In a rather stunning turn of events, the Class Rank system at Blue Mountain School District has been reinstated.
In an email sent by Blue Mountain Friday evening, it was explained that there was a policy conflict that erroneously led school board members to believe that a two-thirds majority of votes was needed to adopt, amend, or repeal votes
On Thursday night, school board members voted on a motion to bring back the class rank system at Blue Mountain. This effort was led by a senior student who said she was being shorted on a chance to earn academic scholarships because Blue Mountain hadn’t named a valedictorian or salutatorian since the 2021-22 school term.
Board members voted 5-3 twice on that motion but believing that a two-thirds majority was needed for it to pass, it was announced the motion failed.
However, an email from the school indicates that the rule on a two-thirds majority wasn’t valid. Instead, only a majority vote was needed to pass the motion.
The problem stems from having conflicting board policies on the amount of votes needed to pass such a motion to adopt, amend, or repeal a policy. There were two, Policy 003 and Policy 006.
Board members asked Solicitor Eric Prock to investigate the conflict. Blue Mountain says that Policy 006 indicates only a majority of votes is needed to adopt, amend, or repeal policies. Policy 003 says a two-thirds majority is needed.
Further investigation revealed that both policies tracked back to Feb. 28, 2008. At that time, both policies, 003 and 006, required the two-thirds majority. But on Feb. 23, 2012, Policy 006 was amended and has since only required a simple majority to adopt, amend, or repeal a policy. On that date, Policy 003 was never amended and that created a conflict, the school says.
Prock told the board, essentially, that since Policy 006 was the most recently amended of the two, it indicates what the board’s intent was for changing or adopting policies. Therefore, a simple majority is all that’s needed.
“Relative to the vote on Policy 214 (Class Rank), application of Policy 006 only requires a majority of the Board. This means five affirmative votes were necessary to approve the motion. That is the exact number of affirmative votes garnered last evening. As such, the vote will be recorded as 5-3, with the motion passing. Class rank will be reinstituted for the Class of 2025 immediately,” the board email says. “The Solicitor and Blue Mountain School Board sincerely apologize for the confusion that occurred due to the oversight of conflicting policy.”
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