VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Class rank and titles of valedictorian and salutatorian will return to Virginia Beach City Public Schools starting next school year.
The Virginia Beach School board 10-1 on Tuesday to bring back the designations, after voting to remove class rank in 2018 in favor of a Latin honors system. Board member Jessica Owens (District 3) on Tuesday night said she agreed with the change as proposed, but voted no because she wanted a four-year delay in the implementation.
District officials said back in 2018 that the change was adopted not only because colleges had been giving less weight to class rank, but because students weren’t on equal footage due access to advanced courses that affect the weighting process for GPA.
“Your general run-of-the-mill student who worked hard for four years and received an ‘A’ for four years, which would be a 4.0 average, wasn’t even in the top 100,” Former Virginia Beach Executive Director of High Schools Daniel Keever said at the time.
Tuesday’s revisions, proposed by board member Victoria Manning, though will still keep Latin honors, Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude and Summa Cum Laude.
Manning had supported Latin honors back in 2018, but wasn’t in favor of doing away with valedictorian and salutatorian. On Tuesday night, she said the board “really compromised on this to bring broad consensus.”
Manning pointed to the 2018 survey of 1,500 parents, which showed 77 percent supported switching to the Latin system, but 74 percent wanted to keep valedictorian/salutatorian.
Tuesday’s changes also include having two valedictorians and salutatorians at the Princess Anne High School International Baccalaureate Program and the Ocean Lakes High School Math and Science Academy, one for students in the IB and Math and Science Academy for those respective schools, and one for the other students due to how coursework is weighted and structured.
Also if a Virginia Beach student goes from an advanced academic program to a comprehensive school during their junior or senior year, they won’t qualify for valedictorian or salutatorian under the policy revised policy. The district though will reconsider in special cases, such as students in military families.
This is a breaking article and will be updated.