Sherando Placed In Group 5A

[New Guy 17]

Sherando Placed In Group 5A
VHSL realignment may make success difficult
Posted: June 24, 2016

By ROBERT NIEDZWIECKI

The Winchester Star




STEPHENS CITY — Sherando High School has been placed in Group 5A for athletics and activities in the updated alignment plan for the 2017-18 school year released by the Virginia High School League on Thursday.

As things currently stand, Sherando would be the seventh-smallest of the 56 schools projected to be in Group 5A. Sherando entered the current alignment cycle that began in 2015-16 as the fourth-largest Group 4A school.

With the realignment, Sherando likely would have a tougher road to success.

"Would we be one of the smallest schools in 5A? Absolutely," Sherando Coordinator of Student Activities Jason Barbe said. "But you play where you belong."

Schools have until July 11 to request an appeal to the VHSL. Barbe said he does not know if Sherando will appeal, and added he doesn’t know what basis the school would have to appeal.

The VHSL alignment committee will meet on Aug. 4 to consider final appeals. The alignment committee’s final plan will be presented to the VHSL executive committee on Sept. 21.

The VHSL has 316 schools divided into six groups for postseason purposes, with Group 6A featuring schools with the largest enrollments.

Sherando currently competes in Group 4A, along with Handley, James Wood and Millbrook. (Clarke County competes in 2A.)

The organization voted this year to start aligning schools based on enrollment numbers every four years instead of every two years. But at the midway point of the four-year cycle, the VHSL can make alignment changes to schools such as Sherando that experience a large enrollment change. The 2017-18 school year is the midway point of the current alignment cycle.

Based on the March 31 average daily membership enrollment figures provided to the VHSL by the Virginia Department of Education, Sherando is the only local school slated to move to a different classification. Sherando’s average daily enrollment figure is 1,533, above the cap of 1,526 needed to stay in Group 4A. In the enrollment figures from March 31, 2014 — which are the basis for the cycle that began in 2015-16 — Sherando’s figure was 1,428.

In the three-group model that preceded the six-group model that the VHSL adopted in 2013, a switch to a different group meant a school would also have to change the district it competes in, but that is no longer the case. Sherando can still compete in the Northwestern District with the other three Winchester-Frederick County schools.

Barbe said he wasn’t surprised by the news that the VHSL had slotted Sherando, which opened in 1993, into 5A.

"Ever since the mid-1990s, we’ve pretty much always been right on the border between classifications," Barbe said.

Even though Sherando was a Group AA school for virtually all of its time in the old three-group system, it did move up once. Sherando was in Group AAA in the two-year cycle that began in 1999 before returning to Group AA in 2001.

Sherando was slated to move to Group AAA again for the two-year cycle beginning in 2011. That changed when Frederick County approved high school spot rezoning in 2010, which sent about 60 students into James Wood’s school zone. As a result, Sherando was able to stay under the average daily membership figure required to remain in Group AA.

Sherando appealed that time because by moving to the Group AAA Cedar Run District, the school’s travel costs would have tripled and the time Sherando would have spent traveling would have increased dramatically. Sherando’s average one-way trip would have been 49 miles.

Schools now are no longer forced to switch districts by moving to another classification. The Northwestern District actually is looking to expand from five to 13 teams (the request has not been discussed yet by the VHSL Redistricting & Realignment Committee) and Barbe said Thursday that the school still plans on being a part of it even if the Warriors are the only 5A school in a district of 4A and 3A schools.

In addition to travel costs, Sherando also was concerned in 2010 with having to remove students from school more often to attend athletic events, and limiting their study time with long road trips.

"If classification has an effect on education, that’s a problem," Barbe said. "But this is a different VHSL than the one we had four years ago."

Though the VHSL has moved Sherando into 5A, it is one of five schools that have not been placed into a region in the 2017-18 plan. (That year will mark the elimination of the current conference format. The postseason will start with region competition starting in that year.)

VHSL communication directors Mike McCall said Thursday he didn’t have specifics on why certain schools weren’t placed into regions.

But he did say the openings of new schools could have an effect on the enrollment figures of other schools, and therefore have an impact on where they’re supposed to be grouped. For example, Charles J. Colgan — a school in Manassas — is set to open this fall and is slated to be a Group 6A school.

 

[New Guy 17]

Virginia High School League: Sherando Likely Will Remain In Group 4A
Posted: August 5, 2016

By ROBERT NIEDZWIECKI

The Winchester Star


By a vote of 13-0 on Thursday, the Virginia High School League alignment committee unanimously approved Sherando High School’s request to stay in Group 4 and not be moved up to Group 5 beginning in the 2017-18 school year.

Also on Thursday, the VHSL also unanimously approved the Northwestern District’s request to expand from five to 13 schools starting with the 2017-18 school year. Sherando, Handley, James Wood and Millbrook are current Northwestern members.

Sherando coordinator of student activities Jason Barbe said in a phone interview that the alignment committee agreed with the appeal because the school presented data at Thursday’s hearing in Charlottesville that showed that the March 31 ADM (average daily membership) number provided to the VHSL by the Virginia Department of Education was incorrect.

On June 23, it was announced that Sherando’s March 31 ADM number was 1,533 — seven higher than the cutoff of 1,526 required to remain in Group 4 — and that the school would move to Group 5 for at least two years. But an investigation by the school and Frederick County Public Schools revealed that Sherando’s ADM should be 1,522 based on a variety of factors.

In reality, Barbe said Thursday’s hearing wasn’t an appeal, but rather a presentation to show the numbers say Sherando is a Group 4 school.

"The number for the average daily membership is based on every day of the school year from the first day up until March 31," Barbe said. "I felt pretty confident from the beginning that our ADM number that the state had us with wasn’t correct.

"The correct data was in use [Thursday], so instead of being just over the 1,526 cutoff, we were just under the 1,526 cutoff, and we’re a 4A school that we should have been all along."

At the time of his phone interview, Barbe said he didn’t have specific data with him to explain why the Virginia Department of Education had Sherando with an ADM number that was 11 higher than it should be.

But for example, Barbe said any student that turns 19 by Aug. 1 of a given school year should not be factored in a school’s ADM number.

Barbe said students who don’t physically attend a Frederick County school but are the school division’s responsibility are not supposed to count.

"[School districts] are funding [the students’ education], and therefore the state counts them as part of your membership," said Barbe, who was joined in Charlottesville by Sherando Principal John Nelson and Superintendent David Sovine.

The action taken Thursday by the alignment committee still must be approved by the VHSL executive committee, which meets on Sept. 21, before it becomes official. Given the unanimous votes on the two cases involving local schools, the executive committee likely will approve the alignment committee’s action.

The VHSL has 316 schools divided into six groups for postseason purposes, with Group 6 featuring schools with the largest enrollments.

Sherando’s ADM number of 1,522 is larger than any VHSL school currently slated to be in Group 4 in 2017. Sherando would have been the seventh-smallest Group 5 school based on the plan released by the VHSL on June 23.

Competing against larger schools in Group 5 would be more of a challenge than competing in Group 4 for Sherando, but over the last six weeks Barbe has repeatedly said Sherando didn’t have a preference.

"I’ve said all along that’d we be pleased to be where we belong," Barbe said. "We’re where we belong, so we’re good with that."

As for the Northwestern District, the plan calls for current Northwestern schools Sherando, Handley, James Wood, Millbrook (all Group 4) and Skyline (Group 3) to be joined by six schools from the Evergreen District (Group 4 schools Fauquier, Kettle Run and Liberty and Group 3 schools Brentsville, Culpeper and Manassas Park) and two Group 3 schools from the Bull Run District, Warren County and William Monroe.

Millbrook coordinator of student activities Scott Mankins said he was pleased with the unanimous vote.

"This is going to be so much better for scheduling," Mankins said. "With the [current] five-team district, that gives us four guaranteed football games and eight in everything else (two against each school). It’s getting increasingly harder to schedule nondistrict games [with so few guaranteed games], especially in soccer. West Virginia plays in the fall, so we can’t pick up those Panhandle schools like we do in other sports.

"By bringing in more schools, we can lock in more games. From a scheduling standpoint, this is going to be good."

— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at rniedzwiecki@winchesterstar.com
Follow on Twitter @WinStarSports1

 

[New Guy 17]

Another interesting read:

‘They’re Playing Indian’: Man Calls For Removal Of Native American Mascot
Posted: August 5, 2016

By AMY ALONZO

The Winchester Star

The Sherando Warrior rides on the field in front of the commencement ceremony crowd in Arrowhead Stadium in June. Gali Sanchez, an enrolled Abenaki member from Front Royal, is calling for the school to stop linking a Native American image to its mascot. (Photo by Ginger Perry/The Winchester Star)

STEPHENS CITY — The red and black warrior that serves as Sherando High School’s mascot is offensive to a local Native American man who is hoping the image will be changed, but school officials say there are no plans to do so.

"The warrior that is pictured is a warrior out of a Buffalo Bill Wild West Show," Gali Sanchez, an enrolled Abenaki member from Front Royal, said over the course of two interviews with The Star. "What they have is the image of what they think is a warrior. ... It’s all wrong."

Using the word "warrior" is not offensive, Sanchez said — just the image of a Native American that accompanies it.

"[Sherando] can keep ‘warriors’ without the Native American reference," he said. "This really means something to native people. They’re playing Indian. They think they know what a warrior is, and they don’t."

Sherando High School, which opened in 1993, is represented by a Native American warrior wearing a red-and-black, feather headdress. During events such as graduation and home football games, a local man brings the mascot to life. Covered in face paint and dressed in an elaborate outfit and headdress, he rides a horse onto the school’s field, sometimes launching a spear into the ground.

Before the school opened, about 1,200 future Sherando students voted on the warrior mascot and accompanying imagery, said Steve Edwards, coordinator of policy and communications for Frederick County Public Schools. Other mascots considered for the school were braves, chiefs and hawks. The mascot was chosen "in an attempt to recognize the positive aspects of the Native American warrior," he said.

Edwards said, to his knowledge, there have been no other complaints about Sherando using an image of a Native American, and there are no plans to change the mascot.

"Students selected the mascot," Edwards said. "Any move to alter that would start at the school level with students."

Sanchez, 64, a former Warren County teacher and coach, said he became aware of the Sherando Warrior about 10 years ago when the boys’ soccer team he was coaching played at Sherando.

Although he found the mascot extremely offensive, he did not say anything at the time out of fear of losing his job, he said.

Last year, Sanchez, who has cancer, went on disability, and he said he no longer worried about losing his job if he approached Frederick County Public Schools about the mascot. He spoke with Sherando Principal John Nelson in the fall, then addressed the Frederick County School Board at a winter meeting.

Sanchez said he has been working with groups, such as Eradicating Offensive Native Mascotry and NotYourMascots.org, to remove offensive mascots.

Sherando’s mascot is the first in the state he has worked to change, he said. He has worked to remove others in New England, and he has participated in events to change the Washington Redskins’ name, he said.

Following his address to the School Board, Sanchez and Culpeper-area resident Angelina Okuda-Jacobs, a member of the Lumbee tribe, had conversations with school officials, including Superintendent David Sovine, Assistant Superintendent Al Orndorff and Nelson.

Sanchez said in addition to asking for the removal of the mascot, he offered to conduct workshops for students and staff about Native American history. Those conversations began with promise but ended without action, Sanchez said.

Last year, a "Native American and Characterization Awareness and Educational Plan" was created at Sherando, Edwards said. The plan aims to build resources on Native American history from 1600 to present; provide staff development regarding Native American issues; and provide students an opportunity to research and discuss Native American issues, he said.

"Part of the culture at Sherando is understanding what it means to be a warrior," he said.

Sanchez said he was discouraged by the response from the school division.

"Everyone thinks they know everything about Indians, and it’s so wrong," he said. "It’s so abysmally wrong."

A Facebook thread started by Frederick County Public Schools Board member Seth Thatcher on the topic has elicited more than a dozen comments.

"Warriors do not wear a full headdress, the full headdress is disrespectful and that’s coming from a Native American," wrote Laura Anderson, of Ocean City, Md.

Most of the comments, however, were in favor of keeping the warrior mascot.

"Leave it alone," wrote local businessman Mike Guevremont. "The PC train is off the tracks with this one."

"This is another case of a vocal minority trying to make an issue out of a non-issue," added former School Board Chairman Stuart Wolk. "Much ado about nothing, IMHO."

— Contact Amy Alonzo at
aalonzo@winchesterstar.com