With loss of nearly 400 students, Grantsville High would still compete in 3A classification beginning in 2009

Stansbury High will open its doors in the fall of 2009 and during that same year the Utah High School Activities Association will reshuffle regions and classifications statewide for nearly 128 high schools.

Every four years the UHSAA holds meetings and public hearings during a six-month time period until its board of trustees comes up with a final plan establishing each school?s classification and region.

The board began the process last Thursday by releasing its first draft of classifications and regions. After a second draft and two more public hearings the board will make its final decision in June of this year. The realignment will stay in place from 2009 through 2013.

Regions and classifications are mostly based on enrollment numbers and geography.

If the first draft holds up, Tooele and Stansbury high schools will play in the 4A classification which includes schools with enrollments from 1000 to 1600. Both schools would start out on the lower end of the enrollment numbers for 4A schools with Tooele?s expected enrollment at 1005 and Stansbury?s at 1056.

After playing against Utah County schools next year, Tooele would jump to a region which would include Bountiful, East, Highland and Woods Cross.

With Stansbury Park draining nearly 350 students from Grantsville High, the Cowboys would stay in 3A and would be on the lower end of 3A enrollment. Grantsville?s projected enrollment for 2009 is 460. The enrollment range for 3A schools is 400 to 999.

Tooele High athletic director Richard Valdez said he likes the teams in the new region because Tooele will not have to travel as far as it has to now playing teams from Utah County.

?What I?d really like to see happen is Tooele, Stansbury and Grantsville all in the same region. It would be good if the school boundaries could be such that the enrollments would be somewhat equal so we could play in the same classification,? Valdez said.

?If we were in a region of seven teams, two of our six competitors would be within 10 miles. It would save in travel time,? he said.

Valdez indicated it would be good if the three schools could stay within the 600-900 enrollment range and compete in 3A.

After the proposed realignment was released on Thursday several individuals have written blogs to newspapers with alternative ideas for classifications and possible regions. ?There are a lot of good ideas out there, and schools are still allowed to present their cases so I think things will be different the next time around,? the athletic director said.

The next public hearing is scheduled for March 18 with a second draft to be released on April 3. More public hearings are scheduled for April and May with the final realignment finalized June 10.

Grantsville would remain in a region with rivals Ben Lomond, Bear River and Morgan plus Judge Memorial. Current Region 11 members Logan and Ogden would jump to 4A.

?We?re essentially happy to be in the 3A classification and we?ve established strong rivalries with Ben Lomond, Bear River and Morgan,? said Grantsville principal Travis McCluskey. ?We certainly would not want to jump to 4A.

?We will lose 350 to 400 kids from Stansbury Park so that would drop us back down to 400 students. We have no qualms about dropping back to 400. We would be one of the smallest schools in 3A, but we?re resigned to staying in 3A as our numbers grow.?

The principal also indicated that they would not like to drop to 2A. ?There are some benefits staying in 3A. We?re able to add more athletic opportunities for our kids such as boys and girls swimming. Plus, it?s almost impossible to shrink,? he said.

McCluskey also indicated that Juab, Manti and Richfield are jumping from the 2A ranks to 3A which helps balance out the competition because those schools have enrollments similar to Grantsville?s in the 400 to 500 range.

Schools that top the 900 enrollment range in 3A include Bear River, Ben Lomond, Park City and Hurricane. A new 3A school in Washington City north of St. George, Desert Hills, would also have an enrollment of about 900.

According to the current proposal 5A would include 25 schools; 4A - 35 schools; 3A - 16 schools; 2A - 19 schools; and 1A - 33 schools.

Valdez believes the 4A classification should not include 19 more schools than the 3A class; but that the two classifications should contain similar numbers of schools which may allow Tooele, Grantsville and Stansbury Park to be in the same region.

Brent Shaffer, a member of the board of trustees representing Region 11, said the board tries to find the best possible solution based on enrollment numbers and location of schools.

?We would like to cut down on travel time as much as possible,? he said.

Shaffer said one proposal that nearly all the 3A schools approved of was to factor private schools at 1.5 enrollment because they are non-boundary schools.

?Say a private school has an enrollment of 500, we would kick that up to 750 in determining its classification,? Shaffer said. The board voted down that possibility.

Schools with enrollments above 1600 would fit in the 5A classification. Schools with enrollments of 150 to 399 would fit in the 2A classification and those with enrollments less than 150 would compete in 1A.

Mark Watson: mwatson@tooeletranscript.com