Ben Jones, speaking at the Marysville Schools commencement, said the designation of valedictorian this year was given to the top scholars in the graduating class and that “we have 73 students who have achieved this level of academic excellence.” He described the district criterion for valedictorian as a 4.1 GPA or higher after seven semesters.

Jack Widmer described the President’s Education Awards recognition and introduced state honors diplomas. He summarized the State Board of Education criteria used locally for the Ohio honors diploma: higher‑level credits, a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or higher, and college‑ready benchmarks (an ACT score of 27 or an SAT score of 1210).

Program notes and speakers said recipients of the President’s Education Awards and of state honors diplomas were standing to be recognized and that honorees are identified in the printed commencement program. The ceremony identified valedictorians in the program with a letter “V” beside their names.

Speakers noted that presidential awards, honors diplomas and valedictorian designations reflect district and state criteria; no changes to those criteria were announced at the ceremony.