1. Roll Call
2. Approval of Minutes
3. Old Business

1. Proposal to change Article II, Section 24 of the TSSAA Bylaws to state: "Except for the eligibility rule in regard to age, the Executive Director shall have the authority to set aside the effect of any eligibility rule upon an individual student when…"
   (The phrase "and to the number of semesters in school" has been removed from Article II, Section 24.)
   The Legislative Council, at its December meeting, voted to table this proposal to the March meeting and ask the staff to bring back the proposal to the Council in March with more specific information concerning the wording of the proposal and the criteria that would have to be met for an exception to the semester rule. This would also include a definition of the particular students this rule would address.
   We have received information from Ms. Barbara Daush, Principal of St. Agnes Academy, and Mr. Wayne Weedon and Dr. Gail Johnson, Memphis City School System, regarding this particular proposal and the types of students that should be dealt with under an exception to the semester rule. In addition, the staff has reviewed other associations that grant exceptions to the semester rule under the hardship rule.
   The recommendations of the staff for the criteria that would be met in order for students to be considered for a hardship exception for the semester rule would be:
   Add to Article II, Section 24 item "e" to state:
   In the case of request for an exception to the semester rule:

1. the conditions causing the student to be in school in his/her 9th and 10th semesters since first entering the 9th grade are unrelated to participation in athletics;
2. the request for additional semesters is for only the 9th and/or 10th semester since first entering the 9th grade;
3. the student has not, nor will not, compete in more than four seasons (either practicing or playing at any level) in a sport(s) since first entering the 9th grade.

2. Proposal for a Change in Article IV, Section 11 of the TSSAA Bylaws. The Legislative Council, at its December meeting, requested that a proposal be brought back to the Council in March from the staff for discussion in regard to the TSSAA Sports Calendar. Specifically, the Council requested that the proposal look at possible limitations of the Sports Calendar, issues of open facilities, conditioning, etc.
   The staff is recommending that the proposed changes be discussed by the Council and Board with changes made at this meeting. The staff is then recommending that no action be taken until the March 2007 meeting. The next step would be that the proposed calendar, after review by the Council and Board, would go to the Coordinators' meeting in April for discussion and explanation. The proposed calendar would then be discussed in all rules meetings with all coaches in the 2006-2007 school year, with final action to be taken by the Legislative Council at the March 2007 meeting to go into effect with the 2007-2008 school year.

4. New Business

1. Revision of TSSAA Bylaws
   Supplement #2 contains proposed revision of Article IV of the TSSAA Bylaws. This will complete the revision of the Bylaws. This has taken the existing Articles IV, V, VI, and VII and placed them in one article (Article IV) and we have placed the heading "Miscellaneous" over all of this section.
   In the revision, Article V, Sections 6 and 7 "Management of Athletic Contests" has been moved to Article I following "Responsibility of the Principal."
2. Proposal of the Tennessee Middle School Athletic Association Committee
   The TMSAA Committee is requesting that the following statement be added to the TMSAA Sports Calendar:
   "Postseason tournaments or bowl games may be played provided the plan is approved by the state office annually. Any postseason tournament or playoff format that exceeds the number of regular season contests allowed must be approved by the state office."
3. Proposal from Rossview High School to Change TSSAA Bylaws (Article III, Section 7A), which states:
   In contests in which registered TSSAA officials are involved, the officials will immediately notify the state office with both a telephone call and a written report if players are ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct. In soccer, this would be for a RED CARD ONLY. In sports where registered TSSAA officials are not used, it will be the responsibility of the principal and/or coach of the players involved to report this incident to the state office.
   The request from Rossview High School is to make an exception to the sentence, which states: "…In soccer, this would be for a RED CARD ONLY…" You would add an exception to this rule that states that an athlete penalized under Rule 12-8-3 paragraph c-1, which states: "a player anywhere on the field (other than a goalkeeper within his/her own penalty area) who deliberately handles a ball to prevent it from going into the goal;"
   The request for an exception would be that students penalized under this part of the misconduct rule in soccer would not have to sit out the next game as a result of the ejection which has occurred under the soccer rules.
4. Discussion of Article II, Section 2, Third Paragraph
   The third paragraph of Article II, Section 2 states:
   A student who returns to a member school after attendance at a school of correction or alternative school may be eligible for athletic participation provided the school of correction of alternative school is accredited by the Tennessee State Department of Education and provided the student returns to the school attended before entering the school of correction or alternative school.
   Questions have arisen in regard to students who are "staffed" out of or under discipline by a school and are not sent to an alternative school, but are sent to another school in that system or a school in another school system. When they return to school A, they are ineligible under the transfer rule (A-B-A).
   The issue becomes that the student is ineligible at school A even though the discipline is less than if they were sent to a school of correction or an alternative school.
   The staff is requesting that the Legislative Council discuss this rule in light of what is occurring with students in schools today.