In many ways, schools are like publicly traded companies.
Publicly traded companies have a CEO who runs the company; schools have a superintendent to run the schools. Both have a board that hires (and can fire) the person in charge. Public companies have shareholders who elect board members, whereas schools have voters who do the same.
From time to time, shareholders can submit proposals for the board to vote on and school district voters can do likewise. Published on page 5 are two Letters to the Editor that remind me of shareholder-backed proposals, but are directed to the Marysville School Board. They are asking the board to reconsider changes that have been made to the criteria to determine valedictorian status.
As background to the issue, history shows the selection of the valedictorian and salutatorian was a distinction to reward the best and second best person in the senior class. Three years ago, then High School Principal Aaron Cook brought a suggestion to the board for members to consider lowering the threshold of the valedictorian status to 4.1 in 2018.
Explaining the system for determining a student’s grade point average (GPA) can get complicated, but suffice it to say that the GPA is no longer on a 4.0 scale because of AP (advanced placement) classes that are worth 5 points.
The situation that the principal presented was that students vying for the valedictorian distinction would rather take no class than a 4.0 elective class like wood working or metal shop because the latter would be less than a 5-point class and by taking one of them, students could bring down their GPA. The other reason brought forth was that colleges had gone away from recognizing the honor of being valedictorian on entrance applications.
If the system is left unchanged, MHS could have as many as 115 vying for valedictorian next year because the district will have the first class graduating from the Early College High School.
Many past award recipients and school district residents, including the alumni who signed the letters on the facing page, have voiced their opposition to the current framework. We would like to augment the suggestions contained in the letters and offer the following compromise: In addition to magna cum laude (3.0-3.5 GPA) and summa cum laude (3.51-4.1 GPA), the school board could establish a higher level of “distinction with honors” for those with a GPA of 4.1 or better. Those graduates could receive a gold armband for the commencement ceremony and be recognized during graduation. Doing this allows those seniors to still be recognized for their outstanding achievement.
This also would allow the board to reinstate the valedictorian/salutatorian status to the best and second best in the class making sure those who excelled are rewarded for their efforts much like Connor Hall and Michael Molchan did this year.
Stay tuned to the Marysville School Board meeting minutes to see if the “shareholder” proposal is adopted.