School Administrators are looking more closely at fourth quarter grades than in the past to determine the valedictorian, salutatorian and senior class ranking.

In previous years there have been numerous issues with the class ranking for valedictorian and salutatorian. Many seniors would strive for excellence and achieve the highest grade for the first semester. When the second semester came many students would slack and not show their full potential, getting Bs, Cs, even Ds and dropping AP classes, knowing that they were still guaranteed their spot as valedictorian or a certain ranking.

With this new change the end of first semester will still determine the students’ rank but will not be guaranteed. Two weeks before the seniors graduate, administrators will go over the student’s current GPA to see if those individual students have maintained the same GPA as the first semester; if not the student’s ranking will be dropped accordingly. “Hopefully kids will demonstrate their academic strengths till the very end,” said SHS Principal Dirlene Wheeler.

Wheeler believes this change won’t affect this year’s graduating class but should have been changed a while back. According to Wheeler, this rule isn’t to punish students but to give credit and proper recognition to the students who have earned it over the entire year.