BY NATE KOTISSO | THE MONITOR
The University Interscholastic League approved an appeal by Donna ISD to adjust enrollment figures at both of its high schools after the district mistakenly sent incorrect numbers on the UIL’s snapshot enrollment day in late October.
The UIL released its preliminary enrollment figures, which were reported by schools on Oct. 27, during the first week of December heading into the 2018-20 reclassification cycle. Donna High (2,195 students) and Donna North (2,310) submitted enrollment numbers suggesting both schools would transition into Class 6A. However, Donna ISD recognized the enrollment errors and filed an appeal with the UIL on Dec. 6.
According to the new enrollment figures approved by the UIL, Donna North (2,231 students) will remain as a 6A school, but Donna High (2,126 students) will now be a Class 5A school, competing in Class 5A Division I for football. The UIL’s cutoff to be a 6A school is 2,190 students.
Donna High football coach Ramiro Leal said the confusion was caused by “clerical errors.”
“We have what we call the 3D Academy, which is where people who are behind on credits can go there, retrieve them and graduate on time,” Leal said. “Some of those kids come from Donna High, and some of those kids pertain to Donna North.”
The 3D Academy in Donna accounts for 142 students from both high schools — 77 from Donna High and 65 from Donna North. The district also had to account for the six Donna ISD students participating in the Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Program in McAllen. Two JJAEP students belong to Donna High, while the other four are from Donna North.
When the district reported its figures to the UIL in late October, the 142 and six figures were erroneously lumped into the separate enrollments of Donna High and Donna North.
“Our then-superintendent (Fernando Castillo) wrote a letter to the UIL specifying that instead of duplicating it (the 3D Academy and JJAEP numbers), the numbers should have been split correctly,” Leal said. “The UIL read the letter with all the specific explanations on it, and they went ahead and reclassified Donna High back to 5A.”
Donna High joins Brownsville Lopez, Brownsville Pace, Brownsville Porter, Brownsville Veterans, Mission Veterans, La Joya Palmview, PSJA Memorial, PSJA Southwest and Rio Grande City as the other Class 5A Division I football schools in the Valley.
“Like everything else, we wanted to make sure that we did our due diligence to compete in the right classification,” Leal said. “We weren’t asking above and beyond things that weren’t true. We wanted to be classified where our numbers showed we should be classified. I don’t know how the numbers were sent to the UIL, but as long as it’s clarified, that’s all we were asking for.”
While Donna High is one of 10 Class 5A Division I football programs in the Valley, the school won’t know which district it will compete in until Feb. 1.
“Maybe they’ll split us and put us with Corpus Christi’s 5A schools, Laredo’s schools, have us in an all-Valley 5A district, or something completely different,” Leal said. “You never know how it’s going to work out.”