Successful appeals change region memberships for local GHSA schools

The Georgia High School Association's Reclassification Committee heard appeals from 23 different schools Thursday seeking changes for their respective region assignments for the next two-year cycle starting with the 2022-23 school year. Three of the appeals, each approved Thursday, have direct impact on the makeup of regions involving local Bartow County schools. Villa Rica requested a lateral move from Region 7-AAAAA to Region 5-AAAA. That appeal was approved by the GHSA committee. Villa Rica would have been a 7th member of Region 7-AAAAA along with Cartersville, Cass, Woodland, Calhoun, Dalton, and Hiram. As a result, Region 7-AAAAA will include only six schools. In Class AAA, Gilmer and Pickens were originally assigned to Region 7-AAA. Those two schools would have been the two western-most schools in a nine-school region that stretch all the way east to Hart County. The appeals by Gilmer and Pickens to join Region 6-AAA, which includes Adairsville, were successful Thursday. As a result, Region 6-AAA will be an 11-school region that will also include Bremen, Coahulla Creek, LaFayette, Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe, Murray County, North Murray, Ridgeland, and Ringgold.