A day after the Georgia High School Association set its tentative classifications for 2022-23, six Class A Private schools announced they were leaving the GHSA to rejoin the Georgia Independent School Association while suggesting others could follow.
The six are First Presbyterian, Mount de Sales, Stratford Academy and Tattnall Square of Macon, Deerfield-Windsor of Albany and Strong Rock Christian of Locust Grove. All are members of GHSA’s Region 1-A Private. The move will be effective in 2022-23.
“The Region 1-A private schools made this decision due to the changing landscape of the GHSA and in hopes of providing new opportunities for like-minded private schools across the state,” the six schools stated in a joint release.
The six had joined the GHSA within the past 12 years. First Presbyterian and Strong Rock came in 2010, Mount de Sales, Tattnall Square and Stratford in 2014 and Deerfield-Windsor in 2020.
The GHSA’s latest reclassification moved eight larger private schools into higher classifications using an enrollment multiplier designed to mitigate what many member schools believe are unfair competitive advantages gained by schools that don’t have natural attendance zones, that is, private schools. St. Pius and Woodward Academy are slated to move to Class 7A in 2022-23, making them the first metro Atlanta private schools to compete in the highest classification since 1967-68.
The GHSA’s reclassification didn’t directly affect the six schools going to the GISA, as those schools still would compete in Class A. But perhaps it was a final straw, as many private schools have grown dissatisfied as a minority group in an organization with more than 450 member schools, the overwhelming majority of which are public.
The GISA’s membership is entirely private schools, fewer than 100 of them that compete in GISA sports, with enrollment typically in the lower 100s.
Stratford Academy football coach and athletic director Mark Farriba was critical of the GHSA in September when the association was considering separating public and private schools in all classifications. Class A had already been split into public and private divisions for the playoffs in 2012. The plan to split all public and private schools was abandoned, but that didn’t entirely appease private schools.
“Basically, the GHSA has created a Class A independent school league within their organization and apparently is now trying to separate all independent schools from postseason play with public schools,” Farriba said at the time. “Had this been the structure of GHSA all along, my guess is that the vast majority of independent schools would never have considered joining the GHSA.”
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