Academic honors policy set by School Board
Published 12:53 pm Sunday, June 4, 2017
Why do some high school graduations have valedictorians and salutatorians while some have summa cum laude and magna cum laude?
It’s a matter of preference.
The Calcasieu Parish School Board changed its policy in 1999, doing away with the designations valedictorian and salutatorian in favor of the honors categories cum laude, summa cum laude and magna cum laude.
Officials said the change would ensure greater academic rigor by requiring prospective honor students to take core classes and maintain specific grade-point averages: 3.9-4 for summa cum laude; 3.7-3.89 for magna cum laude; and 3.5-3.69 for cum laude.
The board previously considered the change in the mid-1990s and in the mid-1970s, when members thought it might help “head off angry parents who bring their complaints to the School Board when a child is not selected for honors, especially salutatorian,” according to an American Press story published April 17, 1974.
“The board was told that it is actually the salutatorian, not the valedictorian, which presents the biggest problem because the academic point spread between the two students is often extremely close. …,” the story reads.
“Board President Mrs. H. P. Francis, who wanted to find some means of halting the parents’ annual pilgrimage before the board, said many schools in the United States are doing away with the title of valedictorian.
“But the Rev. V. E. Washington said, ‘They’re doing away with it and causing more trouble because it gives the students no incentive.’ ”
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Online: www.cpsb.org.
La., Texas differ some in law on guns in cars
Does Louisiana or Texas have a law against drivers having firearms in their vehicles?
Louisiana law allows people to keep handguns — concealed or in plain view — in their vehicles. Texas law contains a limitation.
“A person commits an offense if the person intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly carries on or about his or her person a handgun in a motor vehicle or watercraft that is owned by the person or under the person’s control at any time in which … the handgun is in plain view,” reads Section 46.02 of Texas Penal Code Title 10.
For more information, call Louisiana State Police at 225-925-6006 or the Texas Department of Public Safety at 512-424-7293.
www.dps.texas.gov/internetForms/Forms/CHl-16.pdf; www.lsp.org.
Board members receive no pay
How much do those on the board of directors of the hurricane museum get paid, and how much money do they still have in their account?
I would appreciate an answer, because I have asked before and you have not answered.
The members are unpaid.
According to the board’s latest available filing with the Internal Revenue Service, the group ended 2015 with net assets of $853,767.
The Informer last answered the compensation question — and provided financial information — on April 8, 2016, in a front-page column on a then-upcoming property tax proposal to help fund the museum.
That proposal was rejected by voters, and the board has since said it no longer plans to build a museum on the lakefront.
The Informer answers questions from readers each Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. It is researched and written by Andrew Perzo, an American Press staff writer. To ask a question, call 494-4098 and leave voice mail, or email informer@americanpress.com.
