Decorah School District helping lead the way to improving sportsmanship, accountability of NEIC

Decorah School District's Superintendent Mark Lane and Decorah High School Athletic Director Adam Riley put their "pencils to paper" with their proposed amendment to the bylaws for improving the overall sportsmanship in the Northeast Iowa Conference.

Referring to an incident involving racist chants by fans at a Waverly-Shell Rock baseball game targeting a Black player on the Charles City baseball team, Lane said, "We are well aware of some challenges that need to be addressed and worked on from this summer. We asked ourselves how we can lead and be a part of improving our conference."

In late July, Lane and Riley worked together to submit the proposed amendment to the other conference superintendents and athletic directors. In short, the amendment says Decorah Schools would like a more robust evaluation system for conducting sportsmanship assessments and providing feedback to member districts and/or district-to-district peer evaluation.

Riley said, "All athletic directors are trying to find the way forward.  Up to this point, we've only had one data point piece in regards to sportsmanship evaluation.  We are looking to find ways to move the discussion forward. But it's going to take some time to do it right.  Understandably, there are a lot of emotions involved."

The Decorah School District has requested the amendment to the bylaws be discussed at the next conference meeting at the end of August. This meeting will include principals, athletic directors, and superintendents. Any action taken on approving the amendment, however, will take place at the conference executive board level, which is the superintendent group.

"Part of our urgency," said Lane, "is to find a pathway forward and making the NEIC a viable conference for all of our students."

There was a short discussion highlighting the amendment and the district's efforts for improving sportsmanship at Monday night's school board meeting, but no action was required from the board at this time.