The Class of 2020 valedictorian and salutatorian may be the last
Gloucester High School students to have those scholarly designations.

Matt Lord, the GHS Director of Counseling, told the Gloucester School
Board last week that class rankings do not benefit students applying to
college. According to Lord, colleges look at what classes students
pursued more so than their overall grade point averages.

During graduation, seniors graduating in the top 10 percent of their
class wear gold tassels on their mortar boards and honor graduates are
those who graduate with grade point averages of 3.5 or higher. Lord
pointed out that 70 of about 400 GHS seniors currently have GPAs of 4.0
or higher.

Lord said the school board does not have a policy governing class
rank and that the practice of designating the top 10 percent and
announcing “honor graduate” when a student’s name is called out during
graduation are simply traditions. 

Those traditions will be maintained for th...