RENTON, Wash. — The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association approved two amendments that will change the way high schools are classified in Washington state starting in 2020.
The new classifications will see a minimum of 1,300 students for the highest class size of 4A.
The next biggest class size, 3A, will go from 900 to 1299, and 2A will go 450 to 899.
As for smaller schools, 1A will be defined as schools with 225 to 449 students. 2B schools will have between 105 and 224 students and the smallest class, 1B, is anything below 105 students.
The amendments have also removed text saying that the WIAA would attempt to balance the number of schools at each level, and will now instead adjust the amount of state tournament berths at any given classification based on the number of schools.
For classifications with 84 or more schools, 24 state tournament entries will be taken. Any classes containing 69 to 83 schools will have 20 berths.
Another change made by the amendments is the way they count a school's enrollment. Previous language in the by-laws made it so a school's net minimum enrollment of students in grades 9 to 11 were counted, but the WIAA will now use an adjusted enrollment figure for A schools that takes into account the number of free and reduced students for the month of November.
Any schools that see a higher than average number of free and reduced lunch students will receive a drop in their enrollment figure, which could result in up to a 40 percent drop in enrollment for sake of athletic classification.
According to the most recent numbers from Washington's Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, two Spokane high schools — Ferris and Lewis & Clark, are under the state average of 42.3 percent of students who qualify for free and reduced lunch.
Three high schools in Spokane would be above the state average. Two are within a few percentage point; Shadle Park at 46.6 percent and North Central at 49.6 percent. Rogers High School marks Spokane's highest at 76.1 percent.