By DAVE SCHULTZ
Northern Wells Community Schools may be going back to a weighted grading system.
Anna Murphy, the district’s assistant superintendent, made a presentation to the district’s school board Tuesday night, requesting that the idea of weighted grades — taking into account the difficulty of the courses involved — be put in place for Norwell High School students, possibly as early as December.
The new grading scale won’t have an impact on the NHS Class of 2023, since grades from the eighth semester are rarely taken into account as colleges consider academic qualifications for admission. However, they are expected to make a difference for students that will come after this year’s seniors.
As things stand now, grades given to more rigorous academic classes count the same toward a student’s grade point average as a course of lesser intensity. Some students were opting toward the standard course instead of a more difficult course. “That kind of upset me,” Murphy said.
Under a proposal Murphy showed to the board, a letter grade of an “A” is 4.0 on a non-weighted scale. If the course was weighted for difficulty, that “A” could be worth a 4.3 on the student’s GPA.
“Additional qualifying points for dual credit and advanced placement classes may encourage more students to take harder classes,” one part of the presentation said.
Murphy said the school’s guidance counselors are in favor of the change, even through it will create more work for them. “Our guidance counselors were wonderful,” she said. “They are glad that we are talking about this and that we could put it in place … tomorrow.”
Board members seemed in favor of the change, but no final decision was made. That will be done in work sessions as staff and parents and others interested in the school district consider weighted GPAs and other issues going forward.
Board member Angie Topp indicated that it hasn’t been all that long since Norwell had weighted grades. “It’s changed since I have been on the board,” she said.
In other business Tuesday, the board accepted 13 resignations — one for the second time — and also agreed with 14 hiring recommendations.
The resignations included Norwell High School band director Cory Kelley. His resignation was provisional as he was waiting for the school board at Adams Central to formally hire him, said NWCS Superintendent Mike Springer. When that school district sent Kelley a letter announcing their intent to employ him, Springer said, Kelley completed his resignation process from NWCS.
One of the new hires approved Tuesday night was Sam Wells as the new NHS band director.
The board also heard a presentation from Springer on opening staff days and the first student days and on the district’s strategic plan and 2022-23 work sessions.
daves@news-banner.com
