Appeal Tribune
❚ WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 2018 ❚ 1B
Sports
HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS
After another appeal
Cascade, for the second time, will appeal the OSAA's decision that the high school should be in Class 5A starting in the 2018-2019 school year.
MOLLY J. SMITH/STATESMAN JOURNAL
Cascade plans
to petition new
OSAA decision
Bill Poehler Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
The Executive Board of the Ore-
gon School Activities Association,
for the second time, has decided
that Cascade High School should
be in Class 5A starting in the 2018-
2019 school year.
And Cascade, for the second
time, will appeal the OSAA's deci-
sion and request to remain in its
current Class 4A.
Since the opinion of Hearing's
Officer W. Michael Gillette was
handed down Feb. 27, following
Cascade's first appeal, the OSAA’s
Executive Board held three confer-
ence calls over the past two weeks
and voted 7-4 to deny Cascade’s re-
quest.
Cascade superintendent Darin
Drill said he has talked to the Cas-
cade School Board's members and
plans to appeal the Executive
Board’s decision within the next
few days.
“Obviously all of this is new ter-
ritory for all of us,” Drill said. “It’s
not my goal to cause them all kinds
of issues here. It’s how do I explain
to students, 'Yeah, you’re under the
(enrollment) number, but you’re
not in 4A?'”
The OSAA’s decision centers
around how the group considers an
emergency placement in a lower
classification.
In October, the Executive Board
placed Cascade in a 5A league with
Central, Corvallis, Crescent Valley,
Dallas, Lebanon, North Salem, Sil-
verton, South Albany and West Al-
bany.
Cascade moved some students
into a separate charter school be-
fore the 2017-2018 school year,
dropping the main school’s adjust-
ed enrollment to 643 from its 2016-
2017 number of 687.
The 5A classification threshold
is 665.
Tuesday’s decision says that ex-
ecutive board’s emergency place-
ment for dropping a school typical-
ly happens when a school’s adjust-
ed enrollment declines by 7 to 10
percent under the classification
threshold; Cascade’s adjusted en-
rollment is 3.3 percent under the
5A cutoff.
“If I’m a 6A school and I’m one
kid under the number, is that an
emergency placement?” OSAA Ex-
ecutive Director Peter Weber said.
Drill said it is not spelled out in
the OSAA’s handbook what per-
centage of students above or below
the cutoff number should be used
for an emergency classification de-
cision by the Executive Board.
“We just don’t believe that this
makes a lot of common sense,” Drill
said.
Cascade initially appealed the
OSAA’s reclassification in Novem-
ber, and its appeal was heard Feb.
14 by Gillette.
Gillette ruled that the Executive
Board erred in not considering al-
lowing Cascade to remain in 4A
and sent the case back to the Exec-
utive Board to reconsider its deci-
sion.
The board ruled Tuesday that
Cascade didn't have a large enough
enrollment drop to justify being
placed in a lower classification to
start the next four-year time block.
“I think one of the concerns is
that if we’re looking at '17-18 data
for Cascade, then wouldn’t you
have to look at '17-18 data for every-
body, and at what point would you
have to cut that off?” Weber said.
In Gillette’s opinion, he stated
that he would make himself avail-
able to help bring the case to con-
clusion.
Weber said he would reach out
to Gillette once the Cascade appeal
has been filed.
bpoehler@StatesmanJour-
nal.com or Twitter.com/bpoehler
HIGH SCHOOL DANCE
Silverton struts their stuff at championships
Silverton High School students perform during the OSAA Dance and Drill State Championships at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Ore., on March 17.
PHOTOS BY ALEX MILAN TRACY