It appears all but settled that Siuslaw High School will be in the new six-school Class 3A Umpqua River Conference come fall 2018.

The Vikings will be competing with the Coquille Red Devils, the Douglas Trojans, the Rogue River Chieftains, the South Umpqua Lancers and the Sutherlin Bulldogs.

That's the fallout from a recent gathering of high school athletic directors, followed by a closed work session by the Oregon School Athletic Association's Classification and Districting Committee.

"The majority of voting members of the committee are in favor of moving forward with the 6-classification approach," the committee said in a written update of the proceedings released Thursday (May 4).

"Based on testimony and written correspondence over the past several months, it's evident that a majority of schools believe that a 6-classification approach works best for the students, schools, and communities in our state."

The committee made clear the path it wants to pursue.

"The committee requests that all correspondence reference a 6-classification approach from this point forward," it wrote.

Athletic directors from Class 2A through Class 5A schools voted in favor of 6 classes, 94-35.

Athletic directors in Class 1A did not vote on that issue, but did favor by a vote of 23-16 a cutoff point of 95 between 1A and 2A classes.

Athletic directors in Class 4A (Siuslaw's current level) voted 32-6 in favor of 6 classes.

Athletic directors in Class 6A also did not take a formal vote, but voiced strong support for 5 classes in oral testimony.

"The committee believes the time has come to narrow their approach to one classification system," the committee wrote in its update Thursday.

"(T)here is plenty of work still to be done with cutoff points, league alignments and school placements prior to the group finalizing their recommendations."

The next public meeting of the committee is 9 a.m. Monday, May 22, at the Al Kader Shriners Headquarters (next to the OSAA offices) in Wilsonville.

The committee will follow public testimony that day with a closed work session.

The final recommendations to the OSAA Executive Board will be made Oct. 16 at a special meeting of the committee.

For the complete update, including the schedule of future meetings and the current 6-classification model (Draft No. 15), go online to http://www.osaa.org/docs/committees/classification/20170424update.pdf.

NOTES

Siuslaw moves down a class in the most-recent model, competing with 37 other 3A schools in 5 leagues. ...

The largest school in the Umpqua River Conference would be Sutherlin with an Adjusted 2015-16 ADM of 357, followed by Douglas with 352, Siuslaw with 347, South Umpqua with 336, Coquille with 216 and Rogue River with 208. ...

Class 1A schools would range from 95 down, Class 2A 96 to 205, Class 4A 366 to 700, Class 5A 701 to 1,300 and Class 6A 1,301 and above. ...