Deitsch: Fairview staying in WSC
By Kevin Kelley
Fairview Park
Published Oct. 8, 2008

Contrary to circulating rumors, the Fairview Park City Schools have no plans to change athletic conferences, Superintendent Brion Deitsch told West Life. However, Fairview High Principal Kevin Liptrap acknowledged saying that the schools were looking at the option of joining a conference of similarly sized schools.

The rumors of a conference switch arose when three people, including former Fairview Athletic Director Tom Faska, passed out yellow flyers to parents during Fairview High School’s Homecoming parade Sept. 26.

“Are you aware that the Superintendent and the School Board President are trying to leave the WSC at the end of this school year?” the flyer asked.

The flyer allege that Deitsch and Board President Dennis Rehor want to break the contract the district has with the West Shore Conference to join the Patriot Athletic Conference, which is made up of mostly of districts in Lorain County such as Oberlin, Wellington and Keystone. Lutheran West High School, located in Rocky River, is also a member of the PAC.

The flyers, signed by “concerned citizens of Fairview Park Schools,” also question why there has been no public discussion on the issue and urge people to voice their opinions on the matter to Deitsch and Rehor.

Deitsch told West Life the district has no plans to switch conferences.

“We haven’t applied to go anywhere,” Deitsch said. “We haven’t done anything.”

Faska, currently assistant principal of Midview High School in Eaton Township, said the information in the flyer is true.

“Everything in there is 100 percent accurate, and I can prove it,” Faska told West Life.

Faska said that at a September meeting of WSC principals, Liptrap said Fairview was looking to leave the WSC, possibly at the end of this school year, for the PAC. Faska said he was not personally present at the meeting but was told about Liptraps’s comments by his boss, Midview Principal Susan Bobola.

When contacted by West Life, Liptrap said that at the September meeting, he said that “Fairview is looking at options of other conferences that have schools that are similar to Fairview’s size or number of students.”

Faska was appointed to the Fairview Park Board of Education in January 2005 to fill the vacancy caused by the sudden death of board president Maureen Cundiff. Later that summer, he resigned to pursue the position of Fairview athletic director. He was hired, but the position was eliminated several months later.

In the summer of 2006, the district hired Liptrap as assistant principal at Fairview High School and athletic director. This fall, Liptrap became Fairview High’s principal.

Deitsch acknowledged having conversations with officials from other WSC schools about expanding the conference. However, such conversations were only in the preliminary stages, he said.

Deitsch said he believes the WSC needs to look at expansion for the long-term health of the conference. One possibility would be to have two divisions within the conference — one for larger schools and one for smaller schools, he said.

The superintendent acknowledged that Fairview High School’s small size relative to other WSC schools can make it difficult to field competitive teams in sports like football and soccer. However, he noted the Warriors have been competitive within the conference in sports such as volleyball, wrestling and tennis.

“(Enrollment) size does have an impact,” Deitsch said, “but it’s not an all-determining factor.”

Success in athletics is cyclical, Deitsch said, and can be determined be other factors such as consistency in coaching positions.

Deitsch said his goal as superintendent is to provide the district’s students with opportunities to succeed.

Liptrap told West Life that he, too, would like to see the WSC expand but was not sure where the conference was in the expansion process.

Liptrap said that whether by expanding the WSC or joining another conference, his goal is to have Fairview teams compete against schools of a comparable size.

Fairview joined the WSC four years ago. The flyer said the conference bylaws state that any team leaving before the five-year contract expires can be subject to a $10,000 fine.

Deitsch said he received two calls in response to the flyers. In each case, the caller was concerned about the district spending money to get out of a contract.

“People can relax about that,” Deitsch told West Life. “We’re not going to spend a dime on something like that.”

Deitsch acknowledged that the WSC bylaws include a fine for leaving the conference early. However, he said he did not believe the district would be subject to such a fine because there are no records of the Fairview Board of Education approving a resolution agreeing to such bylaws.

“To me, it’s moot because it was never approved by the board and, No. 2, I have no interest in leaving the West Shore Conference,” Deitsch said.

The West Shore Conference consists of Avon, Bay, Fairview, Firelands, Midview, North Ridgeville, Rocky River, Sherwood Fairview and Vermilion.

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