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The Idaho High School Activities Association has completed the classification petitions process for schools throughout the state and several schools will be moving up and down in classification size next school year. The decisions were made at the IHSAA Board of Directors meeting held at the Coeur d'Alene Resort.
Several schools who were slated to remain in the 5A classification will not do so in the upcoming school year. Columbia, Kuna, and Nampa (members of the 5A Southern Idaho Conference) will all drop to 4A next season. Those three schools will re-join the 4A Southern Idaho Conference and become a nine-school league along with Bishop Kelly, Emmett, Middleton, Ridgevue, Vallivue, and Caldwell.
Caldwell and Idaho Falls were both set to join the 5A classification next season, however both schools successfully petitioned down to the 4A level.
Skyview will move to 5A this season after their petition to remain at 4A was denied. Michael Lycklama of the Idaho Statesman reports that their appeal to stay at 4A was denied in a 14-5 vote by superintendents of 4A schools in Idaho. The new 5A Southern Idaho Conference will have 10 teams including Boise, Borah, Capital, Timberline, Mountain View, Centennial, Rocky Mountain, Eagle, Meridian, and Skyview.
In another move, Mountain Home will drop from the 4A classification to 3A, allowing them to join the Snake River Valley conference next season, along with Fruitland, Homedale, Weiser, Parma, and Payette. However, they will petition to join District 4 and compete against schools like Gooding, Filer, Buhl, and Kimberly.
(UPDATE: After further consideration, the IHSAA has denied Mountain Home's move to the 3A classification. This was reported by the Times-News' Victor Flores.)
Shelley will make the jump from 3A back to 4A for the coming school year. The Russets had previously competed at the 4A level from 2010-2012. Their move upward to 4A combined with the opening of 5A-size Thunder Ridge High School in Idaho Falls next year means that the 4A District 5-6 conference could potentially look much different.
In 3A, Coeur d'Alene Charter Academy also successfully petitioned to remain at the 3A level despite having 2A numbers. CDA Charter had requested the move to 3A two years ago in order to cut down on costs associated with travel to schools in the Central Idaho League, their former conference. Playing in the Intermountain League requires less travel for CDA Charter.
In 1AD2, Lakeside successfully petitioned to remain in Idaho's smallest classification. The Knights had numbers that would have put them in the 1AD1 classification.
Genesis Prep will also remain at 1AD2 for the upcoming classification cycle. The small school in Post Falls petitioned the IHSAA to allow them to continue to have F1 (international) students play in the regular season and postseason tournaments. The trade-off would be that had the IHSAA approved F1 students to do this, Genesis Prep would have then joined the 3A classification and play in the Intermountain League with Bonners Ferry, Coeur d'Alene Charter, Kellogg, Priest River, and Timberlake. However, their petition for F1 students was denied by the IHSAA and the rule as it stands now is that all F1 students can play during the regular season, but not during district or state tournaments.
Hagerman will move down from 1AD1 to 1AD2 in 2018 as well. The Pirates had been members of District Four's Snake River Conference, but will now compete in the Northside Conference.
This story will be updated with other classification and petition decisions as we receive them.
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