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Pitt County Schools Superintendant Ethan Lenker, left, and J.H. Rose principal Monica Jacobson listen as J.H. Rose Valedictorian Andrew Lavine gives his speech during the graduation ceremony on June 7, 2019.

Pitt County Schools Superintendant Ethan Lenker, left, and J.H. Rose principal Monica Jacobson listen as J.H. Rose Valedictorian Andrew Lavine gives his speech during the graduation ceremony on June 7, 2019.

Four years from now, a valedictory speech delivered at one of the county’s public high school graduation ceremonies may serve as a farewell address in more ways than one.

That’s because Pitt County Schools is considering ending its acknowledgment of high school valedictorians and salutatorians, beginning with the Class of 2027. The proposed change in the school district’s recognition policy is scheduled to be considered at Monday’s Board of Education meeting.

The board also will consider alterations to policies on how class materials are selected and how parents’ objections are handled.

The school board began discussing a change in the way it recognizes graduates just days after the conclusion of commencement ceremonies for the Class of 2022. In their remarks in June, valedictorians from J.H. Rose and Farmville Central high schools questioned whether or not their race to the top had been worth the climb.

District 5 representative Anna Barrett Smith said there is unhealthy competition for the titles of valedictorian and salutatorian at some schools, leading students to try to begin racking up community college credits the summer before they enter high school.

“I feel strongly that our kids are suffering a pressure that is unnecessary,” Smith said at a policy committee meeting last month.

“I don’t think val and sal are necessary anymore,” she said. “I don’t think they represent what they used to.”

In recent years, similar discussions have been held across the country with varying outcomes. Newsweek reported this past spring that some nationally ranked high schools in Colorado were planning to end the recognition beginning with the Class of 2026. Three years ago, an Ohio lawmaker introduced legislation that would require high schools to name a valedictorian and salutatorian.

PCS Attorney Emma Hodson told members of the school board policy committee in August that most school districts in North Carolina have moved away from the traditional recognition of valedictorian and salutatorian. She shared a draft proposal of Policy 3440 that would prohibit schools from selecting students to speak at their high school commencement ceremonies based solely on class rank.

But Smith said removing the speech incentive would not be enough.

“The speaker at graduation is of no consequence to me,” she said. “It’s the whole trying to do something to save our kids from themselves.”

Pitt County Schools’ two early-college high schools do not recognize a valedictorian and salutatorian. Instead, both have adopted the Latin honors system of recognition that most colleges and universities use. The school district embraced the Latin honors system in 2019, recognizing students as cum laude, magna cum laude or summa cum laude graduates. But it continued to honor valedictorians and salutatorians as well.

District 6 representative Worth Forbes said in June that he wanted to keep it that way. Forbes was not part of the August policy committee meeting.

Hodson said some districts have faced opposition to changes in their recognition policies.

“There have been some districts where this has been so controversial the parents have gone so far as to take out a billboard to recognize their kid for being number one in the class,” she said.

Smith acknowledged that some people might criticize a change as being the equivalent of awarding “participation trophies,” but she did not consider that a valid criticism.

“If you’re graduating summa cum laude, that’s not a participation trophy. You had to work for that,” she said. “But that’s the main thing (criticism) we’re going to get, that we don’t want to let anybody win. That’s absolutely not what we’re trying to do.”

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction requires schools to assign each student a class rank, but it does not mandate how schools recognize their top graduates. Under the state’s grading system, an A in a college-level or Advanced Placement course earns a student more points than an A in an honors-level high school class, 5 points compared with 4.5. An A in a standard high school course is worth 4 points.

Smith said she believes some students are abusing the system established for weighted grades.

District 7 representative Caroline Doherty said not only is the grading system being abused, but it is not equitable. She said that although high school students have free access to community college courses, lack of transportation is a barrier to some.

“If you don’t have a car or a parent to drop everything to take you, you’re out of luck, even if it is free,” she said, “unless we’re offering to provide transportation to any child who wants to go take courses during the day or during the summer. That would make the playing field more equitable.

“I would support getting rid of it (valedictorian and salutatorian recognition) altogether,” Doherty said. “It’s already working in two of our schools. It almost becomes controversial that we keep it. We’re in the minority.”

Also scheduled to be considered at Monday’s meeting are new policies on instructional materials. These proposed policy changes came after parents challenged some of the books their children were assigned to read last school year.

An altered Policy 3200 would require teachers to notify parents about assigned class reading material by providing a syllabus or letter before the assignment begins. The syllabus or letter will advise parents of their ability to request an alternate assignment.

Policy 3210 advises parents of the procedure for submitting an objection to instructional materials in use at their children’s schools. Objections are heard by the school’s advisory committee.

The proposed policy also specifies the makeup of a community media advisory committee that would hear appeals to school advisory committee decisions. That committee is to include the district media coordinator and district media specialist, along with directors of instruction, media coordinators, principals, teachers and parents representing elementary, middle and high schools. A community media advisory committee hearing an objection to instructional material at the high school level would include a student representative.

The school board voted in January to require that parents be notified about books their children are assigned to read in class. The vote, taken in a special-called meeting, was in response to a complaint from Ayden Middle School parent Taylor Keith about content in challenge of Sharon M. Draper’s “Forged by Fire” and “Darkness Before Dawn,” books assigned to middle schoolers.

The Pitt County Board of Education will meet at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the third-floor boardroom of the county office building, 1717 W. Fifth St.

Contact Kim Grizzard at kgrizzard@reflector.com or call 329-9578.

www.Reflector.com 1150 Sugg Pkwy Greenville, NC 27834 Main Phone: 252-329-9500 Customer Care Phone: 252-329-9505

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