At the close of the Oct. 13 Board of Education's discussion of the elimination of class rank at Garden City High School, it was clear that the crowd of parents who attended clearly want to see the practice end, and it was also clear that the School Board intends to support an administrative decision to end the practice. The Board argued heatedly as to whether or not it would be appropriate to take a straw poll vote to see if the Board would support the end of the practice, but it was finally decided in a 3-2 decision (President Linda Leone, Dr. Nancy Fredericks, and John Klupka in favor of waiting and Brian Rudy and Jim Ryan in favor of conducting a vote then) that a vote would be inappropriate until Monday's meeting (Oct. 19). While at press time Monday's meeting had not yet taken place, all of the Board members stated that they intended to support the elimination of class rank, it was simply a matter of procedure as to how they went about it.

It seems that the Garden City Board of Education doesn't have a policy in place stating the district's view on ranking the students according to their grade point averages. The consensus seems to be that ultimately the decision to eliminate class rank is up to High School Principal John Okulski. Rather than take a vote on whether or not to back Okulski's decision to eliminate class rank, and force him to make his complete proposal then and there at the Oct. 13 meeting, the Board of Education decided to have Principal Okulski draft a formal recommendation stating his administrative decision to eliminate class rank and the procedure he will follow in so doing, and then they will vote on whether or not they support the decision. By waiting this also affords them the time to double check with their legal counsel about any legal ramifications this could have.

Anxious parents urged the board to act immediately and to direct Okulski to begin making the necessary adjustments to the current system. Parents argued that early decision applications are requested by Oct. 15 at many universities and must be in by Nov. 1, and with many colleges on rolling admissions, any delay could hurt a student's chance of getting into the school of their choice. The Board argued that the wait until Monday would not signficantly impact the admissions process for the students and felt it was in their best interest to wait.

So what happens when class rank is officially eliminated from the Garden City school district? First, Prinicpal Okulski and his staff have to immediately prepare new profiles for the universities describing Garden City High School and explaining that class rank no longer exists as an official practice and that now, in the transition stage, the reporting of class rank is completely voluntary, meaning that it's the student's and his or her family's ultimate decision whether to allow a class rank number to be reported to the admissions office or not. Also, forms will have to be sent home to every student's family explaining that the practice has changed and that families need to sit down together and decide whether or not a student's rank should be reported. The form will not allow for any students to report to one school and not another. The students must decide whether or not to either report to all schools or none.

Okulski suggested at the Oct. 13 meeting that juniors also be afforded the option to report or not to report next year when they are seniors, as they have spent their academic careers with the existence of class rank possibly affecting their choices in terms of what classes to take and their response to their environement, and he felt it would be unfair to deny them the opportunity to report their rank if they should so desire. Many parents expressed strong concerns that this optional practice would adversely impact the students who chose not to report their rank. They argued that schools would see the choice not to report as negative if some of their classmates choose to report their rank. Many schools, they argued, will take the easy way out, so to speak, and use the rank for students who use it and not take the time to examine the grades and other information for the students who don't report rank. Many parents argued that the elimination of rank should take place completely and without the option to report it.

This debate was sparked by the Committee on Class Rank's presentation and recommendation to eliminate class rank in light of their findings. Their strongest arguments came from high school student Jarad Knote who gave a clear and eloquent speech on the tension class rank creates between the students and the limitations it sets on a student's feeling of freedom to explore different avenues such as art or business, which are not offered on an honors level, and thus will not carry the much sought extra .6 added as a weighted class. Another student, Ben Malkovitch, added that while he is ranked quite high in his class, he hopes to see the elimination of class rank because of the negative effect it has on the majority of students in the school. These two young men brought many in the crowd close to tears and both received rousing rounds of applause at the close of their individual comments.

The Committee also pointed to the elimination of class rank among the top schools of Long Island, such as Herricks, Manhasset, Port Washington, Syosset, Great Neck, Jericho, Roslyn, Sacred Heart, Half Hollow Hills, Hewlett, Plainview/Old Bethpage, Lawrence, and Ward Melville --which has been leading in Westinghouse Science competitions. Schools with several years' experience say that the elimination of class rank has had a positive effect, according to the Committee. Board members Klupka, Leone, and Fredericks all pointed to what they saw as a lack of clarity of data in the report, for example where percentages were not clearly marked as the percent of respondants and not the total polled. They also pointed to the Academic Index used by a vast majority of admissions departments in colleges and said that class rank adversely affects students who report class rank.

This discussion also raised the issue that many other aspects of the school's curent practices regarding how classes are weighted, grading in general, etc. need to be examined completely and a policy will need to be developed by the Board of Education. This process could take as long as three months and will involve the careful analysis of every aspect of the grading process at the school, which could impact the academic process significantly when implemented. With the immediate move from a mandatory reporting to an optional practice, the impact will be most greatly felt by the faculty who will need to draft new policies, create special forms, and make enough copies for every student in the senior class now, and later for every student in the school. With a Nov. 1 deadline for early admissions, the crunch is on for the high school staff.