OXNARD : District to Review Valedictorian Policy

Following protests by a small group of students and parents, the Oxnard Union High School District board has agreed to consider changing how it chooses valedictorians at four of its high schools.

The board decided at a meeting Wednesday to review its policy of giving equal weight to both honors and regular classes when calculating the grade-point averages for valedictorian candidates.

The decision came following a public plea at the meeting by Ryan Jimenez, an honor student from Channel Islands High School.

But the issue came to a head earlier this summer when two friends of Jimenez at Channel Islands complained that they had been unfairly passed over in the school’s selection of its two valedictorians this year.

The graduates, Olivia Arboleda and Errol Nillo, each took more than a dozen honors classes at the high school and earned nearly all A’s, giving them the highest grade point averages on a 5.0 scale at the school.

But they were passed over for valedictorian in favor of two other graduates--Christopher Ingel and Julio Coronado--who took fewer honors classes but who made slightly better grades.

Channel Islands and other Oxnard district high schools give honors classes more weight by grading them on a 5.0-scale, with an “A” earning five points, a “B” four points and so on. The 4.0-scale treats all classes the same: “A” equal to 4.0, “B” equal to 3.0.

But all of the schools except Hueneme High choose valedictorians based on the 4.0 scale. Hueneme High recognizes its highest achievers from both the 4.0 and 5.0 scales.