School recognition

Re “After ‘overwhelming support,’ Virginia Beach School Board reinstates class ratings, recognition for top students” (March 29): The Virginia Beach School Board passed a policy restoring the academic awards of valedictorian and salutatorian. The new policy will generally apply to all of the high schools in Virginia Beach. The School Board did make two notable exceptions for Princess Anne and Ocean Lakes high schools, where there will be two valedictorian and two salutatorian awards given at these schools, one for the general education student population and the other for the advanced academic program students. (Princess Anne has the International Baccalaureate Program, and Ocean Lakes has the Math and

Science Academy.) Most Virginia Beach high schools have an advanced academic program; for instance Bayside High School has the Health Sciences Academy.

The reasoning is that in the advanced programs the students take a lot of Advanced Placement classes and other classes that award extra GPA points to their overall GPA score, and the general population students are limited to a highest GPA score in a class of 4.0 and the general population students would not be able to compete for valedictorian and salutatorian awards. Potentially a student in an AP class could get more GPA points for a B than a general population student would get for an A in a similar class.

So why are the general population students at Bayside treated differently than the general population students at Princess Anne? So why are the students from An Achievable Dream Academy separated from high schools in Virginia Beach and put into their own separate but equal building?

— Stephen Johnston, Virginia Beach