State CIF Panel Makes No Decision in O.C. Releaguing Appeal : Prep sports: Committee hears testimony opposing Catholic schools’ admittance to public leagues.

A three-member panel from the California Interscholastic Federation state office did not make a decision Friday at a hearing at which eight Orange County school districts appealed the Southern Section’s ruling to allow four county Catholic schools to participate in public school leagues beginning in 1992.

George Bergna of Santa Rosa, chairman of the committee, said the panel, which listened to nearly three hours of testimony, would announce its decision next week.

Attorney David Larsen represented the Anaheim Union, Brea-Olinda Unified, Garden Grove Unified, Huntington Beach Union, Irvine Unified, Los Alamitos Unified, Saddleback Valley Unified and Tustin Unified school districts.

Larsen argued that the Southern Section General Council lacked the authority to reverse a Feb. 20 Executive Committee decision that denied the placement of Mater Dei, Rosary, Santa Margarita and Servite into public high school athletic leagues.

Larsen also argued that public school principals were denied due process of law and the fundamentals of fairness while being represented March 14 at the general council meeting.

In addition, Larsen said that the General Council’s principle of one vote for one league (67 in the section) violated state laws that guarantee one vote for one person.

Attorney Howard Slavin, representing the Southern Section, argued that the council followed its rules “impeccably.” He said the one-person, one-vote principle has never been an issue in the section’s 77 years of existence.

Slavin also introduced a Southern Section study that showed 81% of the section’s team champions over the past 10 years were public school members. Slavin cited the survey in arguing the contention that private schools would disrupt equity in competition if allowed to compete with public schools.

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

Attorney Andrew Patterson, who counseled both sides, indicated that attorneys representing the eight school districts would pursue the issue in court.