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Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009

Houston County schools move down in GHSA reclassification

The upcoming opening of Veterans High School will push the three Warner Robins public schools down a classification when the 2010-2011 high school athletic season begins.

Houston County, Northside and Warner Robins will drop to Class AAAA for the next four-year Georgia High School Association reclassification cycle, according to numbers released by the GHSA on Thursday.

Northside has the largest projected enrollment of any Middle Georgia school at 1,820, making it the ninth largest AAAA school. Houston County follows with a projected 1,800 students, while Warner Robins is at 1,774 students.

Veterans will open as a Class AAA school, joining Peach County and Perry in the

GHSA’s middle classification.

There will be plenty of movement among the Bibb County schools as well.

Westside will move down a class to Class AAA, while Central and Howard will move up one class to join it. Rutland is already in AAA giving Bibb County four schools in the same class.

“I think it gives us a chance to renew some of those county rivalries,” Bibb County athletics director Raynette Evans said. “It will also help ease travel costs.”

Northeast and Southwest will stay in Class AA.

First Presbyterian Day, which is leaving the Georgia Independent Schools Association for the first time to join the GHSA, will be placed in Class A as expected.

Schools have the chance to “play up” to a higher classification if it chooses to file a request. Schools can also appeal the re-classification numbers. They have until noon on Nov. 25 to make those decisions.

The GHSA Reclassification Committee will meet on Dec. 2 to place schools into regions.