After months of open discussion on the merits of the traditional system of class ranking for Pierson High School seniors, the Sag Harbor School District appears poised to end or replace the practice while still naming a valedictorian and salutatorian.
“I’m leaving this meeting . . . thinking that the board is in support of doing away with class rank,” said Jeff Nichols, the district superintendent, at Monday’s meeting of the school board.
The board directed the administration to survey the opinions of students and parents before it takes formal action. The results of this survey will be presented to the board in a later meeting, which also gives community members another chance to voice their opinions to the board.
“Unless in subsequent discussions and conversations with administrators we hear otherwise,” Mr. Nichols said, “our focus is not going to be on that question” — whether to keep the class ranking system — but rather, “our focus is going to be on the other questions, which are options to replace it.”
Sandi Kruel, the school board president, stated the board needs to “make sure it’s articulated to the community that this is where we’re going, and if there is a strong movement not to, then we should know why.”
Mr. Nichols presented three possible options for how to move forward. The first was not to change the ranking system at all. The second was to remove the class ranking system while continuing to name the valedictorian and salutatorian, and the third was to end the class ranking system, continue to name the valedictorian and salutatorian, and also add a Latin Honors program similar to universities. In such an honors system, a numeric threshold would be applied to a student’s grade-point average to achieve a designation such as magna cum laude or summa cum laude.
Multiple school officials stated Monday that these are not the district’s only avenues, just a few ideas for how to proceed.
The school board appeared largely in favor of doing away with the ranking system as it is now, and each member was given the opportunity to voice how he or she thought the board should proceed.
“I think we should get rid of the ranking, for sure,” said Ronald Reed. “I wouldn’t mind seeing a survey for the current 11th and 12th grade to see how they would feel about that, and I think we should start it at the current 10th grade.”
A board colleague, Grainne Coen, agreed but said having some form of internal competition system is important. “I do feel having a competitive drive internally — not for a college application standpoint, but for the more academic kids having levels to rise to — so maybe the Latin Honors would help cure that.”
Mr. Nichols said in addition to continuing to select a valedictorian and salutatorian, the district will continue to make information of the top 10 percent of a class available for financial-aid purposes. “The top 10 percent of the class automatically carries scholarship implications,” Mr. Nichols said. “If we were to do away with class rank, I would
strongly recommend, at the minimum,” naming the top 10 percent.
From there, the only point of further discussion among the board members was when and how to implement change. It was decided that the best path forward would be for the school’s administrators to take the question to the people who will be affected by the change: the students and parents themselves.
“The administration should come up with a proposal” and then conduct the survey, said Jordana Sobey, the board vice president. “To me, that’s how we’re supposed to function.”