KHSAA proposal will move one school out of 11th Region

Scott County High School will stay in the 11th Region when the newest alignment goes into effect, but it will be playing in a different district.

The KHSAA Board of Control voted to move Scott County and Great Crossing, the new high school set to open in Scott County in 2019, to the 41st District for baseball, basketball, soccer, softball and volleyball beginning with the 2019-20 school year.

Following a period of review, the proposed change will face formal adoption in January.

The board also voted to move Woodford County from the 41st District to the 30th District, which is in the 8th Region, to prevent creating a six-team district in the 11th Region.

Scott County currently plays in the 42nd District, which consists of it and four Lexington schools — Bryan Station, Frederick Douglass, Henry Clay and Sayre. The realignment decision would leave those four Lexington schools in the 42nd District, and unify the two Scott County schools from the onset — a desire of the Scott County school board — instead of splitting them into separate districts.

Frankfort, Franklin County and Western Hills — all currently in the 41st District along with Woodford County — will remain in the 41st District when Great Crossing and Scott County enter the district in the 2019-20 school year.

The 30th District currently consists of Anderson County, Collins, Shelby County and Spencer County. Those four teams would remain in the 30th District when Woodford County enters in 2019-20.

Some observers on social media raised the point that Woodford County would have to pass through Franklin County to reach the 30th District schools with which it will be paired. District road trips will be longer for Woodford County, which currently only has to drive 12-15 miles to reach the Franklin County schools. By mileage, its shortest trip will be to Anderson County (13 miles) while its longest will be to Spencer County (40 miles). Trips to Collins (38 miles) and Shelby County (35 miles) are also longer than any trip within its current district.

KHSAA Commissioner Julian Tackett said that “there’s never gonna be a perfect geographic alignment,” and brought up Kenton County, which has schools playing in three different regions because of their physical location within the county.

“Sometimes to get clusters of four (teams in a district), you’ve gotta do unusual things,” Tackett said.

Woodford County Superintendent Scott Hawkins, who is on the KHSAA Board of Control, does not think increased travel will be too much of an issue for the teams at the high school.

“I know anytime you do realignment not everyone’s gonna be happy, and I understand that,” Hawkins said. I think when you look at all of the pieces that go into that, which one makes the most logical sense and which one makes sense geographically. And I think what the board decided today met that criteria.”

This story was originally published November 15, 2017 at 11:52 AM with the headline "KHSAA proposal will move one school out of 11th Region."