Every two years as outlined in Bylaw 2 of the OHSAA Bylaws, the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) recalculates the enrollment of boys and girls in grades 9, 10, and 11 for the purpose of classification of high schools into divisions for sectional, district and state post-season tournaments. Based on enrollment numbers received from the Ohio Department of Education and the number of divisions allotted for each OHSAA sponsored sport, schools are then evenly distributed among the divisions for competition. In the previous two-year classification cycle, a seventh division was added for football, with the 72 largest schools in the state comprising Division I. In that cycle, as in previous cycles, all three Westerville high schools competed in Division I in all sports.
A scuttle that's quickly gaining media and grassroots attention throughout the state is how OHSAA calculated the enrollment numbers for this cycle, which begins with the Fall 2015 season. Recent legislation, found in ORC 3313.537 allows students who are home educated, educated in a community (Charter) school, or STEM school to participate in activities in the student's "otherwise assigned" public school. The premise behind that, I imagine, is that even though the state funding follows the student to the school/district of enrollment (Ohio school funding is tricky!), the property tax dollars of that student's family still support the public school district where that student resides. As such, the student is not completely excluded and has the ability to participate in activities supported by his or her family's tax dollars. Again, that's just my guess and on the surface seems logical. In response to the change in legislation, this enrollment cycle OHSAA included reported community and STEM school students into the enrollment count of the public high schools in the districts where community and STEM schools are located. Given the fact the vast majority of community and STEM schools are located in Ohio's urban districts, schools in Columbus City, Cleveland Municipal, Toledo City and Cincinnati City, saw the greatest gains in their school's enrollment causing many to move to larger school divisions. Two recent Columbus Dispatch articles explain this in greater depth. The article by Steve Blackledge can be found here, and the commentary by Michael Arace can be found here.
The impact of that change is in large part why Westerville North and Westerville South will be competing in Division II this season in football (they stay Division I in all other sports). The enrollment of the two schools have remained fairly constant at around 1500 total students. However, in Division I, which again for football is the largest 72 schools, 11 schools moved from Division II to Division I, with seven of those schools coming from the big urban districts. The largest 72 schools in Ohio have an enrollment range of boys in grades 9-11 from 627 (Parma and North Royalton) to the largest high school in Ohio, Mason, with 1364 boys. The grades 9-11 boys enrollment of the Westerville high schools are: Central (706), South (620), and North (601). Based on those numbers, Westerville Central will continue to compete in Division I (where they've made the state playoffs for the last two seasons), while Westerville North and South were bumped out of D-I and will compete in Division II.
The Wildcats and Warriors will compete in Division II - Region 5, which is comprised of 27 schools in Central and Eastern Ohio. Westerville South is the largest school in Region 5. Perennial state playoff contenders Columbus Beechcroft and Columbus Marion-Franklin are also in that region, as well as notables like Zanesville, New Albany, and Massillon Washington (yes, THAT Massillon). Representatives of the urban districts are reaching out to OHSAA regarding the impact on their schools, but either way, the upcoming season should be full of exciting match-ups.
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