Quote: how many years has Blythewood HS been in 3A? Is there a set policy with schsl about new schools and how they decide what classification and for long? i know they move to 4A for next year but it seems they have had a nice advantage hanging out in 3A for several years.
Realizing this may be biased given my connection to Blythewood, but here goes:
The short answer is 3 years and yes—the HSL does have a policy on where to classify new schools and for how long. It is based on initial enrollment #’s and every three years the classifications are reset depending again on enrollment.
Here is a bit more if you are interested: Blythewood was supposed to open with about 1200 kids two years ago, roughly the same size as Brookland-Cayce- Dreher-Greenville. We are currently in our third year as a school. It is my understanding that HSL only re-aligns every 3 years so this upcoming season will be the first time we are eligible to move up into 4A. By and large it is NOT up to the school to determine what classification they belong to but rather the HSL bases classification on size of enrollment. Had we opened a year earlier or a year latter, then our time as a 3A school might have been longer or shorter all depending upon enrollment size at the time of re-alignment. Who knows?
As I also understand it there are some exceptions, some schools like Riverside were supposed to move into 4A but worked out a deal to stay at 3A- other schools like Lower-Richland wanted to stay 4A but were relegated to 3A. Blythewood has not put, nor held itself in the 3A bracket, it simply was not up to us. Now- sometimes moves are made within a classification regarding region brackets- Like Dreher coming into our region the 2nd year we were open after being in a different region our first year, but moves between “A’s” classifications only happens every 3 years- AS I UNDERSTAND IT-but I could be wrong.
As for having an advantage hanging out in 3A for several years- Could you be just a little more specific as the which advantages you are referring to? Just want to be able to answer your question “apples to apples.”
