A majority of Blue Mountain school board members voted to reinstitute a class ranking system on Thursday night. They actually voted twice to do so.
But because two-thirds of board members didn’t vote in favor of bringing back a system that would also have the school name an annual valedictorian and salutatorian, a motion to do so failed.
The votes capped an emotional, and sometimes confusing night at Thursday’s meeting held at Blue Mountain Elementary-West in Friedensburg.
A drive to restore the class rank system – abolished in December 2021, midway through the 21-22 school term – was brought forth by Blue Mountain High School senior Alex Warke. Warke argued that the district’s policy not to name a valedictorian and salutatorian or have a class ranking system denied her the ability to compete for valuable scholarships as she pursued higher education.
“If this ranking system doesn’t go back into place immediately, I’m being robbed of a college education at Shippensburg that won’t lead me into debt for years to come,” she told board members. “Not allowing me to report my rank in the class is taking away the opportunity to have the most money awarded for my efforts. I could receive substantially more money being able to report my class rank as first.”
Warke told The Canary after Thursday’s meeting that she planned to double major in accounting and finance to one day become a Chief Financial Officer.
Some of Warke’s friends and parents spoke on her behalf at Thursday’s board meeting, supporting her stance that the class rank system should be reinstated. Warke also defended her cause in telling board members to vote to bring back class ranking. Many in attendance at the meeting also supported the cause, applauding enthusiastically after each speaker.
A parent of another Blue Mountain student, Jaclyn Gretsky, did speak out against bringing back class ranking even though, as she said, her son is likely near the top of this year’s senior class.
Prior to the first vote, board member Timothy Grube explained that his impending vote against implementing the class rank system was mostly due to it being brought in “on a whim at the eleventh hour” even though the policy to not use class ranking was terminated in the middle of the 2021-22 school term.
“Every student in the senior class has known from the time they walked through the doors of the high school in ninth grade that there was no class rank,” Grube said, “Now, seven-eighths of the way through the class’s educational venture, we’re proposing changing the rules for one student and discounting the decisions made by many others. This entire crusade has not been about the virtue of class rank in schools, rather a self-indulgent, disingenuous charade.”
Warke nearly got what she wanted from her petition to the board. A roll call vote was taken and it seemingly passed. The crowd applauded after the 5-3 vote. Voting in favor of it were John Campomizzi, Rebecca Miller, Krista Strause, Michelle Vesay, and Rosanne Zelusky. Grube, Marie Riegel, and Anne Usuka opposed the motion. Roy Heim was absent and that would prove to be crucial on this night.
After the results of the vote was announced, board Solicitor Eric Prock informed members that its policy to enact new policies was to have a two-thirds majority.
A motion was made to take another vote. During that time, a call was placed by Warke’s father, Jeremy, to Heim to join the meeting virtually on Microsoft Teams. Heim apparently called Vesay, the board President, and apparently tried to join the meeting.
However, another policy check by Prock and board members allegedly revealed that in order for someone to register a vote virtually, they must have attended the meeting from the beginning, which Heim did not. Therefore, he could not vote and he would have been the sixth vote to get the motion to pass.
The remaining board members took a second vote anyway and the result was the same, 5-3, and not enough to pass the motion.
Following the vote, during a second public comment portion of the meeting on non-agenda items, Jeremy Warke vehemently addressed the board, scolding them for allegedly following the lead of Superintendent David Helsel instead of directing him. He took aim at Helsel’s policies since he was one in favor of getting rid of the class ranking system, according to a previous report by the daily newspaper in this area.
“Politically, his agenda is all liberal, progressive crap,” Warke said.
That immediately drew the ire of Vesay, who told Warke, “That is enough out of you. SIT DOWN!”
Eventually two security guards escorted Warke outside the school building before he could finish his comments. As this happened, many attending the meeting expressed their displeasure with the board’s actions Thursday.
Alex Warke said after the meeting that she’ll continue her push to have the class ranking system reinstated at Blue Mountain. The board meets again for reorganization on Dec. 3 and then for the last time this year on Dec. 12.
TOP PHOTO CAPTION: Solicitor Eric Prock speaks with Blue Mountain board president Michelle Vesay about a board policy that requires a two-thirds majority to create new school policies.
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