High school football in Louisiana could be delayed if Phase 4 of state's reopening not reached in time
BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana's top school board will decide Tuesday whether to require students and teachers to wear masks during the COVID-19 crisis, while the start of high school football seems tenuous.
Education and athletic officials shared their plans with the House Education Committee Monday as the state prepares to reopen schools in August.
Louisiana Education Superintendent Cade Brumley is recommending mask requirements in its reopening plan, but the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) will make the final decision when it meets at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The BESE guidelines will cover almost 1 million people — 800,000 students, 48,000 teachers and 100,000 employees.
While BESE sets guidelines for schools, the Louisiana High School Athletic Association has authority over sports.
LHSAA executive director Eddie Bonine said the football season remains in place for now, but acknowledged it could be delayed.
"At no time has there been any conversation that we were going to cancel any fall sports," Bonine told member of the committee. "There are no proposals of shortening seasons or modifying seasons."
That said, the LHSAA won't allow football games until Phase 4 of reopening. Louisiana remains in Phase 2 less than two months before games are set to begin.
After the House Education Committee meeting Bonine conceded in a text to the USA Today Network that the "math (is) not good!" for an on-time start to the season.
"It is my hope our state settles down and we can get to Phase III ... sooner the better ... BUT .... the longer we extend Phase II ... math not good!" Bonine texted.