CLARION-LIMESTONE-CLARION PROPOSE MERGING SPORTS PROGRAMS FOR FALL 2008

By Chris Rossetti

STRATTANVILLE – Citing major financial “hardships” at Clarion-Limestone, the C-L and Clarion school boards Tuesday took the first step in combining the two schools’ sports programs into one under a cooperative agreement starting in the fall.

Many close to C-L's financial situation say that without the proposed cooperative agreement, the school district's students won't be able to play sports next year. Clarion doesn't face the same economic hardships this coming year, but could face it in the next few years according to a story in Wednesday's Oil City Derrick.

But the cooperative is far from a done deal. The District 9 Committee, to which paper work to form the cooperative was submitted to Wednesday for a vote, tabled the motion at its monthly meeting Wednesday in Ridgway. The committee has now scheduled a previously unscheduled meeting for 7 p.m. May 6 at Brockway High School. While painstakingly pointing out that other items could be discussed at the meeting, District 9 secretary Bob Tonkin said the cooperative agreement will be one of the main topics.

“The District 9 committee is seeking more information from both schools concerning the details of the cooperative agreement, which hopefully will be presented at the May 6 meeting,” District 9 secretary Bob Tonkin said.

Multiple sources have said the representatives from both C-L and Clarion didn’t have answers to some of the key questions asked at Wednesday’s District 9 Committee meeting and are hoping that the superintendents of both schools – Ted Pappas at C-L and George White at Clarion – will be at the May 6 meeting as well as the school-board presidents from each school district.

One of the main hurdles for the cooperative would appear to be the PIAA By-Laws which state that any “Cooperative Sponsorship of a Sports Agreement which would affect the classification size of a team must be submitted on or before October 1 of any odd-numbered year to the applicable PIAA District Committee for its recommendation to the PIAA Board of Directors for that proposed agreement to be considered for the immediately following two-year reclassification cycle.”

In the case of most of the sports that would be combined if the cooperative is approved including football, volleyball, boys’ and girls’ basketball, baseball and softball, teams that are currently Class A teams at both Clarion and C-L will become Class AA teams at Clarion, which would be the “lead” school in the cooperative. That would mean the schools are six-months too late to propose a cooperative agreement for the 2008-2009 two-year reclassification cycle.

But both Pappas and White as well as members of each districts’ school boards believe the PIAA will make an exception to the By-Law because of the “economic hardship” facing C-L, although no mention of such exception can be found in the By-Laws.

“I think there is a chance,” Pappas said. “I don’t know how good (of a chance), but I think there is a chance. “Given the economic hardship, I am led to believe they will at least look at it. If this was just a case of us wanting to do it (to do it), I don’t think they would look at it.”

If the cooperative agreement is passed by the District 9 Committee, the PIAA Board of Directors would then have to vote on the proposed cooperative at their May meeting, which is held in conjunction with the PIAA Track and Field championships that are being held May 23-24 at Shippensburg University.

If the District 9 Committee votes down the cooperative agreement, C-L and Clarion would have the option of making an appeal directly to the PIAA.  

If the cooperative agreement is passed by both District 9 and the PIAA, the two schools are planning on combining all their sports programs this fall in time for the 2008-2009 school year. The teams would be known as the “Clarion Bobcats” and would wear Clarion’s current orange and black color schemes. Also, all Clarion coaches would retain their current positions if they chose to.  

That has left a lot of people in the Clarion-Limestone community upset about the lost identity of the C-L Lions and the school’s blue and gold colors.

According to a story in last week’s Jeffersonian Democrat, C-L resident Marge Shaffer asked the C-L school board who would tell the (C-L) kids they couldn’t wear the blue and gold of Clarion-Limestone but the black and orange of Clarion? “You tell them!” she told the board.

Pappas said the decision to have Clarion be the “lead” school was decided in meetings between the two school boards committees that he wasn’t present at, so he didn’t feel comfortable commenting on the decision.  

But multiple sources have said the reason is that C-L approached Clarion about the cooperative agreement, and Clarion would still have sports regardless of whether the cooperative goes through. The same can’t be said for C-L.

“The District has looked at options, the community is trying to come up with options,” Pappas said. “But the options have to be long-term options, not a one-year solution. We are looking for something long-term, because, if not, we will be back in the same situation next year.

“The school board appreciates the concerns of the people. Our goal is to provide as many extra-curricular activities as we can.”

Pappas also said there have been discussions about how to incorporate the C-L coaches into the Clarion programs, but nothing has been finalized.

 “It has been discussed, and there are a number of options on how to incorporate C-L coaches into the Clarion programs,” Pappas said.

It is believed that if the two schools do combined their sports programs athletic facilities at both schools would be utilized.  

 “They have the inside facilities that we don’t have, and we have the outside facilities,” Pappas said. “If this goes through, we could use all the facilities because they would be at our disposal. My understanding is that there is intent on using all the facilities.”

Clarion has an auxiliary gym and a wrestling practice area – which really doesn’t matter because the two schools are already have a cooperative agreement in wrestling as well as boys’ and girls’ soccer – that C-L doesn’t have. On the other hand, C-L has its own football field and track – Clarion currently pays rent to Clarion University to use the football field and track facilities at CU’s Memorial Field – and its own baseball and softball fields – Clarion’s softball team plays at Clarion Borough’s Weaver Park, while the baseball team is playing at the Clarion County Park but also had plans to move to Weaver Park in 2009.

One of the biggest questions that many residents in both school districts have that has yet to be answered – at least publically – is how much money, if any, C-L would give Clarion to help Clarion offset some of its athletic costs.

NOTE – Community members will get their next chance to comment on the proposed cooperative agreement Tuesday when the Clarion School Board holds a 7 p.m. meeting in the high school auditorium.

Editor’s Note – White was not available for comment on this story because of a death in his family.