PHOTO OF THE DAY: MEETING TIME

Members of the Freeman Academy Board of Directors, seated on the left, and board and school officials from Freeman Public are pictured during a special meeting late Wednesday afternoon, April 17 to discus a proposal from Freeman Academy about an sports cooperative, and also hear public input. Here are the key points as they were Thursday morning:

• Freeman Academy desperately wants to find a “home” for its student-athletes with the pending dissolve of the Bearcats cooperative with Marion;
• There appears to be strong support for the all-Freeman co-op because of what it would mean for community relationships;
• There is also hesitation from some because it could mean a jump to Class A;
• That won’t be known for sure until the student count for next year is submitted to the South Dakota High School Activities Association the last week of September;
• The new count would be applied to the following two years — 2026-27 and 2027-28;
• If the count in September pushed the co-op into Class A, it is unclear into which division the all-Freeman team would fall for the 2025-26 year — something that appears to be a decision that will be made by the South Dakota High School Activities Association’s board of directors.