Board Feels Heat for Valedictorian Policy

Parents angry over the elimination of the valedictorian award at Saugus High School are expected to be out in force at the meeting of the William S. Hart Union High School District board tonight.

The controversy over the top grades award erupted earlier this year when the school held its first graduation without a valedictorian, salutatorian and top-10 student honors. Instead, the school designated anyone with a 3.75 or higher grade point average as an honors student.

The school’s would-be valedictorian, Brad Bjelke, was interviewed on national television and was asked to read his valedictory speech on one of the top morning radio shows in Los Angeles.

Bjelke’s mother, Mary Lou, said a petition with more than 400 names was given to the Hart board a few weeks ago demanding that the honor be re-established.

Other issues may be more important to the district, but few have been as emotional, said board member Patricia Hanrion.

“I’ll bring my shield in case the tomatoes fly,” she said, referring to tonight’s meeting at which the board will discuss the policy that allows each high school in the district to make its own valedictorian policy.

The board is likely to decide only whether it should establish a districtwide policy. Further study will be needed to determine just what that policy, if established, should be, Hanrion said.

She said she favors leaving the decision to each school.

“I think each school has their own community that may have a different type of student at that school,” she said. “I’m the kind of person that doesn’t like to dictate.”

School authorities said the pressure on some students to achieve the top-student award was so great that one student became suicidal. In addition, they say, students were avoiding the subjects they wanted to study, enrolling instead in easy classes or honors courses to inflate their grades.

“It never occurred to me there were ways to tweek a grade point average to get into that position, and I’m hearing from kids that’s the way it is done,” Hanrion said.

A second local school, William S. Hart High School, has not honored a valedictorian in more than 10 years. But the policy approved by Saugus High officials at the end of the 1992-93 school year sparked the controversy when it took effect a year later.

Angry parents argued that the decision sacrificed one principle of public education--that students should be encouraged to excel.

Brad Bjelke echoed that viewpoint in his radio address.

“Our administration has decided that academic competition is not healthy,” he told listeners. “However, I am privileged to represent the Class of 1994, and regardless of this year’s new policy, I am still the valedictorian.”

Mary Lou Bjelke said she doubts the valedictorian policy will be changed right away, but isn’t discouraged.

“The issue is not going to go away,” she said. “That’s obvious, because we have a community that’s still up in arms over this.”