School Board to Amend Class Ranking Policy
Associate Editor, Shannon Taylor
Four years ago, under Randy Frazier’s tenure as superintendent of Weakley County Schools, a class ranking policy was changed to remove valedictorian/salutatorian and top 10 ranking by the 2024 graduation date. On Oct. 5, Director of Schools Jeff Cupples and the board agreed to amend the policy to put those changes back in along with Weakley Scholars and School Level Scholars.
Cupples said, “This went into effect four years ago and that cohort is now to graduate in May, so we’ve had some comment come back up about this policy. Me personally, I recommend that we keep the val/sal and top 10.” Cupples discussed going back and cleaning up the language on lines 8, 9 and 10 of Policy 4.602, which is available online to view at 4.602 Class Ranking .pdf (sharpschool.com).
Chairman Joshua Moore stated that, “We we’re going to maintain the val/sal and top 10. Really all we need to do is amend the wording on lines 8, 9 and 10.” Moore asked that it be amended to make sure that the policy is in compliance with keeping the valedictorian, salutatorian, top 10, Weakley scholars and school level scholars. “If we could have that amendment ready for the future.”
Betsi Foster chimed in and said, “When colleges look at admissions it’s the top 10 percent, so it depends on the school whether that’s top 10 or not depending on how students graduate in that class.” She continued with, “When we discussed this four years ago, what we were really trying to get away from was top 10 because number 11 who was 2/100 of a point outside the top 10 does not get that recognition and we didn’t want students to be grade grubbing or afraid of losing one single point because they wouldn’t make top 10, so we instituted the Weakley Scholars program so that it wasn’t a competition for 10 spots, it was a competition to be the best you could be and to achieve those scores regardless of how the other students do that.”
Moore said, “We’ll look for a policy amendment on this in board meetings to come.”
The board had several policies go into effect after approval of the 2nd reading. The policy on agendas states that an agenda will be made available to the public for inspection at least 48 hours prior to the board meeting. The policy for appearances before the board states that the public comment period will align with the new state law that went into effect July of this year. The policy for threat assessment teams states that threat assessment teams will be created within the school district to develop intervention-based approaches for prevention of violence and threats. The policy on library materials states that if the LEA can’t reach a resolution about materials the board would make a determination on the materials and if the material is deemed inappropriate, the board would require the school to remove them. The policy on zero tolerance added threatening mass violence on school property or at a school related activity to the policy. All policies passed on the 2nd reading and go into effect immediately.
The board did not approve a Board Parliamentarian. The motion was withdrawn by former Chairman Steve Vantrease who stated he had times where he needed extra help but if the current chairman didn’t feel the need for one then he would withdraw his motion.
The next School Board meeting will be held at Gleason School on Nov. 2 at 5 pm.
