CLEARFIELD – A junior at the Clearfield Area Junior-Senior High School is concerned that new requirements will take away hard work in previously weighted courses and make it difficult for those in her class to graduate on time.
During the public comment at Monday night’s meeting, student Sierra Luzier addressed the Clearfield school board on behalf of the CAJSHS class of 2017. New graduation requirements, she said, were printed by the district in January and presented to students this month.
“Don’t change the rules in the middle of the game,” she said. “Any student who doesn’t have a science class this year will get screwed over … It’s also unfair to any student who was told they didn’t need a physics class.”
Sierra Luzier asked the board members to imagine being a student who has fulfilled most of their graduation requirements. “You’re expecting to take classes you want to take your senior year,” she said. “Your world gets turned upside down when your school guidance counselor tells you graduation requirements have changed.”
She said the new graduation requirements will “ruin” her senior year, as she’s been left to “scramble” to fulfill them. As well, she said that the new requirements take away hard work in classes that were weighted prior to the changes.
“This is the reality for me and many of my classmates,” she said. She presented the board with a petition signed by numerous members of her graduating class who will be affected by the new requirements. “It’s unfair to change partway through our high school career. It threatens graduating on time.”
She pointed out that changes to the students’ course scheduling will not be accommodating and instead will set them back. Other schools, she said, have changed graduation requirements, but changes were implemented so not to affect current students.
“Clearfield doesn’t give the changes to students until April and still applies them to the class of 2017,” she said. “Imagine not being able to walk with your fellow classmates to get your diploma on time. It’s the reality for the classes of 2017 and 2018.”
Sierra Luzier told the board that her classmates were angry, and it wasn’t right for their hard work to be taken away and to have the rules changed on them the year before they are to graduate. “It should be applied to upcoming freshman, the graduating class of 2020.”
Parent Jeff Luzier also spoke during the public comment, supporting the changes in graduation requirements. However, he shared Sierra Luzier’s concerns regarding the current students’ ability to meet these new changes due to difficulties with scheduling multiple hour-long classes. He asked the board to consider Sierra Luzier’s request.
Secondly, due to changes in the student academic recognition policy, the numbers of students on the honor roll and high honor roll has increased dramatically. He compared it be like handing out ribbons for participation in sports. “It’s meaningless,” he said.
In past meetings, Jeff Luzier said he’s notified the board about calculations in class rank. Specifically, that two different methods for calculations were used for the class of 2014 versus the class of 2015, he said.
He has also been able to determine that a third method, the simple average, was also used, and he provided the documentation to the board.
“This confirms my suspicion that the same calculation method has not been used consistently for the past 30 years,” Jeff Luzier said. “In fact, three different methodologies were used in the past six years alone.” He asked the board to investigate this thoroughly.
Going forward, he said it would be imperative for a committee of at least five people to be responsible for using the correct calculation to determine class rank, especially for the valedictorian and salutatorian.
Jeff Luzier also called the board’s attention to the fact that the new student academic recognition policy and graduation requirements aren’t on the district’s Web site. He also said the student handbook available online is still out of date, and he felt everyone needs access to the most current information.