Releague Ruling Appealed

Five Orange County school districts have banded together to appeal the Southern Section’s recent decisions allowing four of the county’s Catholic schools to participate in public leagues.

An appeal will be heard May 10 by a three-member panel from the State office of the California Interscholastic Federation in Carson.

Anaheim Union, Garden Grove Unified, Huntington Beach Union, Saddleback Valley Unified and Tustin Unified school districts, which are being represented by a Costa Mesa law firm, are appealing the Southern Section’s decisions to allow Mater Dei, Rosary, Servite and Santa Margarita into the county area releaguing cycle for 1992-94.

The four schools will be represented by the section’s legal council.

Santa Margarita was given permission to join a public school league in a decision Feb. 20 by the section’s Executive Committee. A month later, the section’s General Council voted to allow Mater Dei, Servite and Rosary into public leagues.

“There are issues that professional people don’t agree on sometime,” said Thomas Byrnes, commissioner of the State CIF. “That’s what this hearing is for.”

Father Patrick Donovan, Servite principal, said he plans to attend the meeting, but said that all Catholic schools can do now is hope and wait.

“It’s not in our court anymore,” Donovan said. “The defendant is the CIF. We’re just spectators.”

The parochial-private issue has been a subject of great debate among Orange County high school administrators in recent years.

Public schools argue that Catholic schools have an unfair advantage because they have no attendence boundaries. Catholic schools say rising transportation costs have made it a financial drain to compete with other Catholic schools outside the county.

According to Byrnes, a similar case was brought to the State office several years ago involving the North Coast Section. But in that case, several public schools--citing rising transportation costs--fought to get into a large Catholic league.

“The public schools wanted to break up the Catholic league,” Byrnes said about the North Coast case. “ . . . Their argument was, given the expenses of time and money, they wanted (to get into the Catholic league) to cut down on transportation. The Catholic league wanted to keep its identity, but the public schools won.”

While the school districts’ appeal to the State CIF receives significant attention, several county principals from public and parochial schools are currently working together on releaguing proposals to satisfy both sides. According to Donovan, the releaguing meetings have been “very friendly and open.”

At 3 p.m. today, a 10-man committee of Orange County principals--including one from the Catholic sector, Santa Margarita Principal Msgr. Michael Harris--is scheduled to meet at Foothill High School to trim four releaguing proposals down to one.

Thursday, the committee will present the final proposal to representatives from both sides. Neither meeting is open to the public.

“We have good camaraderie, good feelings of mutual respect and trust at this point,” Foothill Principal Jim Ryan said. “Our feeling is, ‘The decision’s been made and let’s build on that.’ ”