Edgar K-12 to have one valedictorian starting in 2029
Starting with the class of 2029, Edgar High School will only name a single valedictorian, plus one salutatorian, while separately recognizing all other students who achieved a 4.0 grade-point-average during their time in school.
The new policy was approved last week Wednesday by school members who were presented with four options for either keeping the district’s class ranking system the same or changing it to limit the number of students who receive the valedictorian and salutatorian titles each year.
Currently, the valedictorian designation is given to any student who maintains a 4.0 GPA, without any tie-breaking procedures in place. Salutatorian status is reserved for situations in which only one student earns a 4.0 GPA, and the second-highest GPA is recognized.
In order to determine the recipient of the Wisconsin Academic Excellence Scholarship, which provides $2,250 in tuition assistance to a state university or technical college, the district uses ACT scores and total credits as tie-breakers. If two students have the same composite ACT score and the same number of credits by the end of the first semester of their senior year, the scholarship recipient is chosen by a random name drawn by the board.
The same tie-breakers are also used to determine the top two students recognized at the Marathon County Honoring Excellence banquet each May.
Superintendent Cari Guden gave the school board three options to consider: stay with the current format in which all 4.0 students are valedictorians; choose one valedictorian and one salutatorian as the top two students based on the scholarship criteria; or name one valedictorian based on the scholarship criteria and designate multiple salutatorians based all other seniors with 4.0 GPAs.
Board member Rebecca Normington added a fourth option, the one ultimately chosen by the board: naming one valedictorian and one salutatorian based on the tie-breakers while also acknowledging the remaining seniors who maintained 4.0 GPAs with an award of some sort.
The issue was first raised by board member Alison Reinders at the board’s July meet- ing. Reinders said it’s important to recognize the top students in each class, but she doesn’t want the titles of valedictorian to be watered down.
Board member Pamela Stahel said she talked about the policy with her daughter, who was one of four valedictorians in last year’s class.
“Even though she would have been cut out, she would have went with one valedictorian and one salutatorian,” she said.
Board president Corey Mueller said he had no problem with changing the policy, but he questioned if this year’s incoming freshmen would fee like the board was “springing it on them.”
“I’m just asking,” he said. Guden said students don’t take their ACTs until their junior year, so they will have several years to prepare for the test if their goal is to become valedictorian.
Board members agreed that naming just one valedictorian and salutatorian in the future would add more “prestige” to those titles.
“We’re raising the bar,” Reinders said.
In another policy-related matter, Normington questioned how closely the district was following its requirements for students to advance from one grade to another.
“We have this policy, but I know that we don’t like to hold kids back,” she said. “So, are we following the policy?”
Guden assured Normington that district administrators are following the policy as written, but Normington questioned whether some students were allowed to fall behind academically without being held back.
“I feel like there are kids who are struggling and maybe aren’t getting good grades, but yet they pass to the next grade,” she said. “I don’t know if that’s routine.”
Elementary school principal Lisa Witt said they have a team process that involves teachers and administrators looking at what may be the root causes for a student underperforming. She said Act 20 has changed this process “ever so slightly” by formally requiring a personal reading plan for any student who scores below the 25th percentile on reading assessments.
“We had all of that in place prior to Act 20, so all of our kids who need interventions are getting interventions,” she said.
Witt said the district has only held back two or three students during her time in Edgar, and those were the result of “really hard conversations,” some of which were initiated by parents, which involve not just academics, but also social and emotional development.
“You really look at the whole child,” she said. “If we’re going to retain a child, we want to do that in 4K or 5K, the younger the better.”
If an older student is at risk of falling behind, Witt said they may look at possible special education services or other interventions before doing so.
Normington said she just wants to make sure students with failing grade aren’t being “overlooked” in the interest of moving them through the grade levels.
Witt said every year the elementary has a couple of students who are questionable for advancement, but they receive extra attention based on their unique needs.
“We’re tailoring our instruction to meet the needs of the kiddos in front of us,” Witt said.
Other business
■The board renewed the district’s lease with the Wildcat Early Learning Center for use of the district-owned building on Maple Street. The rent, which was last raised in 2018, will stay at $500 per month for the 2025-2026 school year.
â– The board authorized the district to borrow up to $1.2 million on a short-term basis in order to meet expenses before the next budget is in place. The short-term borrowing is done on an annual basis in September, but this year it was $100,000 less than the year before, Guden said.
â– The board approved the hiring of Kelly Kramer as a high school science teacher. The board also approved Michelle Socha as a new part-time payroll assistant for up to 10 hours per week. Kendy McAllister has been hired as a paraprofessional by Marathon County Special Education.
â– Under an updatedAchievement Gap Reduction plan for the elementary school, kindergarten will have two sections of 18 students per class, first grade will have two sections of 13 students per class, second grade will have three sections of 13 students per class, and third grade will have 40 students across three sections. Kindergarten will also have a reading interventionist available on a daily basis to make sure students are are keeping up with literacy lessons.
