Clinton attends OVC meeting with possible expansion schools

CLINTON – As stated in a previous Clinton Journal article, the Okaw Valley Conference hopes to have eight or 10 teams by the 2014-15 school year.

On Tuesday, therefore, Clinton participated in what Principal Candice Swift described as merely an “informational” meeting with five teams interested in listening to an offer to join the OVC.

“We just provided information about the conference,” Swift said.

Clinton, along with Maroa-Forsyth, St. Teresa, Monticello and Tolono Unity, invited five schools to the meeting for preliminary talks about a possible replacement of seven departing schools.

Those teams invited to the meeting were Champaign St. Thomas More, St. Joseph-Ogden and Paxton-Buckley-Loda of the Sangamon Valley Conference and Eureka and Stanford Olympia of the Corn Belt Conference.

Olympia’s 2012-13 enrollment stands at 569, which would trump Monticello’s conference-high enrollment of 559. Clinton has an enrollment of 504.

Eureka’s enrollment currently stands at 469. St. Thomas More and St. Joseph-Ogden’s enrollments are 485.1 and 494, respectively, while Paxton-Buckley-Loda enters this school year with an official enrollment of 427.

If all seven schools contemplating departure from the OVC (Argenta-Oreana, Central A&M, Meridian, Shelbyville, Sullivan, Tuscola and Warrensburg-Latham) decide to leave, it would leave the conference with five schools.

For the complete article see the 07-13-2012 issue.

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