LHSAA Executive Committee Green Lights Special Meeting To Address “Select” Definition

by Hunter Bower, GeauxPreps.com Owner

BATON ROUGE – The concluding day of the LHSAA executive committee’s annual fall meeting unfolded with two significant decisions that promise to reshape the landscape of high school sports in Louisiana.

The committee green-lit a special meeting to tackle the contentious issue of a glossary definition for select schools, a matter currently entangled in a legal dispute.

According to LHSAA executive director Eddie Bonine, member schools will receive communication drafted by the board president and legal council informing that a special meeting will be called. Within 14 days of the letter being sent to principals, the organization will attempt to find a location to hold a vote.

Parliamentary attorney Amy Lowe noted that a quorum of the LHSAA’s 404 member schools, equating to 203 schools, must be present at the special-called meeting for a vote to be valid, requiring a simple majority to pass.

To read more of Bonine’s comments and how the LHSAA will proceed whether the “Select” term is approved or not, visit Robin Fambrough’s story on the full development by clicking HERE.

The other bombshell announcement from the committee came in the form of an item added to the January convention agenda. This item aims to put an end to the select/nonselect split that has been in place since 2013, a division determined by classification and sport. Unlike previous votes, which required a two-thirds majority to pass, this proposal will only require a simple majority vote.

The executive committee’s proposal to reunite select and nonselect schools presents a significant shift, as it advocates for class-specific integration in sports like football, boys and girls basketball, baseball, and softball. This approach also necessitates only a simple majority vote.

Previous attempts to reconcile the divisions, including one in 2020, garnered majority support from schools but fell short of the two-thirds majority required for constitutional changes.

In other news, member schools will receive notification of the decision by the executive committee regarding the attendance zone bylaw in which numerous private and public schools appealed publicly on Tuesday.