Frankfort High School wants out of KHSAA’s 11th Region, citing travel concerns
Pointing to travel costs and other geographical concerns, Frankfort Independent Schools asked the Kentucky High School Athletic Association on Wednesday to move Frankfort High School out of Central Kentucky’s 11th Region for basketball and other sports.
Frankfort currently resides in the 11th Region’s 41st District along with three other schools located in Franklin County — Western Hills and Franklin County high schools and Frankfort Christian Academy — in addition to Great Crossing High School in Georgetown. The 11th Region also includes schools in Fayette and Madison counties.
Franklin Independent Schools superintendent Sheri D. Satterly offered the 8th Region’s 30th District as a potential new home for Frankfort High during the public comment section of the KHSAA’s board of control meeting Wednesday.
That’s the same district Woodford County joined in 2019 in a move that took them out of the 11th Region when Great Crossing opened and took its place in the 41st District.
While travel to some schools in the 8th Region would technically be further away than some of those in the 11th, Satterly said longer commutes due to traffic are a significant cost issue. Frankfort competes in the 11th Region in basketball, baseball, softball, soccer and volleyball.
“Transportation reimbursement for us in the legislative budget only reimburses mileage,” Satterly said. “We all know that traveling from Frankfort to a Lexington school at 4:30 in the afternoon, even though the mileage might be less, the bus-driver pay is not going to be less. Most of our bus drivers at that point are in overtime because they’re on four-hour contracts, and they’ve already gotten their 20 hours for the week. So, they are getting time-and-a-half to sit on a bus on the interstate on a trip that should by Google Maps only take 30 minutes. But it doesn’t really take 30 minutes.”
Travel costs are significant for Frankfort because the small school of only about 350 high school students in the state’s capital has a much smaller tax base than others its size due to 76 percent of the land in its district being tax exempt, Satterly said.
“Most of the property that sits in our district is state and federal property. We’re about 50% tuition because of that, because there’s nowhere to live,” Satterly said “So we don’t have the revenue coming in that other districts have coming in. Our budget is about $12 million. Franklin County’s is about $65 million. So there’s your big difference.”
Frankfort currently covers sports transportation costs out of its general fund.
“Our teams do not have to fundraise for it,” Satterly said. “And we really don’t want to get to the point where we have to do that, but we will if we have to. But we’re hoping you will at least consider our request.”
Satterly noted Frankfort borders more counties that are part of the 8th Region than those of the 11th and is aligned with most 8th Region schools in the Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative, one of the support organizations for area districts. She also pointed out that Woodford’s 2019 move to the 8th Region created an unusual travel situation for each school.
“We cross Woodford to get to most 11th Region schools, and Woodford, being in the 8th, crosses us to get to most 8th Region schools,” Satterly said.
The next step in Frankfort’s request, according to KHSAA commissioner Julian Tackett, would be for the KHSAA’s staff to get representatives of the 30th and 41st districts together to see if a solution could be worked out among the schools to offer the board.
Satterly told the board Wednesday that two of the five teams in the 30th, Anderson County and Spencer County, supported the move. Woodford County and Shelby County opposed it. Collins was not mentioned in Satterly’s proposal.
“I don’t know that geography is that clean an issue,” Tackett said of Satterly’s presentation. “I really think her commentary regarding costs is worth consideration. They’re in a very unusual situation. Probably other than our military bases, I don’t think we’ve got schools that have that little property they could tax and generate money on.”
The KHSAA typically addresses realignment during its January meetings, so no decision is imminent.
Last January, the KHSAA approved a realignment in Louisville’s 6th Region to more properly reflect the geography of the area. That decision flipped the home districts of Evangel Christian and Bullitt East in basketball and other sports. It was a move the KHSAA urged schools in those districts to resolve themselves, but the swap ultimately got decided by the KHSAA board.
Current alignment for basketball
8TH REGION
29th District: North Oldham, Oldham County, South Oldham
30th District: Anderson County, Collins, Shelby County, Spencer County, Woodford County
31st District: Carroll County, Eminence, Gallatin County, Henry County, Owen County, Trimble County
32nd District: Grant County, Simon Kenton, Walton-Verona, Williamstown
11TH REGION
41st District: Frankfort, Frankfort Christian, Franklin County, Great Crossing, Western Hills
42nd District: Bryan Station, Frederick Douglass, Henry Clay, Sayre, Scott County
43rd District: Lafayette, Lexington Catholic, Lexington Christian, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Tates Creek
44th District: Berea, Madison Central, Madison Southern, Model
This story was originally published May 7, 2025 at 5:12 PM.
