There will be three new bylaw amendments for N.C. High School Athletic Association member schools to vote for or against this school year.

One of the proposed bylaw amendments is needed to bring the NCHSAA in compliance with a new state law and the memorandum of understanding with the state superintendent. The other bylaw amendments center around the upcoming realignment.

The memorandum of understanding requires a change in the makeup of the NCHSAA Board of Directors. The current board makeup is based on the eight NCHSAA regions, but the new agreement requires the members be selected based on the educational regions set by the Department of Public Instruction.

Changing the makeup of the board requires a change to the NCHSAA bylaws. If the membership approves the change, it would take effect as the current board members’ terms end.

The other proposed bylaw changes involve the upcoming realignment, which will go into effect for the 2025-2026 school year and is currently scheduled to last for four years. However, one of the proposed changes to the bylaws would shorten that.

NCHSAA Commissioner Que Tucker said there will be a bylaw amendment proposed to change the realignment schedule from every four years to every two years.

Many other states in the country realign more often than the NCHSAA. Realigning every two years would potentially reduce the large scale differences in school populations within a single classification that can occur over a four-year period.

The other proposed bylaw change involves how sports are sanctioned by the NCHSAA. Currently, if 50% of a single classification fields a sport and that figure is maintained for two years, the NCHSAA Board of Directors can vote to sanction the sport and offer an official state championship.

As the NCHSAA moves to eight classifications next school year, that would bring the threshold for sanctioning a sport down drastically.

Tucker did not provide specific information about what the new threshold would be, but said schools will be receiving more information soon.

NCHSAA bylaw amendments require an affirmative vote from three-fourths of the entire membership, not simply three-fourths of the schools who vote. Any school who does not return a ballot is effectively submitting a “no” vote.

It is not clear when the new bylaw amendment proposals will be distributed to the membership.

This is a developing story, it will be updated.

Source: highschoolot.com