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most of the schools with more than 500 students voted no, with most large schools other than Sioux Falls' high schools opposed.
• The proposed change would have reserved one spot on the activities association board for Sioux Falls and Rapid City, the two largest districts in the state. The "large school," or Division I, seat now includes candidates from schools such as Aberdeen Central, Watertown and Brandon Valley.
• "We'd like to have a bigger voice in the activities association than we do," said Doug Morrison, the president of the Sioux Falls School Board. "We have such a large population of kids in our district. We seem to be excluded, I guess, by virtue of the rules that are in place."
• But other schools weren't comfortable with what they saw as reserving a seat for Sioux Falls. Tim Mitchell, the Rapid City Area Schools superintendent, said he liked "the current state where people were being elected at large ... without guaranteeing seats."
• Mitchell noted that Rapid City has had plenty of success electing representatives to the activities association board. Even though his district would have had less competition under the new system, he wasn't convinced Rapid City would benefit from the reorganization.
• Gross said he thinks the rule change would lessen the representation of the Mitchell district and similar schools.
• "If Sioux Falls gets representation through our present process, great," Gross said. "We feel they would represent us well. I also don't think we need to create special circumstances to adjust what is in place already."
• Sioux Falls hasn't had a representative on the activities association board in almost 15 years, though it ran candidates in several races. Other large districts such as Aberdeen and Rapid City haven't had any such difficulties winning seats.
• The change in the reorganization also would have changed the board from three divisions to four smaller ones. That would have given some of the many small schools in the state a better chance of getting on the board.
• "We just thought it was better representation for all involved," said Lake Preston superintendent Tim Casper.
• Whalen noted that the large number of small schools in South Dakota -- a majority of the state's high schools have fewer than 100 students -- make competition for elected office difficult.
• "If you're a small school ... there's a lot of schools in that division," Whalen said. "You may have a feeling that, 'Boy, it's really hard for us to get somebody on. ...' Sioux Falls would like to see even less competition to get onto the activities association board, and they're dealing with a lot less competition to get on the board than

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