Recently at Elkins High School many freshmen, as well as their parents, have been angry with a decision the Randolph County Board of Education passed on September 2, 2003, exactly seven days after the 20032004 school year had already started.  Students taking honors classes, who are in the graduating class of 2007, will not receive weighted grade credit for the more challenging courses they are taking.  Although the Freshmen Class will now be on a 4.0 scale, other classes will not be affected by the policy.
    Although this decision came as a shock to the students, the school board had been considering this decision since late last school year.  President John Lothes and superintendent Glen Karlen contend that a notice was placed on public comment on June 19, 2003 after the school had been emptied for the summer.  The school board also says the principals and counselors were all informed of the possibility of a change.  Still, Elkins High School and Vo-Tech counselors encouraged last years eighth graders to take honors classes, telling them that they would receive weighted credit for the courses.
    Principal Tom Pritt says the West Virginia Board of Education had informed the Randolph County Board of Education of a possible policy change in grading systems.  The Randolph County School Board decided to "get ahead of the state" and pass the new grading policy.  The state school board later dropped the policy.  
    Pritt feels that the policy change is unfair to those ninth-grade students currently taking the honors classes.  He said, "The kids won't receive the same incentive as the upperclassmen do."  He added, "We live in an environment and world that has capitalism, or the need to want some kind of reward for our hard work now, not three years down the road when they realize they will be better prepared for college.
The county school board explains that they are following the nationwide plan of "No Child Left Behind" funded and supported by the Federal Government.  Their concern is that students who do not take honors classes do not receive the same quality of teaching.  They also say that under the new policy students will have the same chance to receive the Promise Scholarship.  Parents and students feel that Randolph County will not be able to compete with other counties that have weighted grades.  Furthermore, at least 75% of the many Promise Scholarships in Randolph County were awarded to students who had taken honors classes and received weighted credit.
    Karen Phillips, a concerned parent and honors teacher at EHS, feels it adversely affects the students overall GPA and their ability to receive scholarships.  She feels the school board made a hasty decision that they conducted without much research and consideration of future consequences.  She says, "They're only hurting the students instead of helping them."
    Since the adoption of the new policy, the freshmen's grades will be listed numerically.  Under this system, a 97 in a non-honors class is still higher than a 95 in an honors class.
    Pritt feels that students and parents have already accomplished letting the board know how the community feels about the decision .  He said, "We have quality parents who have addressed the board at least five times now about this subject."  He feels we need weighted grades but they need some "beefing up."  He adds that there should be a summer program to certify faculty wanting to teach honors classes.  he also noted, "Weighted grades help keep up GPA's and challenge students to take harder classes."
    Lothes asserted that the board would not review the policy until one of two things happened.  Three out of five board members would have to agree and take a request to the superintendent for the board to look over the change, then they would vote on it again.  Otherwise the administration at EHS would have to recommend the board to change the policy, which was completed by the Local School Improvement Committee already.  However, the Board wants a formal request from the administration.  Right now, concerned students, parents, and faculty are doing everything possible to help encourage the board to change their decision on weighted grades.
    While approximately 50% of EHS students take at least one Honors class, the board feels as if only "gifted" students are the ones taking these classes, but school policy is that no student will be denied the chance to better educate themselves.  While there may be mixed emotions around the school and community about this decision, one thing is for sure, it's helping to bring more people together in support of standing up for what they believe in.  Individuals who want to express their opinion about weighted grades should either call or write a letter to a member of the Board of Education or write an editorial to the Inter-Mountain.
    While students at Elkins Middle School as well as freshmen at EHS are fighting to keep weighted grades, some of them are losing confidence thinking the school board won't consider re-instating them.  The best advice these people have been given is to keep returning to the school board meetings because many members of the community feel that the members of the board were presented misleading information upon making their decision.  Although the outcome to this decision will not be revealed some time, the community is anxiously anticipating it. 

  
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