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Schools

School Board Votes on Class Ranking Policy

After a valedictorian issue at Etowah High School, the Cherokee County School Board will vote Thursday night to implement a new policy.

The Cherokee County School Board will meet Thursday night to vote on a new policy for determining class ranking.

After the controversy surrounding the  valedictorian selection for the graduating class of 2011, the Board has been evaluating and discussing the current class ranking policy and is ready for a vote. 

“The staff has always put in a lot of research and is always looking at policies to enhance them. Especially any time there is new legislation or a new Superintendent, we try to update policy,” said Post 4 Board Member Janet Read.  

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Read also said sometimes it’s an event that can cause a policy change. Such is the case with the first-time occurrence of a dual-enrolled student earning the title of Class Valedictorian for Etowah without having taken any classes on campus—a selection that brought disappointment to the student body who had anticipated ’s selection for this academic year.   

According to board policy, “Courses on the high school campus include traditional, on-line, and/or virtual delivery models authorized by the school and school district.” These guidelines led to the selection of a valedictorian student who has no campus presence and is, therefore, unfamiliar to the student body community. 

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The vote Thursday night will clarify the eligibility requirements for students participating in the ACCEL/Dual-Enrollment program who will now need to complete a minimum of two courses per semester on the high school campus during both junior and senior years in order to be considered for the valedictorian and salutatorian titles.

Current juniors seeking said titles will be honored with a “grandfather clause,” an exception that requires on-campus attendance for the 2011-2012 year. Current sophomores and all students moving forward will be held to the new policy if voted in as expected.

In addition to the on-campus requirement for valedictorian/salutatorian candidacy, Post 1 Board Member Robert Wofford said the policy change will address an inequity in the calculation for grade point average in order to ensure a more competitive and equalized calculation.

Before the policy change, college class grades were adding more points to the GPA regardless of the percentage grade comparable to other classes, Wofford said, but now GPAs will be more accurately represented. This change will also affect the fairness of the grade point calculation used in determining valedictorian/salutatorian eligibility.

Wofford also explained the new policy will ultimately put the choice back into the student’s hands with regard to their academic plans.

Students will not be required to take the two on-campus courses unless they desire to be considered for the valedictorian or salutatorian awards. If they are not seeking these titles, they can invest their time in earning more credit for college by remaining off-campus. 

 “The new policy won’t be perfect,” Wofford said, “but it will give us a good start to see the affects of this change, and a chance to re-evaluate in a few years.”  

 

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