Fallsnewspress.com - Woodridge may name just one valedictorian a year

by Phil Keren

Editor

Peninsula -- The Woodridge School District may name just one valedictorian per year, instead of several, in coming school years.

According to Chris Sieber, assistant principal at Woodridge High School, the manner in which valedictorians and salutatorians were selected changed starting with the graduating class of 2004.

"It went from recognizing the one valedictorian and salutatorian to recognizing anybody who had a 4.0 [grade-point average] or higher," said Sieber at a School Board meeting last month. In a few years, it may be changed again so the students with the highest and second-highest GPA are named valedictorian and salutatorian, respectively.

Sieber said the issue has been discussed by the administration and staff during the past two years.

"A concern was brought up that the recognizing of students as valedictorians who met the prescribed requirements, and had a GPA of 4.0 or higher was in effect taking away from a person's academic achievement who had attained the highest cumulative grade-point average in the class," said Sieber to the Falls News-Press. "Following the graduation of the class of 2009, we began this year with the purpose of examining our present selection process so we could determine if there was another method by which we would select a valedictorian."

Another issue, Sieber said, is that the district now offers "double the number of Advanced Placement classes, which have weighted grades" and thus increases a student's GPA.

Sieber worked with a committee that addressed whether the process for selecting class valedictorians and salutatorians should be changed. Sieber said the committee investigated how other school districts on a local, state and national level handled the issue.

The members of the committee were: Stephanie Abood, Sally Elvitsky, Cecilia Frammartino-Kotlyn, Dani Leslein, Norma Hammond, Theresia Hartz, Brenda Tousely, and Sieber.

After three months of meeting, Sieber told the School Board in February that the committee recommends recognizing the student with the highest cumulative grade-point average as the valedictorian and the student with the second highest cumulative GPA as the salutatorian. The committee is proposing that this change "start with the graduating class of 2014," said Sieber.

Sieber noted that "we feel that we have a very competitive group of students here at Woodridge High School, and ... we feel that this is the best way to honor them."

According to Sieber, the district will also continue recognizing the top 10 students in the graduating class.

Board President Cheryl Hoover said she liked the committee's idea.

"We do have really great students, but I think, particularly because we're small, if we have eight valedictorians, I think it takes away from the student who was the very top GPA earner," said Hoover.

Superintendent Dr. Jeff Graham said he was "100 percent supportive" of the recommendation. He recalled the previous change in the recognition process occurred at the first Board meeting he attended as the district's new leader.

"The concept was ... let's recognize as many students as we can because it's never a bad thing to recognize students," Graham said. "But times have changed a little bit. When you start talking about 4.0s back then, it's different than a 4.0 now just because of the AP courses ... [the AP courses are] weighted differently."

The committee's recommendation will be on the Board's agenda at its next meeting on March 16 at 7 p.m. in the high school library, 4440 Quick Road.

E-mail: pkeren@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-686-3940