Verona board adopts one‑year Act 95 tiebreaker: total credits, AP credits, then ACT score

The Verona Area School District Board of Education voted Jan. 27 to adopt a one‑year Act 95 waiver setting the order of tiebreaker criteria the district will use if it must limit access under the law for the current cohort.

Under Option B, which the board approved, the district will break ties first by total number of credits earned at Verona High School or approved partners, then by total number of Advanced Placement credits, and finally by the highest composite score on the ACT administration given at the high school. The board and staff stressed the waiver applies only to this school year and would be revisited in future years.

Amy, who presented the policy options, told the board administrators ran mock scenarios using current transcripts and projected ACT distributions to test whether a single criterion would suffice; in some hypothetical runs staff needed multiple ordered criteria to reach the required limiting percentages. "We did find in some of those mock ups, sometimes we only needed 1 criteria for the tiebreaker and it just landed perfectly, and in others, we went up to, having 3 different criteria to get to a place where we can actually meet the requirement," she said.

Meredith moved to approve Option B; Christopher seconded. The board approved the one‑year waiver by voice vote.

Details of the approved tiebreaker (Option B)

1) Total number of credits earned at the high school or transferred credits. 2) Total number of AP (Advanced Placement) credits earned. 3) Highest composite score on the ACT test administered at the high school (district said it would only consider the ACT administration given to students locally to ensure equitable access).

The waiver affects course access decisions for current juniors and is limited to the current year; administrators said families would be notified directly if the tiebreaker must be applied.