By Roz Weis,
Decorah Community Schools will continue looking for an athletic conference after Iowa Department of Education Director McKenzie Snow affirmed the Upper Iowa Conference decision to deny Decorah High School’s request to join the conference. After mediation between the Decorah School District and Upper Iowa Conference failed, the Iowa Department of Education accepted the mediators’ recommendation to deny Decorah’s request.
“We are disappointed about the impact this will have on travel time for our students, and the imminent loss of long-standing rivalries with former Northeast Iowa Conference schools,” said Decorah Schools Superintendent Tim Cronin. “Although Iowa Administrative Code 281 Chapter 37 states that ‘each school desiring to be a member of a conference providing extracurricular athletic contests and competitions for students is granted this opportunity,’ the current process has left us as an independent, without offering any guidance for next steps. Moving forward, the district will evaluate all available options. We will seek to engage with key decision-makers involved in the process and use their insights to guide our planning.”
The DCSD Board of Directors will discuss potential options for the athletic conference issue during the board’s Nov. 11 meeting.
Decorah had requested entry to the UIC because Decorah’s current conference, the Northeast Iowa Conference, will dissolve after the 2024-25 school year. The NEIC is the oldest conference in the state, dating back to 1920. Decorah hoped to join the Upper Iowa Conference, with officials saying that joining other conferences would mean longer travel for sports like volleyball and basketball — Decorah’s football conference will be unaffected by the change.
The matter was taken up during a July mediation session with representatives of the state’s high school athletic organizations. The mediation team was asked to consider school enrollment figures, travel distances, comparability of instructional programs, traditional rivalries, number of existing and proposed schools in the conference as well as comparability of athletic programs and other school-sponsored programs. The July mediation was unsuccessful, and the matter moved to a hearing with Snow, which was held in late August.
Snow affirmed the mediation team’s decision in an Oct. 31 ruling.
During the debate before Snow, which was presented via a Zoom conference, Cronin and other advocates pointed out the travel schedule Decorah would be subject to if forced to compete in a conference farther from Decorah — calling such a schedule exhaustive and expensive. Decorah’s options for a new conference affiliation are limited, due to the district’s size and location in the northeast corner of the state. When looking at a possible membership with another conference, such as the WaMaC, Decorah athletes would need to travel an average of 112 miles one-way for games. The closest WaMaC school from Decorah is 68 miles away in Independence – the farthest is Grinnell, which is 145 miles away.
Conference officials said Decorah would have an advantage due to its student body being much larger than the other schools which are currently in the conference. Starting in the 2025-26 school year, the UIC will include New Hampton, Waukon, Cresco — all former NEIC schools — along with North Fayette Valley, MFL MarMac, South Winneshiek, Postville, Clayton Ridge, Elkader Central, Turkey Valley,
Lansing Kee and West Central. Decorah’s enrollment for the 2023-24 school year was estimated at 435, and the average enrollment for the conference member-schools is 171.
Snow’s Oct. 31 ruling said the mediation team considered both travel time and school size when making its decision and gave more weight to the latter.
“Decorah has the burden of persuasion as the district opposing the recommendation,” Snow’s ruling said. “In absence of convincing proof that the mediation team failed to consider factors laid out in the rules, or was otherwise biased, prejudiced or predisposed, the meditation’s team’s recommendation will be implemented.”
“We are disappointed about the impact this will have on travel time for our students, and the imminent loss of long-standing rivalries with former Northeast Iowa Conference schools.”– Tim Cronin, Decorah Schools Superintendent
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