LINESVILLE – The Conneaut School Board decided to consolidate by a vote of 6-3 tonight at a special school board meeting at Linesville High School’s auditorium.
Hundreds of local residents, teachers and students packed the auditorium, with some voicing their opinions during the public participation portion of the meeting.
The board was presented with three options, with the first not getting a second motion and the second failing 7-2. The second motion would have kept the schools intact but reduced the schedule to four school days a week.
The details of the new athletic program are still to be worked out in May. All three schools will compete under one banner and increase in class in almost every sport. The biggest impact will be in football. Conneaut will be a Class AAA football team in Region 1 over the next two years. Region 1 is a Class A region.
– Tom Reisenweber
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I’m surprised that the D10 committee didn’t have a plan in place that would have placed Conneaut into the correct region this year.
Bob,
I think regarding football they couldn’t wait because ADs had to start scheduling games. Especially those playing out of district opponents.
Thank you,
Tom
Yeah you’re correct Tom about the schedules. However the schedules are now all screwed up for anyone who happened to scehdule either Linesville, Lake or Valley. A lot of programs are now missing out on games….
So, how will D10 treat this AAA school playing in a lesser region (classification wise). How will playoffs work for all sports? Will they get an automatic bid?
This just seems rushed…and of course is messy.
Mark,
The D-10 Committee decided last night that Conneaut will use the Conneaut Valley schedule already in place for football so each Region 1 team loses one game. Conneaut Lake and Linesville merged before last season in football only.
The basketball schedules will go off the Linesville schedules in place.
Honestly, aside from region games I was hearing no ADs would schedule Conneaut schools until this decision was made so I don’t think too many schedules were hurt. The biggest impact is volleyball. That season is coming and now you have three schools as one.
As far as the playoffs go it might only be an issue in football. Conneaut will be in comparable regions in most sports. There won’t be an automatic spot in football because you need at least two teams from the same classification in a region to get an automatic spot.
The question is what if this team goes 7-3 in Region 1? Do they get in over a 6-4 or 5-5 team that played an AAA schedule? I think Conneaut will have to win at least seven or eight games and really rout teams to earn a spot. They could help themselves by scheduling big schools in non-region play. With only seven teams in Region 1 now, that means each team gets six region games and four open weeks.
It was a tough situation all around. On one hand the PIAA should have forced a decision in the fall. On the other, sports was such a minor detail in deciding if a school district should consolidate. Jobs, teachers, busing, students all were more important and discussed to length. The tough thing is what if you force them into a decision to consolidate just its sports programs and then they don’t consolidate the schools? Or vice versa?
Thanks,
Tom