By Mark Potts
Valley City Times-Record

The controversy over Valley City's move to Division B in athletics and activities seems to have cooled... at least for now.
On Friday, the North Dakota High School Activities Association reaffirmed its decision to create two divisions in athletics, split at an enrollment mark of 400 high school students, but the board moved the division cutoff to a 325 enrollment for all fine arts activities.
This means Valley City sports will be Division B in the 2009-'10 school year while all fine arts activities will be Division A and stay in the East Region.
The potential move of Valley City's fine arts programs – an area the school has been consistently competitive in – to Division B was one of the reasons why schools were opposing the move.
"We were very happy and very grateful to the board for the decision to at least compromise," said Rick Diegel, the superintendent of Edgeley School, one of the main schools opposing Valley City's move. "It was certainly a very good gesture on the part of the NDHSAA board."
Al Cruchet, Valley City activities director, said Valley City is happy with the decision as well.
"We are OK with that," he said. "To be very honest, our fine arts people – back when we started this whole process – said 'We're happy where we're at in "A" but we'll do what's best for the school.' Our fine arts people are OK with the idea they would still be in "A.""
The board's decision is meant to be a one-year compromise until the state settles on the future of high school activities.
The board would like one of two options to be adopted by the 2010-'11 school year: 1. An 80-40 plan placing the top 40 "B" schools by enrollment in one category and the bottom 80 in another, with each category providing four teams to a state tournament; 2. A three-division plan.
Over the next four months the board will be gathering input on the plans and organizing informational meetings. In March the board will make a decision on what plan they will propose to the membership.
Mitch Carlson, superintendent of LaMoure School, said that although they still have reservations about Valley City in Division B, the school will accept Friday's decision and drop its opposition to see what long-term plan the state comes up with.
LaMoure and Edgeley had been at the forefront of a group of schools ready to propose a constitutional amendment that would move the cutoff between "A" and "B" to an enrollment of 300. Carlson said with the board's commitment to a long-term plan, LaMoure will not be proposing an amendment in the immediate future. Diegel declined to comment on the future of the possible amendment, saying he had yet to correspond with the 27 schools that had issued Edgeley letters of support in the matter.

For full story, see Tuesday's edition of the Valley City Times-Record.