With the state legislature looking over its shoulder, the Georgia High School Association’s executive committee will vote this month on constitutional amendments that would impose 10-year term limits on its 58 executive committee members and require that they be employed by a school or a school system.
The vote, proposed by the GHSA office, doesn’t mean the GHSA office supports those amendments. The vote also doesn’t prevent the legislators from taking future action, regardless of the outcome.
GHSA executive director Ralph Swearngin said the vote is designed to get the opinions of the GHSA’s constituency, the more than 450 member schools who select the executive committee members.
“The legislature expressed concerns that were registered to them from their constituencies, and we felt like it was our responsibility to take care of our own governance issues and put it out there to our member schools to see how they feel about it,’’ Swearngin said Wednesday. “There has never been anyone (in the GHSA membership) bringing this forward. Let’s see if it’s an issue or not.’’
The proposed GHSA constitutional amendments, which would be voted on at the GHSA’s executive-committee meeting April 14 in Macon, are:
- Members of the executive committee must be employed by a school or a school system.
- There must be four males and four females among the eight at-large members of the executive committee.
- Executive-committee members are limited to 10 years of service.
- Region secretaries must be employed by a school or a school system.
Those ideas were expressed in SB 343, a bill that passed the senate, but never got out of committee in the house during the recently concluded legislative session. The legislature did pass a law that established a GHSA oversight committee and required the GHSA to post annual financial reports online.
Swearngin understands the bill may come back to life. The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, has called the GHSA a “self-perpetuating club’’ and wants rules to ensure more diversity in the member of the 58-member executive committee, which makes GHSA policy.
“I think the people who pushed these measures had a definite agenda to see that changes are made,’’ Swearngin said. “It would be surprising when it comes to legislative issues that it’s one-and-done. That’s one of the things that committee members will have to consider.’’
The GHSA’s executive committee, which sets GHSA policy, consists up of one representative from each of the GHSA’s 48 regions. Those members are elected by the schools in those regions.
There are eight at-large members, chosen by the GHSA’s board of trustees, plus the GHSA’s president and vice president. Swearngin and other hired GHSA staff are not committee members and do not vote.
Swearngin said he appreciated the argument for diversity on the executive committee, but wasn’t sure of practical ways to ensure it. Among the 58 executive committee members, seven are black, and four are female.
The proposal on term limits, if set at 10 years, would make at least 16 current members of the executive committee ineligible to return to their positions beginning in 2015-16.
Etc.: Franklin Stephens, who led Lamar County to the Class AA final in 2013 and won state titles at Tucker in 2008 and 2011, was recently announced as Ware County's football coach. He replaces Ed Dudley, the former Walton coach who took the head job at Carrollton. … Chestatee football coach Stan Luttrell resigned this week to become a defensive assistant and strength-and-conditioning coach at Buford. Luttrell was 46-38 in eight seasons at Chestatee, including a best finish of 9-3 last season. … Lambert girls basketball coach Tony Watkins was announced this week as the new coach at Grayson. Watkins' career record is 602-270. His Parkview teams in 2011 and 2012 were 59-2.
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