Private schools grow with passage of new measure

Private high schools in the state of Missouri just got 35 percent bigger.

The Missouri State High School Activities Association announced Thursday its members had passed Proposal 9 on its spring ballot, a 1.35 multiplier which will be used to increase the enrollment of all private schools for classification purposes, effective July 1.

It was among nine ballot items passed in a mail-in vote of the 572 members of MSHSAA, but definitely the most controversial as the issue of private and public schools competing in the same system came to a head.

In effect, the multiplier will increase a a private school with an actual enrollment of 100 student to 135. There are 71 private school members of MSHSAA, including two catholic schools in the immediate area -- Notre Dame Regional High School in Cape Girardeau and St. Vincent in Perryville.

Notre Dame, with an enrollment of 444, will be the most affected by the change, having its number bumped up to 600. The school, which competes in Class 2A, was to have moved up to 3A next year in MSHSAA's new five-class alignment, but now goes to 4A.

St. Vincent competes in Class 1A with an enrollment of 186 and was already to move up to 2A in most sports next year in the new alignment. Its reconfigured enrollment of 252 puts in on the borderline of 3A in some sports.

The issue needed just a simple majority to pass and received 59 percent approval from its members in a 266 to 186 vote. It was put on the ballot after a petition, started in the Northwest region of the state, circulated and received the required amount of signatures. MSHSAA officials had taken a stance against approval to allow for more discussion and examination of the issue.

"The schools govern themselves, and the annual election process allows them to vote on what they believe is best for all schools and students in our state," MSHSAA executive director Becky Oakes said. "The multiplier issue received a lot of attention, and it will certainly affect many aspects of our programs."

The passage came after a failed attempt by some public schools to establish separate private and public state tournaments back in the 90s.

Private schools have long been viewed as having an advantage over public schools due to a 25-mile radius from which to draw students. Public schools, except for in cases of desegregation, have students designated by district boundaries. Private schools, especially in sports such as golf, soccer and tennis, have won a much higher percentage of state titles as opposed to their makeup in MSHSAA.

In the past calendar year, of the 61 team titles awarded by MSHSAA, private schools claimed 24, or 39.3 percent, despite accounting for only 12.4 percent of the MSHSAA membership.