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The Patriot-News, via reporter Jeremy Elliott, sent out an update on the whole Juniata district switch on pennlive.com. That story is here.
I found a couple things interesting about this story.
First, the Juniata decision to join the District 6-based Mountain League in all sports was followed by a school board decision to change district affiliation from 3 to 6. It has not been a completely smooth process. Neither school board vote on the move to the Mountain League or District 6 was unanimous. In fact, the vote on the District 6 move was 4-2 with three members absent, causing some parental opponents to challenge the validity of that vote.
CORRECTION: As an e-mailer pointed out, the Juniata County School Board vote to transfer Juniata’s district jurisdiction from District 3 to District 6 passed by a 9-0 vote. The vote to switch Juniata’s leagues from the Tri-Valley to the Mountain League passed by a 4-2 vote with three members absent. Simply put, I relied on my memory and not my documentation and got the two votes mixed up. And I thought the other vote was 8-1, not 9-0. Cardinal error.
As such, it invalidates the following sentence that appeared in the original post: So it’s a good idea for Juniata to revisit the decisions, especially given the recent parental uprising.
The board has spoken. And now a group of parents has spoken. But a 9-0 board vote should pretty much seal this deal.
I gotta quit relying on my memory. It ain’t as good as it used to be.
For what it’s worth, I stand by the remainder of the post.
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On the other hand, Juniata is in the Mountain League. That’s done for at least the next two years. So the grumbling about travel is a bit late and maybe a bit misplaced.
The argument has developed that many Juniata parents work in Harrisburg, and that making games and matches at District 6 schools will be a burden. Indeed, a drive from Harrisburg to Mount Union or Martinsburg is neither quick nor particularly easy. On the other hand, it’s not a whole lot different than scurrying up Rt. 147 to Line Mountain, a former Tri-Valley League colleague.
And what about district play? It is true that Tyrone (where Juniata would compete in team wrestling) is about 13 miles farther than Hershey (where Juniata currently competes in wrestling). Tyrone is 70 miles from Mifflintown, Hershey is is slightly less than 60.
But what about other sports? Take football. Last year, Juniata’s four road trips to Twin Valley Conference game were to Line Mountain, Upper Dauphin, Newport and Tri-Valley. Round trip mileage: 402.
This season, Juniata has four Mountain League road trips to Philipsburg-Osceola, Bellefonte, Central Mountain and Lewistown. Sounds exotic, but the round triple mileage of those four games? 436.
Not a significant difference.
I can’t say I’ve done detailed analysis of Juniata’s travel in all sports. It could be that if Juniata goes to District 6 it will experience a net negative in travel distance and time. And getting from Harrisburg to Philipsburg for a football game on a Penn State Friday will require a helicopter. It’s not that the parents don’t have a point.
But with Juniata already locked into the Mountain League, it makes sense for the school to compete in District 6 in the post-season.
The board meets tonight in Mifflintown. It should be interesting.
