County Section Proposal to Go Before CIF Panel : High schools: Officials on Monday will make the next move toward seceding from Southern Section.

Orange County high school officials will make a formal presentation to the CIF section relations committee Monday, hoping to take another step toward forming an Orange County Section.

Ed Seal, superintendent of the Brea-Olinda Unified School District, will head a three-man delegation that will present a revised plan to set up and govern a new section.

A recommendation for approval by the section relations committee would be a major step toward forming an Orange County Section.

If the section relations committee approves of the plan, it will be forwarded to the State Federated Council for a vote on May 28. Final approval could be in October, at the council’s fall meeting. The federation generally follows the recommendation of the section relations committee.

Southern Section Commissioner Dean Crowley said a representative from the section will be present at the meeting to testify.

The outline for an Orange County Section has undergone revisions in the areas of representation, appeals and protests, according to Seal. He said finances are no longer a question.

The move to form an Orange County section began nearly two years ago, when superintendents in the county grew disgruntled with the Southern Section over representation. They formed a committee to look into seceding from the section and have held several meetings.

It has not been a smooth process. A meeting of principals ended abruptly last summer, when many complained about the weighted voting process.

Seal said those problems have been resolved.

Each school in the section will have one vote. Schools that field at least 16 teams of the section’s 40 sanctioned sports will have two votes.

“We felt that if you were a school of 500 students and fielded 16 sports you should be just as involved as a school of 3,000,” Seal said.

Seal said everyone involved with the process to form a new section--including superintendents, principals and athletic directors--were in favor of the voting structure.

The proposed appeals and protests bylaw has streamlined, according to Esperanza Principal George Allen.

The process will have only one level in Orange County. A decision by the commissioner can be appealed to the section’s eligibility committee. After that, all appeals will be to the State CIF.

“We wanted to simplify and get rid of as much bureaucracy as possible,” said Allen, who is on the committee that worked on the process. “We will be a small section and won’t have a very large office staff. If the decision is unacceptable, then move it on to the next level.”

Allen said an appeal committee would not be set up in each case. It would not include officials from the same league or anyone who had a stake in the outcome.

“That way we get a true, unbiased decision,” Allen said.