"If Amherst doesn't want to play Class A, then DON'T ALLOW ATHLETIC TRANSFERS THAT RESIDE WITHIN THE KEARNEY SCHOOL DISTRICT!"
Again this is the major flaw I see. Probably 95%+ of option enrolles are not primarily for athletic purposes. I would guess that almost nearly every public school in the state has an option enrolled kid in their district, many of who play sports. If your proposed idea would take place almost no school would have their current enrollment number. What would all this number transfering around accomplish?
I keep coming back to the example of elementary aged school kids. For example....A kindergartner lives on the very east edge of the Norfolk school district. 5 years earlier his parents bought their dream home on a nice acreage 15 miles from Norfolk Public and 12 miles from Winside but is in the Norfolk district. His parents grew up in Winside and all of the parents social network is still in Winside. In addition both sets of grandparents live in Winside and one set is fully retired and help with after school daycare. Mom stays home with the other kids and dad works at the hardware store in Winside. The family prefers a small school to a large school. To this family Winside makes perfect sense and they option enroll their kindergartner. Fast foward 9 years and their son is now a 5'8 130 lb freshman who plays on special teams for the varsity but the vast majority of playing time is on the JV. Because of this player Winside is now Class A because they accepted an "athletic transfer"?
Not saying "athletic transfers" dont happen but dont completely blow everything up for a small piece of the pie. Exceptions are exceptions not the rule.
And maybe this type of scenario is accounted for within the Classification System. Maybe the "combined enrollment" only applies to kids that opt across after the 6th grade? I still believe that this type of system (or close variation) is worth some conversation.
Also existing within the American Legion Baseball classification system is a mutual consent release agreement between coaches. If a coach for one team agrees to release a player to another team, then there is no harm and no foul. In my mind, this type of release would allow for the 5'8" 130 pound freshmen player that MOST LIKELY would not even be playing if enrolled at Norfolk High.
We can find situations in which ANY system is not fair. I simply believe that unless change comes about, we are going to see a complete disaster as far as the "athletic transfer".