Will the valedictorian and salutatorian tradition be taken away from Sandpoint High School?

An entire school district in Wake County, North Carolina, has decided to take away the tradition due to it being too competitive.

Instead, the district uses three other alternatives to the valedictorian and salutatorian which include honors for cum laude (3.75 to 4.o GPA), magna cum laude (4.0 to 4.249 GPA), and  summa cum laude (4.25 or higher GPA).  The valedictorian and salutatorian are typically the two or three students with the highest GPA.

“I could never foresee these old traditions getting taken away from here at SHS,” vice principal Derek Dickinson said. “We will just adjust them if necessary. We model our standards off of CDA High School to make it simpler and more equitable.”

Although the tradition itself will not be taken away, there will be some changes coming to the standards beginning with the class of 2018. Those changes are still under review and subject to change.

Rather than the standards that are in place now, the school will be going off of a 32 total credit count. With the new standards it allows more students the possibility being the valedictorian or salutatorian.

“I think it is a great thing to have a valedictorian and salutatorian, because it gives a lot of people a goal to do their best in school so that they have a chance of becoming the valedictorian or salutatorian,” Jacob Ballard said. “Also, it is a way to recognize those people who have the highest academic achievements, and they deserve that.”