Top 10 students puzzled by new policy: Say years of hard work should be recognized

By WILL STEWART / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

MAXWELL

When she was younger, Kendra Savage said she looked up to students in the top 10 of their class and was determined to enter their ranks. Since her freshman year at Warren County High School, she worked hard to do just that.

But just recently, the senior was told that beginning this year the top 10 graduates of the senior class would no longer be recognized.

“It’s upsetting. All of us in the top 10 have worked so hard to be where we are and I think we should get to be part of it. The competition has encouraged us. It’s not been detrimental at all,” said Savage, who is No. 6 in the 2004 graduating class.

As reported in Friday’s Standard, this year marks the first in which the school is not releasing the names of the top 10 students of the graduating class.

The change was made, according to current and former school officials, in the best interest of the students, a number of whom every year would get upset because they missed the top 10 by sometimes one-thousandth of point on their GPA.

The change was made by the school board in July 2000, the summer before the current graduating class entered its freshman year, when class rank first begins to be calculated. The change did not take effect until this year, however, a fact of which a number of seniors were unaware.

“No one ever said anything to us,” said co-valedictorian Nathan Smith, who as one of the top two students was recognized. “It may have been passed years ago, but we never knew of the decision.”

“We just assumed it would be like it’s always been,” added Nathan Maxwell, No. 4 in the graduating class. “We didn’t find out otherwise until a week or two ago. We’re all wondering why. We’re curious. It’s not a huge deal, but it would have been kind of nice and it would have made our parents happy.”

Instead of releasing the names of the top 10 students, the high school now only releases the names of the top two students and, in alphabetical order, the names of those comprising the top 10 percent of the graduating class.

While those most upset with the new policy seem to be those directly affected, seniors not in the top 10 voiced their displeasure as well.

“I think they ought to be recognized,” said Stephanie Roller, who is in the top 10 percent of the graduating class. “Obviously they worked harder than me and everyone else. It’s a great accomplishment.”