FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 11, 2000


FHSAA Representative Assembly adopts 18 proposals to amend Association's bylaws

GAINESVILLE – On the heels of a high-profile investigation that led to the ban of a school from the girls and boys basketball playoffs for the 1999-00 school year, the Florida High School Activities Association Representative Assembly has adopted a proposed bylaw change that gives the Commissioner the authority to place member schools found guilty of rules violations on probation for more than one year.

Currently, Bylaw 12.1.1 limits the length of the probationary term for any violation of the rules to one calendar year. Proposal 24, the amendment adopted today at the Assembly's annual meeting, however, repeals that limit.

"It's important that I, or any future Commissioner of this Association be given the latitude to assess penalties that fit the violation," said Commissioner Robert W. Hughes. "When you're dealing with major violations or with repeat offenders, one year's probation may not be long enough."

The Representative Assembly considered 24 proposals to amend the Association's bylaws. Fifty-eight of the 69 total delegates attended the two-day meeting and cast votes. Eighteen proposals received 39 or more affirmative votes – the necessary two-thirds required for passage. Proposal No. 14, which dealt with exempting high school courses taken prior to the ninth grade from being counted toward the mandatory 2.0 grade-point average required for eligibility, was withdrawn after it was determined to be in violation of Florida Statutes.

The Representative Assembly is the body charged with considering, adopting or rejecting proposals to amend the Association's bylaws.

Proposals adopted by the Assembly were as follows:

• Proposal 1 – Eliminates the requirement that a home school cooperative need sanction by the Florida Parent Educators Association before being granted membership in the FHSAA (51 yes, 6 no).
• Proposal 2 – Grants the President of the Board of Directors the right to cast a ballot on the election of officers of the Board of Directors (55 yes, 3 no).
• Proposal 3 – Deletes the reference to the Deputy Commissioner as the individual who acts as the Commissioner in his/her absence or incapacity to do so (57 yes, 1 no).
• Proposal 4 – Changes the dates on which interested member school representatives must declare their intention to run for a seat on the Board of Directors, Sectional Appeals Committee or Representative Assembly (58 yes, 0 no).
• Proposal 5 – Eliminates the requirement that the Commissioner hold a special election to fill a vacant seat on the Board of Directors. Instead, the Board of Directors will appoint a qualified individual to fill the vacant seat until the next regularly schedule election (54 yes, 4 no).
• Proposal 6 – Eliminates the requirement that the FHSAA Office automatically mail to each member school a copy of the Association's annual audit. Instead, the report will be provided to interested individuals upon request (53 yes, 5 no).
• Proposal 7 – Moves from bylaws to policy regulations dealing with practice games and practice or competition on Sunday (40 yes, 18 no).
• Proposal 8 – Eliminates any reference to a sport as being either major or minor in status (58 yes, 0 no).
• Proposal 9 – Moves from bylaws to policy regulations dealing with the types of contests or events that require the advance approval of the Commissioner (54 yes, 4 no).
• Proposal 12 – Lessens the restrictions on whom member schools may hire or secure as coaches (58 yes, 0 no).
• Proposal 17 – Clarifies that enrolling in a new school at the beginning of a school year does not release a student who has been declared ineligible at another school for disciplinary reasons from serving the period of ineligibility in the new school (58 yes, 0 no).
• Proposal 18 – States that a student from another state or country who has been declared ineligible by the school or association from which he/she is transferring is not eligible at an FHSAA member school for one full semester (55 yes, 3 no).
• Proposal 19 – Deletes language referencing a three-year limit of eligibility, which no longer is valid (58 yes, 0 no).
• Proposal 20 – Requires the parent(s) and student to sign a statement releasing from liability the FHSAA and the member school in the event of injury or death, and granting both parties the right to photograph and/or videotape the student and use his/her image (57 yes, 1 no).
• Proposal 21 – Permits students to undergo the mandatory annual physical evaluation as early as May 15 of the previous school year and eliminates any reference to a waiver of the mandatory physical evaluation for religious reasons (54 yes, 4 no).
• Proposal 22 – Moves from bylaws to policy regulations dealing with official entry lists into the FHSAA State Series (57 yes, 1 no).
• Proposal 24 – Eliminates the one-year limit on the period of probation that may be imposed on a school found guilty of rules violations (58 yes, 0 no).
• Proposal 25 – Clarifies that the Representative Assembly may conduct its balloting by signed ballot (58 yes, 0 no).

Proposals rejected by the Assembly were as follows:

• Proposal 10 – Would have restricted eligibility to participate in the FHSAA State Series to those member senior high schools that participated in two or more sanctioned sports each season (18 yes, 40 no).
• Proposal 11 – Would have repealed the prohibition on a coach having contact with off-season non-school teams that are composed of 50 percent or more students from the coach's school or feeder school (38 yes, 20 no).
• Proposal 13 – Would have permitted students in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades who attend a public elementary, junior high or middle school that is not a member of the FHSAA and has no athletic program to participate in athletics at the junior high or middle school level at another public school in that school district (34 yes, 24 no).
• Proposal 15 – Would have clarified when grades become official for determining academic eligibility each semester (24 yes, 34 no).
• Proposal 16 – Would have limited member schools to one boarding school student and/or foreign exchange student on each athletic team (7 yes, 51 no).
• Proposal 23 – Would have prohibited the Association from denying athletic eligibility to any student as a result of a clerical error (25 yes, 33 no).

The 18 proposals that were adopted take effect July 1.

The Florida High School Activities Association is the governing body for interscholastic athletics in Florida. It has a membership of 615 middle, junior and senior high schools.

Contact:
Jack Watford
Director of Communications, FHSAA
(352) 372-9551 ext. 170
jwatford@fhsaa.org