MSHSL News

Minnesota State High School League staff had the opportunity to meet and talk with School Board members and others from across Minnesota at last week's annual Minnesota School Boards Association (MSBA) Conference.

Board members visited the MSHSL booth in the vendor area and asked questions to learn more about what services the League provides its member schools.

Executive Director Erich Martens and staff members Bob Madison and Laura Mackenthun also presented League information in two well-attended sessions.

Slides from those sessions are available here: MSHSL/MSBA Presentation

Thank you to all of the school board members and superintendents who stopped by the MSHSL Booth or attended the MSHSL Update breakout sessions. It was especially helpful to visit with new school board members and answer questions about their role as the school board representative to the MSHSL.

As stated in the MSHSL Constitution, 208.01 Designated School Representatives, the governing board of each member school shall designate two representatives who are authorized to vote for the member school at all district, region and section meetings, and on mail ballots when member schools are called upon to vote. It is also helpful for these representatives to receive MSHSL Updates and attend Area Meetings when they are able.

One of the designated representatives shall be a member of the school's governing board, and the other shall be an administrator or full-time faculty member of the member school.

In school districts with multiple schools, the designated representative from the school district's governing body may represent more than one school and is entitled to one vote for each school they represent.

The Adoption of Programs Task Force, called by the Board of Directors in June of 2022, has further developed the description, application and procedure for adding activities through the Emerging Status Process. The Board approved this policy at its December meeting.

The Adoption of Interscholastic Programs Policy can be found here: Adoption of Interscholastic Programs Policy

In December, the Board approved Boys Volleyball for Emerging Status. Boys Volleyball is currently operating under the direction of the Minnesota Boys Volleyball Association with approximately 70 teams registered this year. Boys Volleyball will operate for the 2023-2024 season in the spring and the season-ending competition to be operated according to its current rules. Teams will register with the MSHSL and students will be held to the eligibility rules the same as other programs in 2023-2024. The Board will assemble a group to review the most appropriate season for Boys Volleyball to be placed when it comes into full interscholastic status in 2024-2025.

Given that emerging status is a part of the Representative Assembly process for adding programs, the proposal for Boys Volleyball to be approved by the Representative Assembly would also be considered an application for emerging status. Therefore, no additional action by the authors of the Representative Assembly proposal would be needed at this time.

On Friday, January 13, the Together We Make a Difference Student Statewide Conference was held at Park Center High School.

The Forbes Solutions Group, in partnership with Minnesota Educational Leadership Organizations, hosted student-athletes and activities participants in a conference to further the movement to address racial harm and biased behaviors in high school athletics and activities.

You can read more about the event here: Minnesota Students Come Together to Make a Difference

The MSHSL Foundation’s Board of Directors recently approved a process where schools can apply for transportation reimbursement for the seven regional meetings if they choose. This process has been determined to be Form B1.

The Board approved $25,000 toward this cost and approved $300,000 for Form B2 grants that would be awarded according to the current language for Form B grants.

The application forms for both Form B1 and B2 are available here.

The B1 grant requests are due from member schools on January 20, 2023, and the remainder of the Form B2 grants will be due on February 15, 2023.

Member schools are classified by sport and activity for postseason competitions and performances every two years. Competitive section placements are determined by enrollment and geography (as determined by MSHSL Board policy), with a balanced number of schools in each section at the time of placement. The Board of Directors then reviews and approves classifications and competitive section placements for postseason play in MSHSL-sponsored sports and fine arts activities.

The Competitive Section Placement process is underway for this year. Information has been shared with ADs at each school.

More information can be found here. Classification and Competitive Section Resources

Read the December Connect here.

Connect, the Minnesota State High School League’s monthly online news magazine, is published the last week of each month. It compiles news and features from the League's previous month.