By Jodi Wolfe
Staff Writer

The Allenstown School Board held off on making a changes to the Armand R. Dupont School honor roll requirements due to the number of parents who were unable to attend a meeting changed from Jan. 13 to Jan. 5.

CONCERNED PARENTS – Debbie Steele, Missi Raciti and Debbie Lee were the only parents able to attend the Allenstown School Board’s meeting on honor roll requirements on Jan. 3 due to a change in meeting time. The board is allowing more time for comments. (Jodi Wolfe Photo)

At an earlier meeting, parents Debbie Lee, Missi Raciti and Debbie Steele addressed concerns about the change to include attitude/ behavior and effort grades into the honor roll’s requirement for first-quarter grade. The three parents told the board that those grades had always been separate from the honor roll.

Last year, the grading system was 93 to 100 for an A, 83 to 92 for a B, and 73 to 82 for a C. High honor roll required all A’s with one B allowed, and honor roll was all A’s and B’s with one C allowed. Citizenship honor roll was on a scale of 1 to 3. Students were placed on the citizenship honor roll if they had all 1s, with one 2 allowed.

This year, the honor roll system changed to allow grades 90 to 100 for high honor roll and 80 to 89 for honor roll. It included attitude/behavior and effort. Both are based on a scale of 1 to 5. Only students with 1s and 2s were eligible for the honor roll, said Dupont School Principal Betsey Cox Stebbins.

The board agreed to revise the honor roll requirements at its Jan. 13 meeting, but the meeting was changed to Jan. 5 because Superintendent Thomas Haley unavailable on Jan. 13.

During the Jan. 5 meeting, Stebbins proposed to the school board that the academic requirements for high honors remain students with grades 90 and above and the honor roll requirements remain 80 and above. However, the requirements for both high honors and honors would include students with attitude and behavior grades of 1s, 2s and 3s. The principal’s list would only include students with attitude/behavior and effort grades of 1s and 2s.

The school board agreed to temporarily accept this change, but is waiting until Feb. 10 to make a final decision so that more parents may comment.

Stebbins explained to the school board that she had changed the system because more than 50 percent of the students had made the honor roll under the previous system. “We felt it was time to make it more of an honor,” she said.

The students with grades of 1s, 2s, and 3s would cover the above average and average students, she said.

“I don’t want to punish students who don’t participate well, but behavior is important,” said Thomas Irzyk, vice chairman of the school board.

Stebbins explained that the grading criteria for attitude/ behavior and effort grades clearly spell out the difference between students who would have the academic grades for the honor roll and those who would not.

According to the criteria, students with 4s and 5s in effort turn in work that is either incomplete or late or not turned in at all. Students with 4s and 5s in attitude/behavior and effort disrupt the class and are uncooperative when working with other students.

School board member Jeanne LaBelle asked if a student can be a 2 if that student does all the required work, but is shy. “I don’t think 4s and 5s should be acceptable,” she said.

Raciti said she is concerned that a student could get a 4 if the teacher didn’t like a student’s behavior; therefore, the student would not make the honor roll.

Steele said she knew a student who had high honors academically, but then got a 3 because he was shy and therefore did not make the first quarter’s honor roll.

Stebbins said there were only five students who were omitted from the first-quarter honor roll because they received 3s in attitude/behavior and effort.

The school is getting an electronic system to process the grades, which will make determining which students make the honor roll more efficient. Students will now receive monthly progress reports, Stebbins said.

The school board will meet again at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 10, before the School District Meeting at 7 p.m. at Allenstown Elementary School.