Over the past 4-5 weeks I have been reading all the posts concerning the level playing field, private/city schools open enrollment advantages,etc . over public/county schools. This issue on the surface seemed so outrageously unfair to me that I decided to investigate exactly what the rules are.

This is a long journey, so please stay patient and follow; and participate as suggested at the end of this post.

1. What are the GHSA rules on out of district students? The GHSA defines this using the terminology of "SERVICE AREAS." GO to ghsa.net, click on constitution and bylaws, then under table of contents click on #2 By-law section 1.00-student. then scroll down to 1.61 "School service areas for member public schools are those attendance boundaries established by LOCAL BOARDS OF EDUCATION from which a school normally draws its students."
  
 Well, this implies to me that the GHSA has NOTHING to do with establishing service areas and out of district students. This issue is decided individually by each and every independent LOCAL BOARD OF EDUCATION. It implies to me that each county school has the OPTION to establish its own service area.
  
So, this led me to start searching some individual county school system policies. The key to this search is to NOT google the school you are interested in itself, but to search the Board of Education (BOE) that controls that school, as the GHSA states the BOE policies dictate the 'SERVICE AREA." The key to this search is: eboard.eboardsolutions.com. This is a site that lists the policies of individual school board.

2. So these are the 3 counties I have searched thus far:

Madison County School District; under BOE click eBoard, click visit eBoard solutions, click policies, click J. Students, click Non-resident students: "The policy of the Madison County BOE is to deny requests for admission by out of county residents…" exemptions include the children of madison co BOE employees and owners of a business in madison county for one year. (this child/employee exemption seems very common thus far). So, Madison County has an independent policy that is very STRONG against out of county students.

Ben Hill County: benhillcounty.schoolinsites.com. click school board, click policies, click J. Students, click Non-resident students: "The BOE expressly reserves discretion to admit or deny admission to ANY non-resident student. This policy shall go into effect at the beginning of the 2010-2011 school year…."
     Section B. "Non resident students from OTHER COUNTIES MAY APPLY annually to attend Ben Hill County Schools based on the following criteria:………..
      Section B2. Students from other counties MAY ATTEND Ben Hill Co school system by paying a tuition fee, provided space is available.
      Section B6. "non resident students who attend schools in Ben Hill County MAY BE TRANSPORTED by bus provided the pupil meets the bus at a regular pick up point…"

  Tuition ---"shall be set by the Ben Hill County BOE on an annual bases…."

So, it seems that out of district/out of county students CAN ATTEND Fitzgerald HS. The LOCAL BOE has allowed this as an option, and the student can even ride the county bus as long as he/she can get to an established route. 

Lamar County: lamar.k12.ga.us? Under school board, click policies, click policies for public review, click E-Board, click policies, click J.Students, click non-residents:
"Any student whose parent(s), legal guardian, or legal custodian does not reside inside lamar county must pay tuition with the following exemptions…."(the standard employee/child benefit). 
"The Lamar County BOE reserves the right to reject any student applying as a tuition student."

So. Lamar County ALSO has an OPTION for out of county/district students to attend.

Summary, the out of service area student/ open-enrollment issue is determined by EACH INDEPENDENT SCHOOL BOARD. Some city schools have open enrollment and some dont. Some county schools have open enrollment/out of county  and some dont. the issue of paying tuition to attend is ALSO a local BOE decision.

Thus, I encourage all of the loyal venters to independently search the policies of your local BOE, as that is the policy that the ghsa uses and report the non-resident policy of your school back to the vent. These are only my impressions and I could easily be missing something totally off base here, but it seems to me at this point that many of the county schools have the OPTION for open enrollment/out of county students and some have it and you may not be aware, or the school has chosen not to actively use it as some of the city schools have. Nevertheless, I think it is clear that the GHSA DOES NOT FORBID county schools from having out of county students that are eligible to participate in sports. However, REMEMBER the student/athlete must start to the high school in the 9th grade to be eligible as an out of county/out of service area student. Any out of county/out of district transfers after the 9th grade are then subject to the ghsa rules that apply to transfer students and migrant studens. these rules are also posted on ghsa.net.

My initial impression was that the existing system was totally unfair; but now after this search I am not sure that is the case. MAYBE some of the county schools (Ben Hill) did not realize this was an option  for them OR the school board does not see this as a viable financial option, after all, it is about the $$$ as to who funds any given student at any given school. and if there is space available. I am going to continue to search other schools, but venters, PLEASE search your own school board policy and report back. Looking forward to other opinions on this investigation. Merry Christmas, God Bless to all.

The difference is that the population in Ben Hill County and surrounding counties is so sparce that there is no one to use the open enrollment policy. Calhoun and Buford are different stories as I know you already know.

And it's one I've been making for years.

Open enrollment is not the advantage.

Location and population distribution + open enrollment can be, and if a school purposely keeps its numbers down to compete in a lower division that's certainly under handed.

I used to debate this with the Buford guys all the time. The ONLY issue I would have had with Buford was selective enrollment and fixing their numbers. If they (or we) have 100 out of district applicants, but we feel like we are close to AAA numbers and choose to only take ten kids, and all ten just "happen" to be stud athletes.....that I would have a problem with. Regardless of the school. If Calhoun is doing that then I'm unaware.

We are turning away kids, but it's due to class room space.

Sure, Ben Hill county has an open enrollment policy, but driving in from another county is a tough sell. In a more populous county some folks drive to work "in town" and want their kids in class near their place of work. If a sport becomes successful, they will start coming for that, too. It happens. I just don't have a problem with it. :)

This debate has raged for centuries. Urban vs. Rural dates wayyyyy back, and is central to this argument. There are advantages to both, and disadvantages.

I have an issue with cheating. I have an issue with begrudging. Both are signs of weak character. To the absolute best of my knowledge, we are totally above board with respect to GHSA guidelines.

Yet some folks begrudge us our success choosing to site "out of zone kids" as why we win. Sure...we have them. But they still have to work hard in our program. They may or may not work harder than the kids at other schools. Our coaches may or may not be better. Tough to evaluate all that.

14-1 is easy to evaluate. So is 57-3, our record over the last four years. And all three losses in the title game. It's an impressive run to say the least. It won't last forever, so please...pardon us for enjoying the hell out of it while its in the moment. :)

Cheers.

Cb

I have never begrudged Calhoun of their run. I am just saying that I think the reason they have had it is because of the open enrollment advantage. Enjoy your run all you want....it is what it is.

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--- pintocb wrote:

And it's one I've been making for years.

Open enrollment is not the advantage.

Location and population distribution + open enrollment can be, and if a school purposely keeps its numbers down to compete in a lower division that's certainly under handed.

I used to debate this with the Buford guys all the time. The ONLY issue I would have had with Buford was selective enrollment and fixing their numbers. If they (or we) have 100 out of district applicants, but we feel like we are close to AAA numbers and choose to only take ten kids, and all ten just "happen" to be stud athletes.....that I would have a problem with. Regardless of the school. If Calhoun is doing that then I'm unaware.

We are turning away kids, but it's due to class room space.

Sure, Ben Hill county has an open enrollment policy, but driving in from another county is a tough sell. In a more populous county some folks drive to work "in town" and want their kids in class near their place of work. If a sport becomes successful, they will start coming for that, too. It happens. I just don't have a problem with it. :)

This debate has raged for centuries. Urban vs. Rural dates wayyyyy back, and is central to this argument. There are advantages to both, and disadvantages.

I have an issue with cheating. I have an issue with begrudging. Both are signs of weak character. To the absolute best of my knowledge, we are totally above board with respect to GHSA guidelines.

Yet some folks begrudge us our success choosing to site "out of zone kids" as why we win. Sure...we have them. But they still have to work hard in our program. They may or may not work harder than the kids at other schools. Our coaches may or may not be better. Tough to evaluate all that.

14-1 is easy to evaluate. So is 57-3, our record over the last four years. And all three losses in the title game. It's an impressive run to say the least. It won't last forever, so please...pardon us for enjoying the hell out of it while its in the moment. :)

Cheers.

Cb

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VERY GOOD point about location and population to draw from in the open enrollment. This is a NEW issue for me, and initially I saw it as so unfair that it could not be true. My understanding is that it is even more of an issue in basketball, as one stud BB player that can drive 20 miles to another county to play can certainly change everything, as one player can make more of a difference in BB than football. But, I think there are people on the vent who DO NOT REALIZE that county schools are not prohibited from out of county students.

Schools in Gordon and both have open enrollment and actually have City kid's that go to them.

Yeah the Calhoun kids go to the other schools because they were bumped down the depth chart by the football studs coming from the other schools to Calhoun. They know they will be able to play at those schools because all the really good players that should be at those schools are playing for Calhoun. Some kids don't care about winning championships.....they just love to play the game.

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--- hivekeeper wrote:

Schools in Gordon and both have open enrollment and actually have City kid's that go to them.

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and schools that win in ANY sport truly do not have to recruit. the players will move to a winning tradition school if there is an option; just like parents will send their academically superior children to private schools to get the best education for them.

That's frequently true Purp, but sometimes it isn't. There's at least one kid on GC's roster who used to attend Calhoun who would have played a lot for us this year. He's not a senior either. I have no idea where he lives, but I DO know he used to be in Calhoun city schools.

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--- PurplewingT wrote:

Yeah the Calhoun kids go to the other schools because they were bumped down the depth chart by the football studs coming from the other schools to Calhoun. They know they will be able to play at those schools because all the really good players that should be at those schools are playing for Calhoun. Some kids don't care about winning championships.....they just love to play the game.

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--- hivekeeper wrote:

Schools in Gordon and both have open enrollment and actually have City kid's that go to them.

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As long as EVERY SCHOOL has the OPTION for open enrollment, I truly do not see it as problematic for athletes to go to the better programs, just like good students migrate to private schools for higher education. I was just under the impression that open enrollment may not be an option for county schools --- that was my initial concern.

I don't have a problem with it either.....just use a multipier for the program that gets the open enrollment athletes. If Calhoun has 800 students and they have open enrollment students on their roster they get a 1.5 multiplier which puts their number at 1200 students and they play where that puts them. It seems simple to me!

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--- Inveigle wrote:

As long as EVERY SCHOOL has the OPTION for open enrollment, I truly do not see it as problematic for athletes to go to the better programs, just like good students migrate to private schools for higher education. I was just under the impression that open enrollment may not be an option for county schools --- that was my initial concern.

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good point. I like that. Would you put that same 1.5 multiplier to private schools as well, and to any school that has open enrollment option, for example, Fitzgerald. If one school has 100 open enrollment students and another has only 5, seems that is a strong multiplier ??? this is a VERY COMPLEX issue without a simple solution ---- so it seems to me.

The multiplier could be different based on the number of open enrollment players playing for them.

Something like every 5 open enrollment athletes would be worth 10% of their total population. If Calhoun has 5 enrollees and 800 students their enrollment would go up by 80 so their new number would be 880 for the first 5 percent and so on and so forth.

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--- Inveigle wrote:

good point. I like that. Would you put that same 1.5 multiplier to private schools as well, and to any school that has open enrollment option, for example, Fitzgerald. If one school has 100 open enrollment students and another has only 5, seems that is a strong multiplier ??? this is a VERY COMPLEX issue without a simple solution ---- so it seems to me.

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I have not found that to be the case at all. Who did you interview that gave you that information? Or.....is that you ASS-umption?

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--- PurplewingT wrote:

Yeah the Calhoun kids go to the other schools because they were bumped down the depth chart by the football studs coming from the other schools to Calhoun. They know they will be able to play at those schools because all the really good players that should be at those schools are playing for Calhoun. Some kids don't care about winning championships.....they just love to play the game.

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--- hivekeeper wrote:

Schools in Gordon and both have open enrollment and actually have City kid's that go to them.

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So it doesn't matter if that student is playing football or GHSA Sanctioned One Act Play, they still get the multiplier correct? Cheerleader? What if they play 2 sports? Are they now equal to 3 students?

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--- PurplewingT wrote:

The multiplier could be different based on the number of open enrollment players playing for them.

Something like every 5 open enrollment athletes would be worth 10% of their total population. If Calhoun has 5 enrollees and 800 students their enrollment would go up by 80 so their new number would be 880 for the first 5 percent and so on and so forth.

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--- Inveigle wrote:

good point. I like that. Would you put that same 1.5 multiplier to private schools as well, and to any school that has open enrollment option, for example, Fitzgerald. If one school has 100 open enrollment students and another has only 5, seems that is a strong multiplier ??? this is a VERY COMPLEX issue without a simple solution ---- so it seems to me.

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Does your cheerleading team compete in any GHSA sanctioned events?

Each athlete would count as 1 no matter how many sports he competed in

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--- JacketVenom wrote:

So it doesn't matter if that student is playing football or GHSA Sanctioned One Act Play, they still get the multiplier correct? Cheerleader? What if they play 2 sports? Are they now equal to 3 students?

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--- PurplewingT wrote:

The multiplier could be different based on the number of open enrollment players playing for them.

Something like every 5 open enrollment athletes would be worth 10% of their total population. If Calhoun has 5 enrollees and 800 students their enrollment would go up by 80 so their new number would be 880 for the first 5 percent and so on and so forth.

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--- Inveigle wrote:

good point. I like that. Would you put that same 1.5 multiplier to private schools as well, and to any school that has open enrollment option, for example, Fitzgerald. If one school has 100 open enrollment students and another has only 5, seems that is a strong multiplier ??? this is a VERY COMPLEX issue without a simple solution ---- so it seems to me.

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PWT I know you are truly passionate about this subject , but heres my problem when you make statements like this I feel like you spit in the face of or kids. According to what your saying here the only reason our kids are successful is because of open enrollment and I don't appreciate that . Our kids and coaches work hard and put in long hours all year to be successful just like everyone else . IMO you for days have done nothing but **** on our team , coaches,teachers,fans,and school by attributing our success just to open enrollment , I think you need to step back a bit and be careful what you say because statements like this just miss people off.
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--- PurplewingT wrote:

I have never begrudged Calhoun of their run. I am just saying that I think the reason they have had it is because of the open enrollment advantage. Enjoy your run all you want....it is what it is.

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--- pintocb wrote:

And it's one I've been making for years.

Open enrollment is not the advantage.

Location and population distribution + open enrollment can be, and if a school purposely keeps its numbers down to compete in a lower division that's certainly under handed.

I used to debate this with the Buford guys all the time. The ONLY issue I would have had with Buford was selective enrollment and fixing their numbers. If they (or we) have 100 out of district applicants, but we feel like we are close to AAA numbers and choose to only take ten kids, and all ten just "happen" to be stud athletes.....that I would have a problem with. Regardless of the school. If Calhoun is doing that then I'm unaware.

We are turning away kids, but it's due to class room space.

Sure, Ben Hill county has an open enrollment policy, but driving in from another county is a tough sell. In a more populous county some folks drive to work "in town" and want their kids in class near their place of work. If a sport becomes successful, they will start coming for that, too. It happens. I just don't have a problem with it. :)

This debate has raged for centuries. Urban vs. Rural dates wayyyyy back, and is central to this argument. There are advantages to both, and disadvantages.

I have an issue with cheating. I have an issue with begrudging. Both are signs of weak character. To the absolute best of my knowledge, we are totally above board with respect to GHSA guidelines.

Yet some folks begrudge us our success choosing to site "out of zone kids" as why we win. Sure...we have them. But they still have to work hard in our program. They may or may not work harder than the kids at other schools. Our coaches may or may not be better. Tough to evaluate all that.

14-1 is easy to evaluate. So is 57-3, our record over the last four years. And all three losses in the title game. It's an impressive run to say the least. It won't last forever, so please...pardon us for enjoying the hell out of it while its in the moment. :)

Cheers.

Cb

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because if they have space available, then the school wants the student count as high as possible to get more federal and state funding. so not charging tuition, brings in more out of district students and thus more funding.

Or athletes who might not be able to come if tuition was charged.

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--- Inveigle wrote:

because if they have space available, then the school wants the student count as high as possible to get more federal and state funding. so not charging tuition, brings in more out of district students and thus more funding.

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