The Sag Harbor School Board on Monday officially approved a Latin honors system to replace the current practice of ranking students, adopting a policy that is to begin next school year with the graduating class of 2026. The vote was 6-0 with one board member, Alex Kriegsman, abstaining.
The traditional titles of valedictorian and salutatorian will continue to be awarded, while three new distinctions — summa cum laude (“with highest honor”), magna cum laude (“with great honor”), and cum laude (“with honor”) — will be instituted, respectively corresponding to grade-point averages of 100 or higher, 97.5 to 99.99, and 95 to 97.499.
According to the newly approved policy, students “will be selected to receive each of the above Latin Honors designations at the end of the second quarter of their senior year . . . based upon their cumulative, weighted grade-point averages,” which will be calculated to the thousandth of a point.
The new policy also states that in the event students tie for highest grade-point average, two co-valedictorians will be named and there will be no salutatorian. If there is a tie for salutatorian, administrators will name two co-salutatorians.