Athena-Weston and Helix school districts lose OSAA request for exception

By on Thursday, February 6th, 2025 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories

WILSONVILLE – The Oregon School Activities Association has denied an appeal from both Athena-Weston School District and the Helix School District regarding their cooperative athletic agreement. As a result, Athena-Weston has decided with regret to cancel the agreement instead of being forced to move from a 2A school to 3A.

“Schools that operate under a cooperative agreement sponsorship have the enrollment of both schools combined to determine their classification,” Nate Lowery of OSAA wrote in an email to Elkhorn Media Group. “The combined enrollment of numbers from Griswold and Weston-McEwen (high schools) put them over the threshold to be placed in the 2A classification.”

Lowery said that OSAA policies allow a 10 percent buffer above that threshold, which the two districts have operated under recently, but they have now exceeded that buffer. Lowery said that the ruling wasn’t just applicable to the sport of football even though the initial ruling was made by the OSAA Ad Hoc Football Committee.

“The combined enrollment numbers would impact any sport that Griswold and Weston-McEwen intend to offer as a cooperative sponsorship where they want to remain at the 2A classification,” he wrote.

The Athena-Weston School District has therefore dissolved the partnership, saying they believe it’s in their students’ best interests to remain a 2A school. Both school districts have issued statements outlining the details and expressing displeasure with the denial of the appeal. Those statements (below) are reprinted here in full.

Athena Weston School district (Weston-McEwen High School):

The Athena-Weston School District values our long-standing athletic
partnership with Helix’s Griswold high school and the opportunities
that our cooperative agreement has provided for student-athletes in
our area. Weston-McEwen High School is disappointed by the recent
decision of the OSAA Ad Hoc Committee to reclassify our WM/Griswold
football program to the 3A level in order to maintain our cooperative
agreement with Griswold High School.  The enrollment calculation used
by the OSAA puts WM/Griswold football slightly over the established 2A
cutoff.  Both Districts worked hard to advocate for our
student-athletes and submitted a request for an exception to the OSAA
Executive Board.  Unfortunately, the request was denied.  While we
value our partnership with Griswold, we do not believe that moving to
a higher classification is a safe or logistical best fit for our
students at this time.

As a result of this decision, Weston-McEwen regretfully announces that
we will be dissolving our cooperative agreement with Griswold High
School in order to remain at our current 2A classification. This is
not a decision we make lightly, as our collaboration with Griswold has
been beneficial to both schools and our athletes. It is disheartening
to lose the connections with teammates that have been a part of our
shared programming.

We remain hopeful that in the future, we may be able to revisit this
partnership under more favorable circumstances. Our priority is and
always will be the well-being and success of our student-athletes, and
we will continue to advocate for their best interests as we move
forward.

Helix School District (Griswold High School):

Griswold and Weston-McEwen made an appeal to the OSAA Executive Board at Monday’s meeting, but that appeal was denied. The combined enrollment numbers would impact any sport that Griswold and Weston-McEwen intend to offer as a cooperative sponsorship where they want to remain at the 2A classification.

The Helix School District has valued our long-standing athletic partnership with the Athena-Weston School District and the opportunities that our cooperative agreement has provided for our student-athletes. Both Districts are disappointed by the recent decision of the OSAA Ad Hoc Football Committee to reclassify our athletic program to the 3A level in order to maintain our cooperative agreement with Weston-McEwen High School. The enrollment calculation used by the OSAA puts Griswold/WM football slightly over the established 2A cutoff. Both Districts worked hard to advocate for our student-athletes and submitted a request for an exception to the OSAA Executive Board. Unfortunately, the request was denied.

While both Districts value the partnership, moving to a higher classification is not the best fit for the Athena-Weston School District and as a result, the cooperative agreement between our two schools will be dissolved. This is not a decision that was made lightly, as the collaboration has been beneficial to both schools. It is disheartening to lose connections with teammates that have been a part of the shared program.

We remain hopeful that in the future, we may be able to revisit this partnership under more favorable circumstances. In the meantime, Griswold High School is looking into alternative opportunities for our athletes. If you have further questions, please contact Tammie Parker at tammie.parker@helixsd.org