Through months of study by the Oregon School Activities Association's classification and districting committee, and 18 proposed drafts, it appeared a given that Siuslaw and Marshfield would not be in the same league next school year.

Then came Draft 19, which was released Thursday, and the two schools are together again for another four years.

Go figure.

Things can change, but the OSAA is running out of time, with perhaps one more draft to consider before a final proposal is adopted next month.

It may have been a crazy assignment for the committee to begin with, given how late up-to-date enrollment numbers were tossed into the equation.

And it's not a simple matter of counting heads. Oregon uses a formula that starts with a base number, basically a simple head count, and then adjusts using a school's socioeconomic (SES) factor.

For Siuslaw, the latest base number (2016-17) is 432 students, adjusted to 376 for SES.

That pushed the Vikings back into Class 4A for the four-year block starting with the 2018-19 school year.

And it pushed Siuslaw back into the Sky-Em League with mostly larger schools. Instead if being one of the larger 3A schools, Siuslaw will be one of the smallest in 4A.

Only Banks (368), Elmira (370) and Sisters (371) are smaller among the 33 Class 4A schools in Draft 19.

For the newly proposed Sky-Em League, here are the numbers:

• ADM School Base
• 370 Elmira 411
• 376 Siuslaw 432
• 476 Junction City 535
• 521 Marist 521
• 635 Cottage Grove 739
• 650 Marshfield 741

An explanation of the OSAA's computation of ADM (average daily membership) with figures for all member schools is available online at:

http://www.osaa.org/docs/broadcast/1617ComputationofADM.pdf