A new policy is in place that is expected to reduce the number of students earning valedictorian status in future Kingfisher High School graduating classes.

The Kingfisher Board of Education voted 4-1 at its Tuesday meeting to adopt the new policy, which won’t take effect until the 2021-22 school year.

“The current policy has been in place four or five years and it served its purpose, but over time it’s (being named valedictorian) has become less of an honor,” KHS Principal Todd Overstreet told board members. “We were looking for something to make it more of an honor.”

The 2020 class of 127 graduates, the largest in the school’s history, had 26 students - or 20.5 percent - named valedictorian and two salutatorians.

“If we had used this formula, that number would have been eight,” said Overstreet. “And with a school our size, five to eight valedictorians is still a considerable amount.”

Overstreet said he worked with counselor Paula Leffingwell, Assistant Principal Jay Wood and the school’s department heads multiple times and “for several hours” before coming up with the new proposed policy, which he said is what a number of colleges use to award scholarships.

The new policy states that to achieve valedictorian status the following formula will be used:

• A seven-semester non-weighted cumulative GPA multiplied by 100, plus;

• The highest ACT composite score multiplied by 10.

A total of 670 must be achieved to earn valedictorian.

In essence, if a student carries a 4.0 GPA, they must score at least a 27 on the ACT. If the GPA is 3.9, then a 28 on the ACT is necessary, and so on.

In addition to scoring a total of 670, students must complete two AP courses offered at KHS as well as either English Comp I or College Algebra through concurrent enrollment.

The December National ACT test date of the student’s senior year will be the last score considered toward the formula and no residual ACT score will be used, according to the policy.

If no student reaches the criteria, the top score using the formula will be named valedictorian and the next highest score will be salutatorian.

Also, to be considered valedictorian or salutatorian, a student must be enrolled at KHS by Sept. 1 of their senior year.

Jim Perdue cast the dissenting vote.

“I don’t agree,” he said during the discussion portion prior to the vote.

“There are students who work really hard for four years, take college courses, get a 4.0, but when it comes time to test, they just don’t test well.”

Fellow board member Dana Golbek said she hoped the new criteria would encourage students to continue to push for higher ACT scores.

“Right now, once they hit a certain score, they’re done,” she said. “This might encourage them to take it several times.”

When asked by the Times & Free Press about potential scholarship dollars lost by students not earning valedictorian status, Leffingwell provided information from Oklahoma State University, the University of Oklahoma, Southwestern Oklahoma State University and the University of Central Oklahoma.

OU considers students for a $10,000 tuition waiver over four years to students who were ranked either No. 1 or No. 2 in their class and ACT or SAT scores may be used to make final decisions.

The other three schools use some variation of a formula combining GPA and ACT or SAT scores.

While being a valedictorian might be part of additional criteria used in consideration, none of the four schools list being a valedictorian as a requirement.

Also, Leffingwell added, colleges are beginning to offer early acceptance in November, well before valedictorians and salutatorians can be named.

“So the consideration for that isn’t being taken,” Leffingwell said.