Lawmakers who represent two northeast Iowa school districts struggling to join a new athletic conference are sponsoring bills to establish a new committee to review conference re-alignment. The Decorah school district, for example, has lost its appeals to state officials and its teams will not be in a conference next year. Representative Michael Bergan of Dorchester represents Decorah in the Iowa House.
The bill calls for a new committee to be formed to evaluate the enrollment in conference schools, traditional rivalries and the compatibility of extracurricular activities among conference members.
Bergan says this is similar to the process used in Wisconsin.
House Speaker Pat Grassley is co-sponsoring the House bill with Bergan. Grassley represents the Waverly-Shell Rock District, which left the Northeast Iowa Conference at the end of the last school year and its bid to join the WaMac Conference was denied. A senate bill on the topic of conference realignment that’s identical to the House bill is co-sponsored by Senators Mike Klemish of Spillville and Sandy Salmon of Janesville.
