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District explores procedure to deal with state tournament trips
Ely school officials are closer to approving a policy that would guide them on determining if - and when to cancel school when high school teams advance to state competition.
Earlier this week, board members reviewed a proposal drafted by athletic director Tom Coombe.
If approved, school would be closed in the future when teams in any of several sports - football, volleyball, boys and girls basketball and hockey - make it to state and their contest takes place on a school day and 200 or more miles away.
The proposal comes after school officials decided to cancel school for part of one day and all of the next both during the 2023-24 school year and in 2022-23, after Ely’s volleyball team reached the state tournament.
The decisions prompted some pushback, but meshed with past practice and allowed students and staff to take in the games without missing school.
Former superintendent John Klarich first discussed putting a more formal policy in place last year and the topic was revived this year by new superintendent Anne Oelke.
“We’ve had a situation a fortunate situation the last two years with volleyball qualifying for the state tournament,” said Coombe. “And administration was then forced into deciding ‘should we cancel school or should we not?’ There are pros and cons to both.”
Coombe said he opted to focus on state tournaments that are held a long distance from Ely, at 200 miles or more, and sports that generally have larger followings.
“Not to take away from sports that are more individual bases, but these sports that are on the list, both statewide and in our area, tend to see a larger segment from both the school and community going down to state tournament games.”
The proposal would lead to the cancellation of school when state tournament games are being held during the daytime hours on school days, but also has provisions for administrators to make decisions to end the school day early for an evening state tournament contest, to allow time for people to travel safely to the state tournament venue.
Coombe told the board that they had the option to “accept or modify” the proposal and said “I’m throwing the first idea out there and at least it’s a starting point for discussion.”
Oelke said the proposal mirrored what the district did with the volleyball state tournament appearances the last two years.
Before the recent decision, the last time school was cancelled in Ely because of a state tournament was in 2015, when Ely’s high school football team played in St. Cloud for a state 9-man semifinal game.
Coombe noted that the proposal does not address the state Nordic skiing meet, which has had Ely participants better than 20 years in a row. That event is held at Giants Ridge near Biwabik and has attracted Ely fans and students.
“Through the years we’ve had plenty of success in Nordic skiing,” said Coombe. “We have individuals and our ski teams qualify and to my knowledge a student has never been told they’re not excused if they were to come in with a note that they were going to a state meet. I’ve probably been to 20 of the last 22 or 23 state ski meets and I’ve seen Ely students down there and generally there’s a pretty good Ely following.”
Coombe said the proposal purposely steered clear of addressing how the district might deal with staff members seeking time off to attend a state meet when school was in session, noting those matters are subject to negotiation between the district and respective bargaining units.
School policies require three readings and the state tournament proposal will likely be subject to future board action.
