Grants Pass School Board members and school staff spent a prolonged portion of a workshop meeting discussing proposed revisions to the district’s valedictorian and salutatorian policy, focusing on whether to require more Advanced Placement (AP) courses and how to limit the number of students who receive those honors. The board did not adopt a final policy; staff were asked to return with simplified language and options for the Aug. 12 meeting.

The discussion centered on competing goals: reward the highest GPA versus encourage students to take more rigorous coursework. High school staff and teachers described the current situation in which the policy requires four AP courses for valedictorian/salutatorian eligibility and said that number yields many recipients. A district administrator said the honors diploma requires six advanced courses and staff argued the valedictorian requirement should align with that rigor. One staff-led proposal discussed during the meeting would raise the AP requirement to eight courses; other board members suggested six or alternatives that simply pick a fixed small number of top-ranked students (for example, one valedictorian and one salutatorian).

Board members raised several concerns. Some said increasing the AP requirement could motivate more students to take rigorous courses; others said it could increase the number of students with high weighted GPAs but multiple B grades, creating an unintended effect where more students have high GPAs yet are excluded under a policy that penalizes B grades. Several board members noted scheduling and prerequisite constraints (for example, some AP courses are only available to sophomores or juniors) and asked staff to consider whether AP coursework should be required across multiple subject areas rather than allowing all AP credits from one discipline.

No motion to change the valedictorian policy was adopted at the workshop. Instead the board reached preliminary agreement on three broad directions for staff to return with draft language: raise the minimum AP-course expectation (board discussion favored a benchmark in the neighborhood of eight but also discussed six or ten), consider removing or altering the clause that disqualifies students for having B grades, and reduce the overall number of students who receive the honor. Staff said any approved change would not take effect for current upperclassmen; if changes are adopted in August, the district would notify incoming freshmen and the policy would apply to future cohorts.

Board comments and staff clarifications were recorded on a range of specific points: weighted grades were implemented by the district circa 2016; the honors diploma requires six advanced courses; some students who took 10 AP courses were not valedictorians this year because of grade mix; and logistics such as summer coursework, master scheduling, and course prerequisites can affect students’ ability to meet any new threshold.

Staff said they would draft options that remove unnecessary complexity from the policy, model the effect of different thresholds on recent classes, and return the proposals for further board consideration on Aug. 12. The board emphasized it wanted fewer students receiving valedictorian/salutatorian recognition and clearer language that aligns with district goals and scheduling realities.

The discussion produced direction for staff; there was no formal vote to change the policy at the workshop.