Meeting was convened at 4:15 p.m. by Chairman Majikes

ITEM 1            Chairman Majikes welcomed member schools to the meeting and quickly introduced the PIAA District II committee members as well as PIAA Associate Executive Director Dr. Robert Lombardi and PIAA Assistant Executive Director Mark Byers.

ITEM 2            Chairman Majikes thanked all of the member schools for their cooperation during the past year in regard to hosting district championship events in all of the various sports.  The cooperation of all of the member schools in District II is greatly appreciated.

ITEM 3            A motion was made by Tim Honeywell (AD-Berwick Area High School), seconded by Charlie Turco (AD-Pittston Area High School) to approve the minutes of the 2006 Annual Business meeting and to dispense with the reading of said minutes.  All Ayes

ITEM 4            Frank Victor, District II Treasurer, gave the 2006 Treasurer’s Report.  Our operating budget for 2006-2007 was set at $325,000.  Our fund balance as of June 30, 2006 was $124,815.02, a decrease in the fund balance of $8,979.21. A total of $46,482.50 was given back to District II member schools as a result of participation in boys’ and girls’ basketball playoffs as well as football playoffs.  We currently have $59,126.99 in our checking account, $54,528.46 in our PIAA corporate account, and $11,159.57 in a Certificate of Deposit. 

                        A motion was made by Tom Wolfe (AD- North Pocono High School), seconded by Jim Corse (AD-Blue Ridge High School) to approve the Treasurer’s Report as submitted.  All Ayes

ITEM 5            Jim Sabatini presented the Credentials Report.  There are 31 High Schools and 33 Junior High Schools present at today’s meeting.

ITEM 6            COMMITTEE REPORTS:

a)  Tennis (Joe Lalli):  Information on the upcoming District Boys’ Playoffs was available at the sign in table.  Details of all of the deadlines, dates of competition and venues are located on the web page and in the handout distributed at today’s meeting.

b)  Volleyball (Maureen Williams):  The format for the boys’ tournament is available at the sign in desk and on the web page.  The tournament will have 8 “AA” playoff spots available.  This year there is also a “AAA” classification and our representative will participate in the District XI playoffs. 

c)  Track and Field (Danielle DiPietro):  Information for the championships is available in today’s handout as well as on the web page.  Please pay attention to all deadlines, dates for meetings and competitions.  If you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact Danielle via email (address available on web page). 

d)  Baseball (Frank Majikes):  It was announced that PNC Stadium will not be available for district championship games.  Information was distributed and will be available on the web page – please remember that the deadline for non-participation notification is May 9th – registered letters to that affect must be sent to Frank.

e)  Softball (Dino Galella):  Information was distributed and will be available on the web page – please remember that the deadline for non-participation notification is May 9th– registered letters to that affect must be sent to Dino.

f)  Golf (Tony Rusnak):  There will be a meeting in mid May to finalize the Fall Championships.  Current plans are to utilize Scranton Municipal for the Individual Championships and Glen Maura for the Team Championships.  Hope is to have a girls’ team championship this fall.

g)  Field Hockey (Tom Finan):  The format for next fall’s championships will be similar to this year’s format. 

h)  Swimming (Jim Higgins):  We will once again utilize the 8 lane pool at the Wilkes-Barre CYC as the site for next year’s championships.  There will be standards qualifying for the District Championships next year – details will be forthcoming in the fall.

i)  Wrestling (Rich Walton):  Rich commented on the quality of this year’s tournaments and the success that followed at the state level competition.

j)  Football (Tom Jenkins):  We will be in the second year of our current cycle next year and there will be no changes in the Championships format.  Discussions have already started regarding the next two year cycle and information will be forthcoming as it is released. 

k)  Cross Country (Bill King):  The varsity championships will be held at Scranton Municipal Golf Course next fall; the Junior High Championships will be held at KirbyPark. 

l)  Basketball (Frank Victor):  The District II Committee is evaluating the open tournament in girls’ and boys’ basketball as many criticisms and discussion has been raised regarding a minimal number of wins required in order to be eligible.  As member schools, please continue to provide feedback on the tournament to committee members as it is constantly being reexamined and fine tuned. 

m)  Soccer (Ray Lowery):  The format for the spring girls’ championships is available at the sign in desk and on the web page.

n)  Officials (Joe Lalli & Maureen Williams):  District II was complimented on the number of officials who worked state championship events this season in all of the various sports championships.

o)  Eligibility (Mike Ognosky):  Member schools continue to be very timely and cooperative in the filing of eligibility rosters. 

p)  Sportsmanship (Frank Galicki):  Scranton Prep will be the recipient of this year’s District II Sportsmanship Award. 

ITEM 7            Chairman Majikes introduced Dr. Bob Lombardi, Associate Executive Director of the PIAA.  Bob then offered comments on the following proposed Amendment changes which will be voted on by member schools today:

§         Amend Article III, MEMBERSHIP, Section 2, Application for Membership, Section 3, When Membership Becomes Effective, of the PIAA Constitution, to (1) clarify that membership applications shall be accepted if the requirements set forth in the PIAA Constitution are met by the applicant schools; and (2) provide for the effective date of membership as the next following July 1st, upon approval of the PIAA Board of Directors.

§         Amend Article V, ORGANIZATION AND AUTHORITY, Section 1, PIAA, Inc. Districts, of the PIAA Constitution, to reduce from four years to three years the period of time provided for the Public Schools of the County of Philadelphia to facilitate integration into the PIAA governance structure and, thereby, permit those Private Schools located in the County of Philadelphia that are members of the PIAA or seek membership to the PIAA to seek membership in PIAA District XII, effective May, 1, 2007.

§         Amend Article VII, POWERS AND DUTIES OF BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND OFFICERS, Section 1, Powers and Duties of Board of Directors, of the PIAA Constitution, to eliminate the requirement of an officer sitting on a PIAA Board of Appeal.

§         Amend Article II, PURPOSES;  ARTICLE VI, BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND OFFICERS; ARTICLE VII, POWERS AND DUTIES OF BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND OFFICERS; ARTICLE X, AMENDMENTS; AND, ARTICLE XI, ADMINISTRATION, of the PIAA Constitution, to bring the PIAA Constitution into compliance with Internal Revenue Service and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania regulations regarding non-profit corporations.

Dr. Lombardi then continued with an explanation of the following changes in the PIAA By-Laws for 2007-2008:

§         Amended Article III, ATTENDANCE, Section 3, to clarify the days of absence that may be waived by a PIAA District Committee, effective October 5, 2006.

§         Amended, on a first reading, Article III, ATTENDANCE, Section 10, to provide for requests to the PIAA Board of Directors for approval of Cooperative Sponsorship of a Sport agreement, which would not affect the classification size of a Team, to be submitted at any time to the applicable PIAA District Committee.

§         Amended Article V, HEALTH, Section 1, in order to clarify the Comprehensive Initial Prep-Participation Physical Evaluation (CIPPE) to make it consistent with the instructions provided under Section 5 of the PIAA Re-certification form.

§         Amended Article VI, TRANSFERS, to further clarify that a student who enrolls at a school between the end of a school year and the first day of Practice of fall sports for the next school year, may no longer return to the student’s previous school and be athletically eligible.

§         Amended Article IX, REPRESENTATION, Section 1, to remove the requirement that a student be enrolled at a college for the provision to be applicable, and to provide for sport specific loss of eligibility when a student participates with or against a college Team.

§         Amended Article IX, REPRESENTATION, Section 1, to clarify that students entering and participating in “open” athletic competition, as an individual and a private citizen, do not jeopardize their eligibility.

§         Amended Article XIII, PENALTIES, to clarify the restrictions on any coach, who while coaching a PIAA member school, is ejected from a contest.

§         Amended, on a second reading basis, the definition of “Principal” to make clear that the Principal, for PIAA purposes, is the person having overall responsibility for operations of the athletic program at a public or private school.

§         Amended the definition of “Tournament” to clarify that tournaments also involve competition among individual students representing member schools.

Chairman Majikes then introduced Mark Byers, PIAA Assistant Executive Director, who commented on the following issues:

§         Policy relating to Requests for Accommodations due to disabilities.

§         Policy regarding the regular season participation of wheelchair athletes in the sport of outdoor Track and Field.

§         Provided an update on the admission of senior high schools affiliated with the Philadelphia Catholic League into the PIAA governance structure.

§         Discussed the request of the PIAA District I Committee to investigate the potential of dividing PIAA Championships into public and non-public school classifications.

§         Discussed the PIAA District VII Committee proposal to amend Article VI, Transfers, Residence, and Recruiting, of the PIAA By-Laws.

§         Discussed the PSADA request to conduct comprehensive reviews of the maximum length of regular seasons and maximum number of regular season contests in each sports.

ITEM 7            OLD BUSINESS – There was no old business conducted at today’s meeting.  

ITEM 8            NEW BUSINESS – The following new business items were conducted:

                        Jim Sabatini entertained motions for the election of officers.

                        A motion was made by Dave Fisher (Principal-Hanover Area) and       

seconded by Frank Parra (AD – Wyoming Area) that the present committee  members be retained.  All Ayes

A motion was made by Tim Honeywell (AD-Berwick Area), seconded by Rich Notari (AD- Old Forge) that the nominations be closed.  All Ayes

The current committee members will be retained as presently constituted.

ITEM 9            A motion was made by Phil Tochelli (AD-Lakeland), seconded by Jack Kelly (AD-Dunmore) to adjourn.  All Ayes

Meeting was adjourned at 5:30 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Mike Ognosky

Mike Ognosky

District 2 Secretary