ROANOKE -- Bridgeport's dominance in Class AA ends in the 2004-2005 school year. That's because the Indians move up to Class AAA.
The West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission Board of Directors Monday evening reclassified all of its member schools for seasons running 2004 through 2008.
Members voted 7-2 in favor of the proposal they thought most closely matched the current classifications.
Prior to the meeting at Stonewall Jackson Resort, executive director Mike Hayden had a mathematician prepare five different formulas for classifying schools.
Board members voted only looking at raw numbers and didn't see how those numbers would affect specific schools until after they had chosen.
Lewis County, with 640 students, will be the smallest school in Class AAA while Bridgeport, at 649, is the fourth smallest. Robert C. Byrd, with 691, is the seventh smallest.
The new classification counts students in grades 9, 10 and 11, including those ninth graders in feeder schools, Hayden said.
The current classification was based on grades 10, 11 and 12.
Also, the length of this classification -- four years -- doubles the length of the current guidelines. Both of those changes were enacted at the last classification a few years ago, Hayden said.
One of the concerns for members was the range between the largest Class AAA school and the smallest. This proposal limits that range to 1,029 students. One other proposal had a smaller range than that, but that proposal would have had only 30 AAA schools instead of 36.
All other area schools will remain in their current classes.
Members were also concerned about upcoming consolidations' effects on classifications.
They briefly again discussed a fourth class, but quickly veered away from that because of concerns that the smallest Class A schools sometimes have trouble fielding teams in certain sports.
