Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Five area football programs changed divisions on Thursday as a result of the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s decision to remove students who attend community schools and STEM schools from public school enrollment counts.

Youngstown East and Warren Harding both dropped from Division I to Division II while East Liverpool moved from Division III to Division IV and Ursuline and Mooney moved up from Division V to Division IV.

Students at community schools and STEM schools are allowed to participate in extracurricular activities at their local public school.

Since data from the Ohio Department of Education included the public school district where those students reside, the OHSAA previously decided to include those community school and STEM school students in the enrollment counts of their local public school.

For districts with multiple high schools, those students were divided evenly among that districts’ schools. However, the OHSAA reversed that decision earlier this month and released the revised figures on Thursday.

Here’s the breakdown for the Valley’s football teams:

Division I (581 and over): Austintown Fitch (665).

Division II (361-580): Boardman (548), East (522), Warren Harding (571).

Division III (257-360): Canfield (323), Howland (343), Niles (284), Poland (278).

Division IV (186-256): Beaver Local (245), Cardinal Mooney (186), East Liverpool (230), Girard (199), Hubbard (242), Lakeview (210), Salem (244), Struthers (229), Ursuline (194), West Branch (228).

Division V (144-185): Champion (V), Crestview (161), East Palestine (145), LaBrae (159), Liberty (145), South Range (152).

Division VI (100-153): Brookfield (129), Campbell (127), Columbiana (134), Lisbon (102), McDonald (104), Mineral Ridge (113), Newton Falls (124), Southern (105), Springfield (118), United (129), Western Reserve (104).

Division VII (99-under): Jackson-Milton (87), Leetonia (91), Lowellville (76), Mathews (83), Sebring (63), Southington (85), Warren JFK (81), Wellsville (91), Valley Christian (86).