IHSA Approves Five Amendment Proposals, Rejects One

The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) member schools approved five amendment proposals and rejected one in the annual by-law referendum that ended December 5, 2017. The online ballots were tabulated and certified in the IHSA Office on Wednesday, December 6. Proposal 6 takes effect on January 5, 2018.  The remaining by-laws that won approval take effect on July 1, 2018.

Here is a summary of the proposals and the vote totals. (The numbers in parentheses indicate the total of yes, no, and no opinion votes. For an amendment to pass, yes votes must outnumber no votes.)

Proposal 6 (passed 428-138-41): Grants eligibility to a student who has received a Legislative Waiver, who lives in a unit district with one high school, and whose parent is on the faculty of a school in the district. In the current by-law, the parent must be on the faculty of the high school. This by-law would go into effect 30 days after passage.

Proposal 17 (rejected 292-305-10): Would have reduced the number of summer contact days from 25 to 20.

Proposal 20 (passed 435-147-24): Allows a baseball or softball team to play more than 5 contests during a tournament if the tournament takes place over the member school's spring break.

Proposal 24 (passed 384-201-22): Changes the contest limitation in girls and boys basketball to 31 games exclusive of the IHSA state series and removes the limit on the number of tournaments. The current limitation is a combination of games plus tournaments. Also eliminates the limitation on the number of tournaments an individual in girls and boys basketball may participate in.

Proposal 25 (passed 243-154-208): Increases the contest limitation in girls and boys bowling from 20 to 25 dates exclusive of the IHSA state series.

Proposal 27 (passed 379-204-25): Changes the contest limitation in girls and boys volleyball to 35 games exclusive of the IHSA state series and removes the limit on the number of tournaments. The current limitation is a combination of games plus tournaments. Also eliminates the limitation on the number of tournaments an individual in girls and boys volleyball may participate in.

A total of 609 of 811 member schools (75.1%) participated in the amendment balloting, an increase from last year's 72.6%, and the third-highest percentage in 21 years of recordkeeping.