Hollister
– Proud moms and dads in Hollister will again have something to
clip out and put on their refrigerators.
Hollister – Proud moms and dads in Hollister will again have something to clip out and put on their refrigerators.
After a long debate, and several years’ hiatus, San Benito High School has released its honor roll, acknowledging students’ academic achievement for the first semester.
The honor roll appears on Page 5 of today’s Free Lance.
“I’m very happy about it. It’s a great way of honoring them and a great way of letting the town know that we have incredible students,” Superintendent Stan Rose said.
The school ceased releasing an honor roll for several years because of administrators’ concerns about the legality of publicizing student records.
But in December, Frank Muro, who heads the Migrant Program at SBHS, asked the school district’s board of trustees to reinstate the honor roll. Muro said he felt it was important for the school to acknowledge the students’ academic achievement.
While all board members and administrators seemed positive about the idea of an honor roll, they were hesitant to release the list.
“The board decided it’s so positive to publish student success, but the question had come up about student confidentiality,” Director of Educational Services Cindy Cordova said.
After the second time Muro addressed the board, in February, the administrators began looking into the whether releasing honor roll information violated student privacy laws and discovered that there was no violation.
“The Family Education Rights and Privacy Act permits school honors to be disclosed to the public without permission from the parents,” Jim Bradshaw, who works in the press office at the U.S. Department of Education, previously told the Free Lance.
Bradshaw said honors and other directory information about a student could be released as long as parents were given the opportunity at the beginning of the year to notify the school and decline to have such information made public.
Cordova said the school also discussed the legality with an attorney, who agreed that parents had been given ample opportunity to opt out.
The discovery that it is, in fact, legal to publish an honor roll was met by much enthusiasm by the board, administrators and staff.
“People are really happy that we’re publishing it again,” Rose said. “Some of the comments are that too often you hear about the bad news and not about the good news, so it’s nice to see that.”
Rose also said he was happy to see a diverse group of students represented on the honor roll.
“It covers all spectra of our student population and it lets kids know that if they want to they can achieve that line,” Rose said.
The district honor roll acknowledges students who received a 3.0 grade point average and higher. More than 800 students made the school’s honor roll for the first semester, which ended in February.
Alice Joy covers education for the Free Lance. She can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 336 or at [email protected].
