News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Warren County Director Of Schools Grant Swallows said a new TSSAA enrollment rule should be a significant change to local schools as reclassification approaches.
The Board Of Control voted to use the previous school year’s enrollment average rather than using enrollment numbers tallied on the 20th day of school. Swallows is on the board who decided the 20th day may not be representative.
“There’s a lot still going on.” Swallows said. “On the 20th day of the school year. There’s some students that have not enrolled. There are some students that have transferred, but they’ve not been dropped. And so when you have a discrepancy in enrollment, it just leads to a little bit of a process that can become chaotic.”
The change will take effect with the upcoming reclassification cycle. Swallows said the main focus of the change is to create a more accurate picture of enrollment and a fair standard for all schools.
“An enrollment number, if it swings 25 students one way or the other, it could mean playing up a classification or playing down a classification,” Swallows said. “And that’s very significant for schools and so there’s a lot of, I guess, emotion around that because, you know, schools that have to play up are potentially one of the lower enrollment schools in a bigger classification, that’s really difficult.”
Swallows said the change will have a major impact on schools are constantly on the threshold line of reclassification. Swallows said when he was the principal at White County High School the school was constantly moving up and down between 4A and 5A.
“When I was there a few years ago, we were 5A and so that number is important to schools like that because it does change not only the competition, but it also changes the travel that you might have to go into a region where there are teams further away from you,” Swallows said. “And that’s significant for your fans, that’s significant for your programs, and so it is important. I think that’s why I want to make sure that people understand the organization doesn’t just take this decision lightly. We’re looking for a better option that should be more fair to everyone.”
Swallows said the feedback from schools in the Upper Cumberland has been a mixed bag with some schools enjoying the change while some schools disagree with the change just because it is something new. Swallows said the impact in the Upper Cumberland will be seen next year.
“We’ve seen a lot more students that are potentially considering going to homeschool or maybe considering taking a virtual school option,” Swallows said. “So some enrollments have actually gone down over the last couple of years. So we’ll wait for the organization to release those enrollment numbers and then how they’ve grouped those, and then that will really tell those upper Cumberland schools, and kind of give them more idea of where they are.”
The association will receive official enrollment numbers from the Tennessee Department of Education.
