Officials to Receive Orange Section Plan : High schools: Constitution would give larger schools more power, prohibit legal action by members.

A proposed constitution for an Orange Section, consisting of all Orange County high schools, will be presented to county superintendents and principals today at a meeting at Anaheim Stadium.

The constitution, devised by a committee of 15 principals developing the structure for a new section, will give the larger schools more power. A movement to break away from the Southern Section has been growing in recent years.

Under the proposed constitution, schools with fewer than 1,500 students will have one vote, schools with 1,500-1,999 students will have two votes, schools with 2,000-2,499 students will have three votes and schools with 2,500 or more students will have four votes.

“If this goes over well, the rest is easy,” said Brea-Olinda Superintendent Edward Seal, who heads the committee. “We just need to see if this proposal meets the governance needs. After that, we’ll do the rest of the bylaws.”

The committee also designed a constitution that will forbid school officials from appealing section decisions in court. By joining the section, “members relinquish any appeal other than that provided by the California Interscholastic Federation.”

The proposed “protest and appeals” section of the bylaws specifically prohibits legal counsel from the appeals process. Under the rules, “no attorney at law, para professional, or other legal representative of appellant or any school involved shall be permitted to attend the hearing.”

That sentence appears four times in Article 11 of the proposed bylaw.

There have been concerns about the cost of a new section. Schools currently pay 23 cents per student, plus $15 per sport with a minimum of $75 to the Southern Section.

The Orange Section’s preliminary budget calls for a one-time fee of $1,500 per school, according to one official. According to the budget, that fee represents $111,000 of the section’s $504,000 income. The budget estimates $477,500 in expenditures.

The budget also includes a significant amount of money from football and basketball playoffs.

--Three football divisions are expected to generate $150,000. The Southern Section made approximately $400,000 in 11 playoff divisions last fall.

--Six basketball divisions--three boys and three girls--are expected to make $75,000. The Southern Section made approximately $200,000 in 20 basketball divisions.

The Orange Section also expects to generate $100,000 the first year from corporate sponsors, according to the budget.