Some things change; others stay the same.
The Board of Education of the Blair Oaks R-2 school district approved a change to the student graduation system Tuesday night, but voted to keep meal and extracurricular event admission prices the same as last year.
The new Blair Oaks High School Principal Melinda Aholt recommended the board approve the proposal presented by former high school principal Gary Verslues in June to replace the high school's class rank system with a cum laude system. The board unanimously approved the measure.
A cum laude system will enable more students to qualify for admissions and scholarships to colleges and universities by placing more emphasis on an individual student's grade point average, as opposed to their relative position to their classmates.
District staff also believe the change will make students more competitive, and will encourage students to explore more creative classes in fine arts, whereas before students felt pressure to take as many grade-weighted classes as possible.
The system change will begin with the class of 2021 - this year's incoming freshman class.
Meal prices in the district for the 2017-18 school year will remain the same as last year, as follows:
- Breakfast (grades K-8), $1.30
- Lunch (K-4), $1.90
- Lunch (5-12), $2.20
- Lunch (Adult), $2.50
The board also approved admission prices to extracurricular events remain the same as last year:
- $4 for adults for varsity football games
- $3 for adults for varsity and junior varsity softball, varsity and junior varsity volleyball, varsity and junior varsity basketball, varsity wrestling and varsity and junior varsity baseball
- $2 for adults to junior varsity and freshmen football, middle school volleyball, middle school and freshmen basketball, middle school wrestling and freshmen baseball. All K-12 students pay $2 to all levels of every sport.
- Family season passes will cost $135, and individual season passes will cost $55.
William Duke, the board's vice president wondered if the board can come up with a way for students or veterans to have a night each season to be admitted free to extracurricular events, in order to boost attendance.
"The key is, it's going to made up somewhere, and this is the group that's going to make it up," Superintendent Jim Jones said of how that could be budgeted.
Jones also said there would have to be questions of how such occasions would be equitably distributed across activities and grade levels - boys versus girls and varsity versus other events.
The board did like the idea, though, and is moving forward with exploring it.
The board also unanimously approved a 5 percent raise for the school resource officer the district shares with the Eugene and Russellville school districts. The annual salary cost of $58,484 will be split evenly between the three districts, meaning Blair Oaks will be responsible for $19,495.