UIL ready for emergency session if voucher bill OK’d

The University Interscholastic League executive director Charles Breithaupt raised the possibility of holding an emergency session should any version of a school voucher bill be passed into law later this year.

Gov. Greg Abbott has been pushing the bill, aimed at establishing an education savings account program to give parents who opt out of the public school system thousands of dollars in taxpayer money per student each year. Thus far, there has been a lack of support from the Texas House of Representatives to pass any such bill.

The approval of a school voucher system would create a number of issues to address for the UIL, which oversees extracurricular activities for public schools across the state of Texas. One of the most critical among those issues is competitive equity, which newly appointed UIL director of athletics Ray Zepeda, who came from CyFair ISD, pointed to as an everchanging challenge during an interview with the Chronicle earlier this year.

“There are things going on in our world that we have to be ready to adapt to,” Breithaupt said during his closing remarks at Tuesday’s meeting of the UIL’s legislative council in Round Rock. “The one thing we are waiting for with bated breath is what happens with this voucher plan that the governor is pushing through. We may have to adjust. We hope that we don’t have to meet again, but we may have to call an emergency session of the legislative council to deal with some of the things that are handed to us.

“Obviously, if it’s state law, we have to do it. There’s no discussing,” Breithaupt continued. “But there may be some things that they give us to navigate the field and create our own rules. So we’ll just see how that goes. … It’s going to be a critical session — you know that. You’ve been fearful of it all spring, and we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. I worry about where we are with public education, not because of our public educators, because I know you’re doing a fantastic job. I’m a great, great fan of public education. Been a part of it my entire career. I’ll just tell you that we have a lot of people who don’t appreciate it as much as we do.”

Athletics committee actions

The athletics committee convened and took action on several different proposals Tuesday.

It authorized staff to study three proposals:

• A proposal to extend the December game limitation rule to Thanksgiving break. Under current UIL rules, schools may not conduct practices or contests on five consecutive days in December.

• A proposal to increase the number of athletes who advance from regionals to state from two to three in the spring tennis season.

• A proposal to add boys volleyball as a sanctioned activity.

The committee was also in favor of — and intend to approve in October, pending specifics — the following: • A proposal to allow coaches to coach their athletes in all-star games.

The committee will continue to monitor the following:

• A proposal for 1A schools to participate in additional tournaments in exchange for individual games.

• A proposal for district champions to have home-field advantage in the first round of the soccer playoffs.

The only measure that required and received a vote of approval from the legislative council was an amendment to the Seventh and Eighth Grade Athletic Plan. That amendment allows a pilot program for students in sixth grade to compete in athletics at Class 1A and 2A schools when their participation is critical to fielding complete teams.

The athletics committee rejected the following written proposals from the public:

• A proposal to prohibit the use of train horns during football games.

• A proposal to prohibit cheerleaders at basketball games.

• A proposal to allow audio communication devices for hearing-impaired athletes in basketball.

• A proposal to allow two P.E. courses.

• A proposal to require officials to be paid for games canceled by schools within five days.

• A proposal to allow boys to participate in girls volleyball.

• A proposal to prohibit coaches from coaching their own child at the school where they are employed.

• A proposal to amend the baseball and softball rules regarding batters.

• A proposal to add table tennis as a sanctioned activity.

• A proposal to prohibit all athletic activities during the month of July.

• A proposal to allow coaches to coach 7-on-7 leagues during the summer.