KINGWOOD — A Board of Education policy that ended the naming of a valedictorian and salutatorian as the top two graduating seniors could be reinstated.
During the board’s Monday night meeting, member Cross Kisner asked that the policy be placed on the recent agenda for discussion. It was also brought up by former board member Robert McCrum and former student board member Audrey Doyle.
“Competition breeds excellence,” Kisner said. “I still stand with what I said before — we are titling someone with that honor but we are not giving them the title. One student said her brothers earned the title and were recognized, and she earned it and didn’t get it.”
He said he believes the titles of valedictorian and salutatorian should be reinstated for the class of 2025. Kisner said doing this would have no impact on summa cum laude, magna cum laude and cum laude. Students earning these distinctions were recognized within the graduation program with the designated sashes.
“If you reinstate it, what happens to a home school student who gets all A’s for two years, comes back to school and gets all A’s for the next two years? It’s got to mean something. We have to put something together to make it fair,” Preston High School Principal Todd Seymour said. “We have to be fair and recognize those students who don’t have weighted classes and we need to keep the summa cum laude, magna cum laude and cum laude in there.”
“We have a CTE Night and they get to wear their summa cum laude, magna cum laude and cum laude sashes,” Kisner said. “I made it clear two years ago that I want them (valedictorian and salutatorian) to come back. I didn’t see any reason for removing it.”
Superintendent of Schools Bradley Martin said a system would have to be devised in case students have tied GPA scores.
Board member Lucas Tatham said before he could vote on bringing the titles back he would have to hear opinions from the student government, LSIC and the facility senate.
Board members voted to approve a committee to recommend criteria to determine the valedictorian and the salutatorian.
In other board news, Martin said substantial completion on the PHS secure entryway and exterior door project is nearing an end with the work scheduled to wrap up this month. He said Veritas is completing finish work on multiple exterior doors and Electronic Specialty is working to get all card readers activated at PHS.
Martin said work is being completed to prepare for students. New textbooks and materials have been or will be delivered to school locations, structured literacy kits have been sent for use in all K-5 classrooms, and iPads and laptops are actively being prepared for delivery. He said in addition, the “Beat of Excellence” is also being prepared for publication with the goal for delivery by the first day of school, Tuesday.
Board members also:
- Approved an MOU between Preston County Schools (PCS) and Julie Bright for psychoeducational evaluations and reevaluations.
- Approved a MOU between PCS and Kathy Torsney for surrogate parent services.
- Approved a MOU between PCS and the Preston County Commission regarding the school resource officer.
- Approved PCS Policy R 8-39-9, retired teachers as substitutes in areas of critical need.
The next meeting of the Preston County Board of Education will be 6 p.m. Aug. 26 at the BOE boardroom.
