Private high school sports teams in Kansas one step closer to moving up a class

A proposal attempting to address the competitive imbalance in sports between public and private high schools in Kansas passed a critical vote on Wednesday, but still has a final hurdle to clear before becoming law.

The Kansas Board of Education voted 6-4 on Wednesday in favor of a unique multiplier proposal crafted by the Kansas State High School Activities Association, which would potentially move certain private schools up one classification based on their state championships, geography and number of low-income students.

After the proposal gained the necessary support from KSHSAA member schools, it needed a majority vote from the 10-person Kansas Board of Education.

The six yes votes came from Janet Waugh (District 1), Melanie Haas (District 2), Ann Mah (District 4), Jean Clifford (District 5), Ben Jones (District 7) and Jim Porter (District 9), while the no votes were logged by Michelle Dombrosky (District 3), Deena Horst (District 6), Betty Arnold (District 8) and Jim Porter (District 9).

The proposal advances to the final step, once again needing to gain the necessary support from the Kansas Legislature. The process won’t begin until January, although a resolution will come by the time the legislature adjourns in late May with the possibility of the proposal being implemented for the 2023-24 school year.

“History was made today,” Paola principal Jeff Hines, who has been outspoken in his support for the proposal, told The Wichita Eagle. “We’ve now gone further in creating an equitable and fair playing field for high school athletics in Kansas in, honestly, forever.”

What is the KSHSAA private school multiplier proposal?

While other states have implemented a blanket multiplier for private schools or a multiplier based on postseason success, Kansas has found support for its own hybrid version with a three-pronged multiplier to classify private schools.

The three factors for the private school multiplier are state championships, location and socio-economic status; and there is a cap on a school being moved up more than one classification. Essentially, private schools that win a lot of state titles, are located in metropolitan areas and have minimal low-income students are moving up a classification.

Based on last year’s enrollment numbers, the proposal would impact eight schools: Bishop Carroll, Kapaun Mt. Carmel, St. James Academy and St. Thomas Aquinas would move from Class 5A to Class 6A, while Bishop Miege would move to 5A, Wichita Collegiate to 4A and Kansas City Christian and Wichita Independent to 3A.

Unanimous support for change, not necessarily the proposal

The Kansas Board of Education agreed some kind of change is necessary for how private schools are classified, but not everyone agreed the proposal was the right solution.

“I think we can come up with a better solution,” said Jim McNiece, who voted no. “I don’t know what that solution is right now, but I do know going forward this harms other schools and it does not solve the problem.”

Betty Arnold, who also voted no, had doubts about whether the current proposal was “the best solution for all” and suggested KSHSAA should return to the drawing board to find an alternative “that’s more palatable.”

Others, like Ben Jones, were convinced by the presentation last month by KSHSAA executive director Bill Faflick. Jones said he was a “hard no” last month, but was swayed when he learned from Faflick that private schools have won nearly 24% of total state championships over the last five seasons, despite making up less than 8% of the KSHSAA membership.

Ultimately, the vote was swung by Jim Porter, whose district is in southeastern Kansas, and Ann Mah, whose district is in north central and northeast Kansas.

While neither seemed overly impressed by the multiplier formula, both mentioned similar reasoning to accept a proposal that has been worked on for years and has been approved by the majority of the athletic directors and principals from around the state.

“I’m really torn about it as well, but I don’t think it’s our job to second-guess KSHSAA,” Mah said.

“I don’t like binary choices, yes or no,” Porter added. “I’ve got the same concerns with this that everybody else has expressed. I also believe that KSHSAA has a process and I don’t feel like we should interfere with it.”

Is there just a Bishop Miege problem?

The private school that seems to be the target of the majority of criticism for the private-public debate is Bishop Miege, a Class 4A powerhouse located in the Kansas City suburbs.

Miege has won 27 team state championships in the last five years, the most of any high school in Kansas. During that span, the football, volleyball, boys soccer, boys golf, boys basketball, girls basketball, baseball and girls soccer teams have won titles.

Other private schools, like St. Thomas Aquinas and St. James Academy in the KC area and Bishop Carroll, Kapaun Mt. Carmel and Collegiate in the Wichita area, have won their fair share of state titles as well. But none seem to be the lightning rod to the conversation like Miege.

“Instead of addressing all of the private schools, it seems like two schools, maybe even just one, are the problem,” said Michelle Dombrosky, whose district includes Johnson County. “It seems like you could just move up those two schools up a class, which they’ve agreed to do and that would solve it.”

According to sources with knowledge of the situation, officials at Miege and Aquinas have relayed to KSHSAA that they would voluntarily move up a classification. But their verbal agreement means little right now: not only would the current proposal have to be scrapped, but their voluntary agreement would have to jump through the same amount of hoops as the current proposal. Starting that process over again now could take years.

Wichita’s two largest private schools, Carroll and Kapaun, both feel like they are being unfairly lumped in with the largest KC private schools, Miege, Aquinas and St. James.

“Bishop Miege is probably what 90% of the complaints are about,” Jamie Finkeldei, associate superintendent for the Catholic Diocese of Wichita, told The Eagle. “Every speech I’ve heard has cited Miege as the problem.

“We’re disappointed in the outcome (of Wednesday’s vote). We were hoping the Board of the Education would see the bigger picture. I understand that there is a problem, I don’t discount that, but I’m not sure the current proposal is the right solution to that problem. It feels it’s solving one problem by creating more problems and it punishes other private schools for the problem of two or three schools.”

Hines, who was on the KSHSAA-appointed committee that created the proposal, pushed back on the notion that the multiplier “punishes” any private school.

“It doesn’t penalize private schools in any way, shape or form, but instead it classifies a handful of private schools in a class where they will face competition that they are better suited for and removes them from the classes where they are quite frankly dominating,” Hines said. “It makes small-town Kansas schools and students feel like they’ve got a chance when the season starts, instead of knowing there’s a predetermined outcome before the first game has ever been played.”

What comes next for the public-private KSHSAA debate?

While the proposal picked up a significant victory on Wednesday, it far from guarantees the same result in the Kansas Legislature.

It’s an entirely new set of politicians that must be convinced with the stakes even higher, but Hines was encouraged by the precedent set on Wednesday.

“It gave me a strong sense of hope that when we get to the legislature that they will look at this grassroots effort and refer back to their home districts and school officials and parents who have weighed in on this issue,” Hines said. “I hope they recognize two things: one, that there is a problem and two, finding the perfect solution is an impossibility, but the status quo can’t continue.

“I believe the proposal gives us the best option moving forward to take a giant step toward creating competitive balance and if it needs to be looked at and adjusted over the next four or five years, then by all means, let’s continue to do that. But we cannot in any way, shape or form consider moving forward with the current classification system.”

Despite the vote advancing to the final step, private-school supporters who oppose the proposal think the conversation will be different at the state legislature level.

Finkeldei believes state politicians might be more inclined to reject a proposal that would negatively impact the large inner-city schools in Wichita and Kansas City if Carroll, Kapaun, Aquinas and St. James were to be raised to Class 6A from 5A.

“Think about who does this proposal really hurt? It’s the 6A schools in Wichita and Kansas City,” Finkeldei said. “Now you’re going to make it less likely that those schools win a state championship to the benefit of the suburban schools? Schools like Goddard, Maize, Andover benefit to the detriment of the City League schools.”

But those discussions are many months away, as the earliest the Kansas Legislature will pick it up is in January.

Hines suspects that the proposal will be assigned to a committee, likely the House Committee on Education, and require a recommendation to survive the cutting-room floor.

From there, the proposal would be examined by the leadership in the Republican party, which controls the House of Representatives and the Senate. The proposal would need to be considered “above the line,” which essentially means it has enough support to even be considered for a vote.

“In 2017, there was support to get a proposal out of the committee, but the committee chair knew there wasn’t support to get the issue above the line, so it never advanced beyond that,” Hines said. “I feel pretty strongly that our schools across the state have spoken and it’s going to cause a reaction from legislators.”

After years of campaigning for change in the way Kansas classifies private schools, Hines says he sees the finish line in sight.

He acknowledges that there’s a chance the proposal may not pass with the exact verbiage or not pass at all, but Hines is keeping an open mind to the possibilities that have now become a reality for next spring.

“I’m going to double down on my efforts to create connections with legislators to inform them of why we’re having this conversation and what the problem actually looks like and get them to understand that we have to do something,” Hines said. “Hopefully they will take the proposal and allow us to enact it, but if it needs tweaked or adjusted, then we’re going to have to be receptive to that, even if we don’t agree with some of the things they’re saying.

“It boils down to we can’t continue under our current system and tell our student-athletes that what we’re doing is good enough because it’s not. And I’ll work with anybody to make sure we get a solution in place.”