Board discusses possible girls-hockey co-op with Sacred Heart; no vote taken

District administrators raised the possibility of pursuing a cooperative girls-hockey program with Sacred Heart, which currently co-ops with Crookston. The discussion was exploratory; the board asked staff to gather more information from coaches, parents and league officials before returning with a formal recommendation.

Superintendent Kevin Grover (presenting the item) said Sacred Heart approached the district and that the new girls coach is supportive. Grover said the district was not under a time crunch and could investigate how a co-op would affect competitive classification and class-size counts. "Right now, they're with Crookston," Grover said. "They approached Scott, had a conversation. He's had a conversation with our new girls coach, which I guess is supportive."

Board members asked how the co-op would affect classification (for example, whether adding players from another school would move East Grand Forks into a different class for sports). Administrators explained that classification rules vary by sport and are typically based on the 9–12 enrollment used for classification calculations; a co-op for one sport does not automatically reclassify every sport.

Trustees also raised concern that cooperating with another school could encourage some families to transfer if they preferred the partner program, and asked for data on how many Sacred Heart players would be involved. Staff said they believed there were roughly two players currently, but that district officials would confirm numbers and examine impacts on roster size and classification.

The board did not vote. Grover said staff would pursue more information and bring a specific proposal back to the board if warranted.