Council to Hear Report for OC Section Today

Results of a feasibility study on the formation of an Orange County Section will be presented today to the Southern Section’s general council at the Sequoia Athletic Club.

Barbara Wilson, who prepared the 90-page report, will review the study with the general council and also reveal the results of a survey in which the county’s superintendents approved a move to form a separate section.

“It’s basically an information session addressing representatives from every league in the Southern Section,” said Maury Ross, former superintendent of the Tustin Unified School District. The county’s 72 high schools are currently members of the Southern Section.

Ross, who will join Wilson at today’s meeting, met Tuesday with 11 representatives of the county’s private and parochial schools and several public superintendents to review the feasibility study and address their concerns.

Most of the county’s smaller private schools are concerned about the competition in the proposed section in which seven schools with enrollments of 100 or less would have difficulty filling schedules.

Some private school representatives did not attend Tuesday’s meeting because they did not receive notice of the meeting until Wednesday.

“I know Mater Dei and Santa Margarita weren’t present because they didn’t know about the meeting,” said Ray Dunn, Servite principal. “It was not good timing.”

Still, Ross said he was encouraged.

“It was the first of many meetings,” he said. “The upshot from yesterday’s meeting is that the private schools are going to get together and form a network. I think they were pleased with the meeting.”

Today’s meeting is the first legislative step toward forming a county section. Ross says he hopes to get support from the Southern Section, which has 27 votes in the State Federated Council. The State Federated Council will ultimately decide whether to form a county section.

“As we start getting into specifics, we’re going to be forming subcommittees to address everyone’s needs and concerns,” Ross said.