Class A private schools such as Wesleyan, Eagle’s Landing Christian and Athens Academy will be moved up to 3A or 2A to compete with public schools next year if the Georgia High School Association approves a plan to apply the 3.0 enrollment multiplier to all Class A schools and eliminate the public-private split that has existed in Class A since 2012.
A ripple effect would send Class 2A football powers Rabun County, Bleckley County, Heard County and Swainsboro into Class A, where a few smaller but prominent private schools, such as Prince Avenue Christian, would remain. (See the proposed classifications for 3A, 2A, A-1 and A-2 below.)
The GHSA’s reclassification committee approved the plan 15-1 on Wednesday. The GHSA’s executive committee still must approve it.
The reclass committee’s plan would place five Class A private schools – Hebron Christian, Mount Vernon, St. Vincent’s Academy, Savannah Christian and Wesleyan – in Class 3A. Thirteen other Class A private schools, including football powers Athens Academy, Calvary Day, Darlington, ELCA and Fellowship Christian, would go into Class 2A.
Other private schools would remain in Class A, which would be restructured into two divisions based on size after applying the 3.0 multiplier.
The most notable private schools remaining in Class A probably would be Prince Avenue, a football powerhouse, and St. Francis, a basketball juggernaut. For the first time in a decade, they would compete for the same state championships with existing Class A public programs such as Irwin County and Brooks County but also with schools falling into Class A from above, such as Rabun and Bleckley, along with Elbert County.
Under this plan, the GHSA would recalculate 3A, 2A and A to ensure a similar number of schools reside in each. With private schools going up, others must fall.
The GHSA had hoped it was done with reclassification last month, with all schools assigned to their 2022-23 classifications and regions. Classes 3A and 2A had only one private-school member. And that one, Aquinas, was granted permission only because of extreme geographic isolation.
Many public schools believe that private schools have an unfair competitive advantage because they lack natural school boundaries. To combat that, the GHSA this year adopted a 3.0 multiplier, which means that students outside a school’s attendance zone are counted three times to determine a school’s classification. That effectively moved larger private schools such as Westminster, Lovett and Greater Atlanta Christian out of 3A and 2A and into 4A and above.
However, the 3.0 multiplier wasn’t used on Class A private schools because they already competed as a private-only classification. But change has become necessary because the GHSA could be down to about 25 or fewer Class A Private schools that field football teams next year.
Ten Class A private schools left the GHSA for another association last month, and more departures are almost certain if the GHSA doesn’t give the remaining Class A private schools what they believe are meaningful region alignments and playoffs.
The reclass committee will meet again Wednesday to hear appeals from schools in classes 3A, 2A and A. They can petition to move up or down.
Proposed reclassifications
Below is how the four lower classifications would look if the GHSA executive committee approves the latest plan. The numbers for each school represent the enrollment, the out-of-zone students and the total for reclassification purposes. Schools marked with an asterisk do not play football.
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