Take the time to share your thoughts on the five-class proposal for high school basketball

The five-class proposal for high school basketball currently being fine tuned by the Maine Principals’ Association’s classification committee is stirring some healthy debate.

Some agree with the proposal’s premise of gaining competitive balance for all Maine high schools by reducing the enrollment gaps between the largest and smallest schools in each class.

Others argue against changing a current four-class format that they believe is a strong one and is working fine, offering the upsets that occurred in the recent tourney and the close games as evidence.

One commonality that the opposing sides may not realize they share is the ability to influence the outcome of whether the proposal passes via a vote by the MPA’s full membership  at its annual spring conference on April 30.

There still seems to be a perception that the MPA is just a half-dozen staff members, led by Executive Director Dick Durost,  working out of an Augusta office and writing policy for about 160 high schools in Maine.

Wrong.

Instead, Durost and his staff work for the membership. They are tasked with carrying out the policies that the state’s schools create through their principals.

Those principals will be voting on whether to pass the five-class proposal.

Now is the time to give them your input on whether you agree or disagree with the proposal.

Take the time to send them an email, a Facebook message or maybe even consider an old-fashioned but very effective tool of communication, a phone call.

Joe McLaughlin

About Joe McLaughlin

McLaughlin (right) is a Stearns High School and University of Maine graduate who worked for three years at the Aroostook Republican and News in Caribou as a reporter and editor. He has worked on the BDN sports desk for 30 years, the last 18 as sports editor. McLaughlin and his wife, Kathy Schwigan, live in Brewer and have three adult children: Ryan, Matthew and Tess.