A Final Grade: Wilkes School Board Votes on Graduation Projects
Board also learns how spring classes will be graded
NORTH WILKESBORO-High school seniors in Wilkes County won’t have to finish one typical graduation requirement this spring. On Monday night, the Wilkes School Board voted unanimously to give students in the Class of 2020 a waiver for the district’s graduation project, acknowledging the challenges they would face in putting it together.
The request, which was recommended by the superintendent and the school district’s staff, covers all current high school seniors “not able to complete the requirement in the spring semester or those still resubmitting work from the fall semester,” according to Monday’s motion.
Adopted in 2009, graduation projects for Wilkes County students typically have four parts. There’s a research paper, a project, a portfolio of the student’s work and a presentation given at the end of the semester. Each student picks the topic for their project, with a goal of showing the knowledge and skills they’ve learned through the years. But with Gov. Roy Cooper’s ‘Stay at Home’ order in place, it would be hard for this year’s class of seniors to accomplish everything needed to make that happen.
With graduation projects not happening this spring, high school seniors in Wilkes will just need to complete the 22 courses required by the state in order to graduate.
“Most seniors by their spring semester have finished those,” said Dr. Donna Cotton, Chief Academic Officer for Wilkes County Public Schools. Speaking to the school board, Cotton said there may be some seniors still taking English 4 or going through their fourth math class. For any seniors still taking required classes, “if they were passing on March 13, then they will get credit for that class,” she said.
Classes Turned Into Pass/Withdraw
Monday’s meeting was a digital version, held over the Zoom app. More than 40 people listened on their phones as Cotton and other staff members explained the state’s new graduation requirements.
As per the state’s new guidelines, seniors will receive either a pass or a withdraw on all spring courses on their transcript.
“That is across the state, it is not optional,” Cotton told the board. “Local school districts can’t say ‘well we’re gonna give our AP students their grade’ or ‘we’re gonna give our Pre-Calc’ students a grade.”
If a senior was passing a course on March 13, then that doesn’t change. It won’t be a letter grade, however. Their transcript will simply say they passed the course and the class won’t be factored into their grade point average. On the other hand, if a senior was not passing a class on March 13, that grade currently shows up as a withdraw. It doesn’t have to stay that way. From now until the end of school, teachers will work with seniors remotely, giving them chances to improve and turn that withdraw into a pass.
As for graduation, there’s still a question if actual ceremonies will take place. Cotton told the board she and Superintendent Mark Byrd remain hopeful the virus will die down by graduation time and quarantine efforts will be lifted.
“We’re not graduating students right now,” Cotton said. “If we’re back in school [by then], then we’ll have graduation ceremonies on football fields. My hope is that we’ll have graduation and try to get a little normalcy out of this.”
Brian Carlton is the editor for NWNC Magazine. He can be reached at brian@nwncmagazine.com.
