As the Brainerd High School (BHS) class of 2012 looks toward its graduation commencement ceremony on May 31, the Brainerd School Board Long Range Planning Committee approved changes that will affect the class of 2013’s commencement.
During Monday afternoon’s committee meeting, Deb Lechner, director of teaching and learning, presented committee members with proposed changes to the 2012-13 District Student Handbook, including a change in the BHS handbook that details what students will be able to take part in graduation commencement.
“Student participation in the graduation ceremony is a privilege, not a right,” said Lechner, quoting exact language from the student handbook. “The changes we made to that is that (graduating) students must have the number of credits needed by the last day of school or they will not participate in the commencement ceremony with their class.
Students that need to go to summer school would not be prepared for graduation or commencement and therefore, again this is for next year (2012-13) not this year (2011-12), would not be allowed to attend the graduation ceremony.”
According to the proposed changes in the handbook, Lechner said the following verbage would be added:
• Students will not be allowed to participate in commencement if they quit attending any scheduled classes or will not have completed the required credits to graduate by the last day of school.
“I think it’s important to share a little of the dialogue surrounding why we have these changes,” said Superintendent Steve Razidlo. “We have students and families who feel passionately and that it’s important to graduate with their class and walk that line, and that has been true for centuries I imagine.
“But the pressure that sometimes is felt by a family to get enrolled in summer courses has steamrolled in some cases where it’s almost questionable if they can really get it done in the summer.
“We have looked at how we are treating this issue and we feel we’ve gotten a little out of alignment and I think it’s a better incentive to get their work done on time and have the ability to finish courses by graduation so they can walk with their class.”
Along with commencement changes, a few other minor edits were made, along with changes in technology verbage to better accommodate the amount of kids with personal devices at all age levels.
The changes were approved by long range committee members Tom Haglin and Ruth Nelson. Committee member Jim Hunt was absent from Monday’s meeting.
JESSI PIERCE, staff writer, may be reached at 855-5859 or jessi.pierce@brainerddispatch.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jessi_pierce (@jessi_pierce).
Comments (13)
Add commentGood call, BHS
Just about everything in life is a privilege not a right.
Do your job, THEN get the reward.
sounds good in theory
But what if a member was unable to complete his credits due to cancer treatments. Be prepared to make exceptions.
And Jessi, I believe the word is "verbiage".
Agree--in theory it sounds good
But the actual facts are a bit more complex.
Perhaps Wrazidlo was getting at this fact, but summer school availability is not there for all students who need it. Just heard this recently and was surprised by it.
The district has limited summer school openings and they will deny kids who need summer school to make up credit as there just is not enough classes and teachers for everyone.
At most, a kid can only take two summer school class subjects a year due to limited district offerings.
If you need to catch up in english, math and science--you could only make up two of them in one summer.
I think they give preference to juniors who would be seniors and those who are just behind in one class, but the real possibility exists that a kid who didn't get with the program or had personal issues as a freshman or sophmore may not be able to catch up in time due to a closed summer school door.
Then graduate the following year ...
... if you are so short on credits that even summer school won't get you there.
Summer school is an excuse
for screwing around during the school year. If you cannot get into summer school because it is too full, maybe that is something that should have been thought about the other 9 months!!!
Pd
Even a rum dum like me had my diploma signed & I could even write my own note at 18 to excuse myself from school.
I wonder if I ever abused that?? No not me.
I disagree. Somethings are still rights.
Here's some food for thought about privileges: Remember way back in the day when someone invented the automobile?
Well if you could afford one you could drive one, no license required, then someone said, "Hey let's make people get driver's licenses, license plates and month/year tabs then we can make money on this and we'll call it a privilege. Then we can create laws to regulate the 'privilege' and make even more money" and they did. Sure it made for nice roads to drive on and so forth but it is also a nice money maker for the government. All because someone had an idea that was changed and is now considered a privilege to use. The same has occured in many of the other motorized vehicles and boats. Buy this sticker, get that license, pay pay pay.
Even your dog needs a license, unless it was hapless enough to get stuck in a conibear.
Is nothing a right anymore? Is everything considered a privilege now?
The point here is when is enough, enough. They say some students can't go to the Graduation Ceremonies simply because they didn't learn to do things the teacher's way, perhaps the teacher's way is flawed. If I would have had known then the mistakes my teachers made back when I was in school I would not have wanted to go to the ceremony in the first place. I did graduate on time, by the way.
You buy your child supplies, and send them away for 8 hours a day, nine months out of the year for 12 years to learn what?
What did I learn from my teachers? How to be an employee, that's what I learned. What a huge waste of my time, 12 years of my young life wasted learning to make someone else rich. If only we had been able to realize what they were doing to us, we might have been able to change the thought process from learning to be an employee to learning to be a business owner while still in high school. Some will say that's what college is for, I disagree again. We wouldn't need to spend all that money on college if teachers simply trained youth differently.
I will spend every minute I can teaching my kids how to run businesses and to manage employees, so that when they are going through grade to high school they will not be mislead into believing the current teachers flawed processes that the kids should worry about getting good grades so they can go on to college and then get a good career, no they will understand you don't need a degree to hire someone that has one and they will be ahead of the curve.
Graduation ceremonies that ban students from completing school with their friends (Even though their parents already paid for their student's right to attend through supplies, sporting event tickets, taxes, etc.) and then calling it a privilege to attend is just plain bad policy by a flawed system that refuses to change.
So if the school makes a
So if the school makes a mistake and someone falls one english credit short they have to wait a year to graduate. I can already see the emotional damage lawsuits coming.
“We have looked at how we are
“We have looked at how we are treating this issue and we feel we’ve gotten a little out of alignment and I think it’s a better incentive to get their work done on time and have the ability to finish courses by graduation so they can walk with their class.”
Exactly. Why aren’t those kids being learned during the reglar school year so we don’t gotta deal with their failures in the summer when they should be getting their tattoos up-dated or hanging out and texting on the street corners. Where are our occupiers when we need them? They have all the answers.
“Students that need “ ( or is it students who need or students what need). I think we need a grammarator here.) to go to summer school would not be prepared for graduation or commencement and therefore, again this is for next year (2012-13) not this year (2011-12), would not be allowed to attend the graduation ceremony.
Graduation is a fairness
Graduation is a fairness issue.. Just because those nerdy kids applied themselves and learned a fbunch of basics , shouldn’t mean that those who sat on their dead Frankens for four years can’t pomp and circum with the rest of the class. What about self confidence and fragile egos?
Competition
I agree with the board. If the kid didn't do the work or spend the effort (with exceptions like cancer) they shouldn't get to walk with the rest. This is just as bad as in sports we don't keep score so nobodies ego will get hurt. Get a life!!!
I think by 18, you should be adult
enough to live with the circunstances that you yourself have created. Kids are in school from preschool and/or kindergarten to 12th grade, and if they don't have their act together by that point, God help them when they hit the workforce!
Not about effort, it's opportunity
I think people missed my point completely. What I am saying isn't that a kid with the ability and no problems in the way of getting their work done should have their poor work habit ignored so they can graduate--it's that kids with real problems may not be given the opportunity to catch up in time to graduate.
Say a kid whose parents are killed in a car crash. Or a kid who develops cancer during the school year. Or a kid who does make bad choices and gets into drugs, the wrong crowd,etc.--but then shapes up in the last year or two and really applies themself.
Each summer you can catch up on only two classes. Just two. There is no day long summer school, you can attend a max of two classes each summer.
It could easily make it tough for a good kid to graduate on time under this policy. Kids with really tough circumstances would be aced out despite doing everything they can under those circumstances. Kids who made poor choices but turned their life around can be aced out too.