Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools

Salado Civic Center, which houses the TAPPS headquarters

The Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools, or TAPPS, is an organization headquartered in the Salado Civic Center in downtown Salado, Texas.[1][2] It creates rules for, and sometimes administers, almost all athletic and academic contests for non-public high schools in Texas. (Texas, unlike most states, has separate organizations for public and private schools, but public and private schools may schedule each other in competition.)

Activities range from football and other sports to academic and fine arts competitions.

As of 2012 TAPPS organizes competitions for over 200 private schools in Texas.[3]

TAPPS was established in the 1970s in order to coordinate athletic competitions among Christian schools.[3]

Controversies

In 2010 Iman Academy Southwest, a Muslim school, submitted an application to join TAPPS. TAPPS responded by asking Iman to complete a questionnaire with questions like "Historically, there is nothing in the Koran that fully embraces Christianity or Judaism in the way a Christian and/or a Jew understands his religion. Why, then, are you interested in joining an association whose basic beliefs your religion condemns?" Iman Academy SW did not fill out the questionnaire and the attached application, and TAPPS denied Iman SW admission into the league. Iman SW did not appeal the decision.[3]

In 2012 TAPPS came under harsh criticism after it refused to reschedule a semifinals basketball game scheduled for 9 p.m. on Friday March 2 despite the fact that Robert M. Beren Academy, an Orthodox Jewish school, asked that its players not play on Jewish Sabbath.[4] The school had won the regional championship to advance for their first trip to the semi-finals.[5] An appeal was made by Beren academy but denied by TAPPS under its bylaws set in the 1970s. TAPPS received legal pressure and pressure from Mayor Annise Parker of Houston as well as hundreds of letters.[4] TAPPS eventually relented and allowed the game to be rescheduled under this pressure.[3][6]

The controversies with Iman Academy Southwest and Robert M. Beren Academy drew much attention nationwide through the New York Times and caused many to call for a review of the association.[7]

In 2015 a school within the Association (Lutheran High School North) caused controversy by discriminating against one of its students on the basis of orientation finally forcing this student to leave and creating a substantial amount of media coverage.[8][9][10]

Groupings

Like the UIL, TAPPS aligns member schools into districts by geography and enrollment size for various contests. Each contest has a slightly different alignment based on the participating schools, but most follow the same basic framework. The districts are mostly decided behind closed doors by TAPPS every even year, and are an attempt to keep schools within a certain distance of their home town when attending competitions. Like the UIL, the districts are the first progression to the state championship.

Schools are further broken down with a letter classification to separate them from other schools of varying sizes. The purpose is ensure that schools compete only with others with similar size talent pools and resources. TAPPS's general classifications are 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, and previously 6A; unlike the UIL, whose official designations are strictly alphabetic, TAPPS officially uses alphanumeric designations for its classifications. The largest schools are classified as 5A (6A from the fall of 2005 until TAPPS returned to 5 classifications for the 08-09 school year), and the smallest are known as 1A. However, TAPPS uses different classification schemes in some other competitions (also by enrollment; lower numbers indicate lower enrollment unless otherwise indicated):

TAPPS includes 8 other sports under the normal 1A through 5A alignments:

2014-2016 alignment

TAPPS has released re-alignments for the 2014-2016 period.

5A schools[11]

4A schools[12]

3A schools[13]

2A schools[14]

1A schools[15]

  • Macedonian Christian Academy (Alamo)
  • Living Stones (Alvin)
  • Holy Cross Catholic Academy (Amarillo)
  • North Star School (Arlington)
  • Faith Academy (Bellville)
  • Brenham Christian Academy (Brenham)
  • Victory Life Academy (Brownwood)
  • First Baptist School (Brownsville)
  • Still Creek Academy (Bryan)
  • Calvary Baptist School (Conroe)
  • Lifestyle Christian School (Conroe)
  • Oak Ridge Christian Academy (Conroe)
  • Oaks Adventist Christian School (Cypress)
  • The Westwood School (Dallas)
  • Dallas International School (Dallas)
  • The Selwyn School (Denton)
  • Harvest Christian Academy (Edinburg)
  • Jesus Chapel (El Paso)
  • Covenant Classical School (Fort Worth)
  • The Heritage School (Fredericksburg)
  • North Central Texas Academy (Granbury)
  • The Fulton School (Heath)
  • The Banff School (Houston)
  • St. Stephen's Episcopal School (Houston)
  • Family Christian (Houston)
  • Southwest Christian (Houston)
  • Stone Gate Christian School (Irving)
  • Northeast Christian Academy (Kingwood)
  • Longview Christian School (Longview)
  • All Saints Episcopal School (Lubbock)
  • Southcrest Christian School (Lubbock)
  • Kingdom Prep Academy (Lubbock)
  • Legacy Preparatory Christian Academy (Magnolia)
  • South Texas Christian Academy (McAllen)
  • Juan Diego Academy (Mission)
  • Regents Academy (Nacogdoches)
  • Faith Christian Academy (Palmhurst)
  • The Alexander School (Richardson)
  • Calvary Episcopal School (Richmond)
  • Cornerstone Christian School (San Angelo)
  • Town East Christian School (San Antonio)
  • New Life Christian Academy (San Antonio)
  • Gateway Christian School (San Antonio)
  • Rainbow Hills Baptist School (San Antonio)
  • Hill Country Christian School (San Marcos)
  • Lifegate Christian School (Seguin)
  • River City Believers Academy (Selma)
  • Waxahachie Prep (Waxahachie)
  • Valley Grande Adventist Academy (Weslaco)
  • Wichita Christian School (Wichita Falls)
  • Christ Academy (Wichita Falls)

See also

References

External links

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