Park High School: Community group votes 2-to-1 in favor of leaving Suburban East

Park moved closer to leaving the Suburban East Conference when the results of the school’s recent Community Input Night showed community members at the meeting favored a conference change by a 2-to-1 margin.

Out of the roughly 150 people in attendance at the Community Input Night, held Jan. 11, at Park High School, 64 voted Park should pursue participation in a conference other than the Suburban East Conference, while 37 voted the school should not and two were undecided. The results came from a survey given to small groups toward the end of the meeting, which also included questions on what the Park athletics program is doing right and where it could improve. Full results have been posted to the Park High School website (also attached to this story).

Additionally, the parents of the Park High School SITE team stated that they “believe the current conference has led to a decrease in participation” and that “general consensus was that a new athletic conference would be a better fit for the kids in terms of morale.”

Park Activities Director Phil Kuemmel said the next step is to gather coaches and administration at Park High School to discuss what the next step should be and, if the consensus is to move forward in an attempt to leave the Suburban East, to speak with representatives from the SEC and other conferences. The Classic Suburban Conference is the school’s first choice if it was to leave the SEC.

Park has had internal and external discussions on the topic of leaving the Suburban East Conference since 2009. Kuemmel said the final step would be to gain school board approval to leave the Suburban East and it would likely take over a year to completely join a different conference or form a new conference if either of those decisions were made.

See the full story in the Feb. 1 issue of the Bulletin

Tags: sports, park, wolfpack, prep, updates