Less than a week after Old Forge lost the Class 2A boys basketball state championship to a private school whose roster included players from three countries, the Jim Thorpe Area School District board took up the same debate Wednesday night that has been simmering across Pennsylvania for years. Should public schools have to compete against private and charter schools in PIAA playoffs at all?

Jim Thorpe Superintendent Robert Presley told the board that he has prepared a letter of support for House Bill 41, legislation that would allow the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association to establish separate postseason brackets for boundary schools, traditional public schools restricted to enrolling students within their geographic limits, and non-boundary schools, which include private, parochial and charter institutions that can recruit students from anywhere.

The case, Presley argued, is one of basic fairness.

“Jim Thorpe has to stay within its boundaries, so we can’t pull any players from any other district to make a great team — we have to play with what we have here,” Presley said. “You get into the playoffs, and unfortunately, you’re against teams that had kids from three different countries on them, and several of them over 6 feet 8.”

The example was not hypothetical. Old Forge’s 52-36 loss to Sewickley Academy in the Class 2A championship game earlier this month drew national attention to the public-versus-private debate, with Old Forge students in the stands holding signs reading “Old Forge Blue Devils Public School Champions.”

Sewickley Academy was led by towering inside players Mamadou Kane, born in Senegal, and Adam Ikamba, from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Old Forge Superintendent Christopher Gatto said his school’s players all live within the same 3.4 square miles, many of them playing together since elementary school. Presley echoed those concerns while putting them in a local context.

Schools in the Lehigh Valley, he said, face the same dynamics when they enter the playoffs and meet charter schools and academies drawing students from across Philadelphia and beyond.

“They can recruit from wherever they want,” Presley said of non-boundary schools.

The obstacle, Presley told the board, is that the PIAA itself cannot act without the legislature moving first.

“PIAA will not change this because they feel it is written in statute that this has to remain,” Presley said. “It is actually up to the legislature to change the statute before PIAA could consider this separation of the two schools.”

House Bill 41, sponsored by Rep. Scott Conklin, D-Centre County, amends the Public School Code and would allow — but not require — the PIAA to establish separate playoffs and championships for boundary and non-boundary schools.

The bill passed the House Intergovernmental Affairs and Operations Committee on a 20-6 vote and is expected to receive bipartisan support when it goes before the full House.

Conklin has argued the current system goes beyond competitive unfairness.

“It’s forcing students from public schools, which must recruit from within district boundaries, to compete against students from private schools, which can recruit from anywhere and amass teams that are larger and stronger,” Conklin said.

Presley said he has a letter of support ready to send and noted the district also received a support resolution it could formally adopt at a future meeting, though he did not ask the board to vote on it Tuesday.