I could go on about this all day. Although you may be able to change the name or even the format, we should NOT "kill" or eliminate the District Meets. the sport is about opportunity to compete and a chance contribute to your school TEAM. It's not the olympics, AAU or NCAA. It's high school sports and a chance to learn the lessons of working and performing with and for a TEAM. Right now the District meet is the chance to represent your TEAM at a meet versus other TEAMs with similar demorgraphics - (size, location,). League and conference meets can do this too, but many schools are not in a conference or the league has only 5-7 schools and district meet is better.
As far as some of the other chatter goes:
I have only been coaching for 32 years and every year, my "average" fans, fellow teachers, most parents, and almost every athlete asks one of two questions after every meet, either "What was the score?" or "Hey coach, what place did the team get at the meet yesterday?". almost Everything that EuclidandViren posted is not accurate in the environments that I have experienced. People in the stands are consistently asking our announcer to call out team scores when he gives results. Granted, individual results are important too and everyone (parents/kids) love to hear their name announced, especially if they score for the TEAM. I used to think that racing a kid in multiple events was always bad too, until I asked a coach who I respected why they put a kid in the 100, 4 x 200, 4 x 100 and 400 in the same meet....He said "If we were home today, the kid would do a latter of 100, 200, 300, 400, and 5-6 starts... so now he does a little less work with a little more rest." And I saw a girl do (and win) the 4x8, 1600, 800, 3200 in a dual and thought is was crazy, until I realized that she was in flats and was just cruising and did about an hour run after the 3200. She was a State champ. I also know that some less experienced coach may see these coaches' "workouts" and try to do the same with a kid at their school just because they saw Bridget Franek, Devin Smith or whomever do this. this is NOT good, but could (and does) happen with workouts more often than meets.
Futhermore, everything stated by EuclidandViren could be said about Football as well....(or basketball, etc.) ... Playing a kid on offense, defense and special teams is done...abusive?...maybe; I have had to explain scoring many times... some moms never heard of a safety before, or why an extra point is worth 1 but a 20 yard field goal is worth 3 when it was kicked from the same place?
If "the news that matters is Individual performance", should we eliminate Relays from all meets... or just the big meets?
Isn't having a couple of your top guys running the 1600 or 3200 at a dual meet and pulling a freshman to his first sub 5:00 or sub 11:00 make it a "team". remember 99% of high school kids will never compete at the State Meet, but 99% can and do contribute to the team. I have had many more kids striving to get 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th a a league meet than kids who have been contending for a State title or even a state qualifying spot. Also, when asking our former State Champs and All-Ohioans (we have had a couple) about their memories of HS, they all mention how the team did, getting team titles or just missing team titles and their team mates...often this is as important as their Individual titles. I think team and Individual success and efforts can both be enjoyed without taking from the other.
So happy that Track and Field is a TEAM Sport where I get to enjoy teaching and coaching.