MINERAL RIDGE Changes made to student handbook
Final selection of class valedictorian and salutatorian must wait until final exams are completed.
By MARY SMITH
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
MINERAL RIDGE -- Revisions to the Mineral Ridge High School student handbook will focus on how final grade point average is determined and how candidates for class valedictorian and salutatorian are selected.
Superintendent Rocco Adduci told the board of education this week handbooks have been revised for the middle and high schools, with the high school book getting the most changes.
Seniors are required to take all semester exams, including final exams.
Requirements
To qualify for valedictorian and salutatorian, a student must also be enrolled at the high school as a senior at the start of the school year, must take all honors courses offered, including: four years of English, four years of college preparatory math; three years of social studies; three years of foreign language and one unit of fine and performing arts.
The GPA is determined by a grade value to all classes taken at the high school level.
The senior class ranking will be determined tentatively at the end of the seventh semester, when a valedictorian and salutatorian should be known, but the final determination rests on completion of the final semester and the outcome of eighth-semester classes and final exams, the superintendent said.
The previous policy was to choose a valedictorian and salutatorian based on the seventh semester. The top 10 students in the graduating class will be named by the end of the eighth semester.
Additional changes
Other changes include a ban on food brought in from outside restaurants; no student scheduled for regular high school classes will have his schedule changed to allow attendance at a college class; shorts can be worn in August through October and April through June; any student who misses eight or more days in a grading period will receive a failing grade. A five-day absence warning will be sent.
A new list of penalties for tardiness has also been established, with the sixth episode resulting in referral to juvenile authorities.
The board approved applying for a license with the state for before- and after-school programs for the middle school and Seaborn Elementary.
The programs will be funded totally by parents and details will be discussed at a future board meeting. The programs will run 11/2 hours before school and 31/2 hours after school.
The board approved a $2,000 annual raise for Dan Kiger, bus maintenance and transportation supervisor and buildings and grounds supervisor, from $38,000 to $40,000.