The proposed plan was released in November and has been a large part of the high school sports discussion since.
Under the plan, the current Mountain Valley 2-A and Northwest 1-A conferences would split into two split 1-A/2-A conferences. One conference would group schools from Alleghany, Ashe, Wilkes and Yadkin counties with Surry Central and Elkin. The other currently groups Stokes County’s three schools with East Surry, Mount Airy, North Surry, Forbush, Bishop McGuinness and Winston-Salem Prep. South Stokes would become a 2-A school under the plan, which was based on ADM numbers that take redrawn districts into account.
Dr. Stewart Hobbs, superintendent of Stokes County Schools, knows all too well about realignment. Before taking the county’s superintendent job in November, Hobbs served the same role in Sampson County. Hobbs, who is on the NCHSAA Board of Directors, also served on the realignment committee representing Region 2, though he resigned his position after moving to Stokes County and Region 5.
Hobbs said the realignment committee sent information to each of the state’s schools looking for any recommendations or requests for placements. He said there was also a request from the superintendents’ association to take a strong look at travel, even if it meant split conferences, to group schools by geography and hopefully cut down on gas costs and time spent away from the classroom.
Once Hobbs came to Stokes County, he knew he wanted to come up with a plan on which the county’s schools could agree if there were problems with the first draft so he didn’t show up to the regional meeting empty-handed.
“Once that initial draft goes out, there’s not going to be a lot of changes, unless you can get all parties involved to agree,” said Hobbs. “If you don’t take something to (the realignment committee), you’re not going to get anything.
“What I wanted to see with Stokes County was if there was something everybody could agree on. I wanted to get everybody’s feelings. As superintendent of Stokes County Schools, I want to represent all the schools. I’m not going to take something half like and half don’t.”
On Jan. 9, Hobbs was able to survey the situation when he called a meeting with the county’s high school athletic directors and principals. He said West Stokes is happy with the situation, considering current travel for conference games and playoffs since the Wildcats are often placed in Eastern playoff brackets and reportedly wanted to be included in the Mountain Valley 2-A in the last realignment.
Meanwhile, North Stokes would rather have a 1-A conference and a 2-A conference, and South Stokes is concerned about the redistricting plan, which would give the school more students for what is now West Stokes’ area. South Stokes is concerned about the when the students would arrive.
“The students have to be there by 2009,” said Hobbs.
Without redisctricting, Hobbs said West Stokes would have bumped up to 3-A, while North Stokes and South Stokes would have stayed at 1-A.
At the Jan. 9 meeting, Hobbs said everyone was able to agree on a proposal, which splits the two proposed conferences into the three six-team conferences. In one, South Stokes would stay 1-A with North Stokes, East Surry, Mount Airy, Bishop McGuinness and Elkin. West Stokes would stay 2-A with North Surry, Forbush, Starmount, Surry Central and Winston-Salem Prep. The third conference in the proposal is a 1-A/2-A split with Ashe County, Alleghany, North Wilkes, East Wilkes and West Wilkes.
In the county’s second three-conference proposal, South Stokes would move up to 2-A and join West Stokes, North Surry, Forbush, Starmount and Surry Central in a conference, and North Stokes would join Winston-Salem Prep, East Surry, Mount Airy, Bishop McGuinness and Elkin in a 1-A conference. The third conference would stay the same.
While Hobbs said the county’s athletic officials agreed on the proposal, he said it hasn’t gained much support. In fact, most of the schools concerned seem content with the NCHSAA’s first draft.
As such, Hobbs said he doesn’t expect much change out of the regional meetings beyond slight tweaking, including switching Forbush and Surry Central in the NCHSAA’s draft.
In February, NCHSAA officials will release another proposal after taking information from the regional meetings into consideration. Schools can then respond in writing, but the NCHSAA board of directors, including Hobbs, will vote on the proposal in May. It will then take effect in the 2009-10 school year.
Even then, Hobbs knows there will be some people who are anxiously awaiting the next realignment, which would begin in the 2013-14 school year, for change.
“No matter what you do, you’re not going to make everybody happy,” said Hobbs
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