Orleans, Jefferson public schools among select designation appeals Wednesday

Nearly half of the 80 schools involved with appeals Wednesday to the Louisiana High School Athletic Association’s executive committee for whether their school is to be designated as select or non-select come from southeast Louisiana.

Orleans has 21 schools and Jefferson 11 in their collective appeal to the LHSAA. Each school board submitted a blanket appeal for those schools, all of which were listed as select when the LHSAA updated its definition of select as its June executive committee meeting.

Tangipahoa Parish, which saw its four magnet schools – Amite, Hammond, Independence and Kentwood – listed as select, is also appealing on those schools’ behalf.

Among the reasons schools were moved from non-select to select are open, or parish-wide, enrollment status, and charter or magnet designation.

While Orleans uses the “One App” system, allowing families to apply to any school in the parish, and Tangipahoa has magnet designations, on paper, Jefferson would appear to have the best case to win an appeal.

Less than 1 percent of the nearly 15,000 high school students in Jefferson leave their designated districts, and those are based on applications of extenuating family circumstances.

Eighteen different parishes will have one or more schools appeal to the executive committee. Nine parish school systems appealed collectively; besides Orleans, Jefferson and Tangipahoa, the others are Cameron, Concordia, Jackson, Rapides, Richland and West Carroll parishes.

All appeals will be conducted in closed session.

On the second day of the meeting Thursday, also in closed session, LHSAA executive director Eddie Bonine is expected to make recommendations for the postseason brackets for classifications and divisions.

However the definitions and brackets play out for fall sports, all actions taken by the executive committee can be subject to approval of the full LHSAA membership at its annual meeting in January.