said Timothy Jackson, realignment committee member and Durango athletic administrator. “I stand behind everything we did.

“At the end of the day, we’re going to do what’s best for kids at every step. Whichever proposal is accepted, I’ll accept.”

Contact Justin Emerson at jemerson@reviewjournal.com or (702) 387-2944. Follow @J15Emerson on Twitter.