Can Cherokee recognize two Etowah valedictorians?
The AJC has a fascinating story tonight about the awarding of the valedictorian title to a Cherokee County high school to a student who is already in college but is dual enrolled at Etowah High School.
There is apparently some anger being directed at Kelly McCahill, who attends the University of West Georgia through a dual enrollment program at Etowah and earned the No. 1 slot, although I am not sure why. She didn’t determine the policy that weights college credits higher. Or the policy that apparently treats her as a student at Etowah, although she’s never attended the high school.
Couldn’t they just name two valedictorians? I read about a California high school that had 58 valedictorians and a Washington state school that had 38. I understand the policies might prevent this but could there be an exception for these extraordinary circumstances?
Here is an excerpt of the news story:
McCahill took the No. 1 ranking — and hence the title of valedictorian — from Sydney Perlotto, an Etowah student who has been tops in her class since the ninth grade.
This sparked an outcry over how the grade-point averages are calculated for students who are dually enrolled in the county’s high school and college programs.
At Etowah, Perlotto’s classmates have aired their protests on a Facebook page they’ve labeled “Team Sydney.” They’ve also circulated a petition, asking that county policy declare the school’s valedictorian and salutatorian be required to attend the school for some period between their freshman and senior years.
On Thursday night, the Cherokee County school board discussed a possible policy change to lessen the chances that students enrolled in college courses have an advantage over students taking advanced placement classes. Another board discussion will be held in March, followed by a vote.
“The real problem here is that colleges refuse to give number grades and that hamstrings the school system,” said Superintendent Frank R. Petruzielo, adding that the current policy has been in place for 10 years and this is the first inequity issue raised.
Mark Perlotto, Sydney’s father, said the school system is sending the wrong message.
“They’re saying the way to be an outstanding student, which is the definition of the valedictorian, is to never attend class there, never take any instruction there and never set foot on campus for any of the activities,” he said.
McCahill attended other public schools in Cherokee County, but not Etowah, her mother said. She lives on campus at West Georgia, although she’s enrolled at the Woodstock high school. She’s felt a backlash since she was identified as the newly installed valedictorian.
“People are really angry at me,” she said.
McCahill has been warned that dead animals might turn up at her door and her boyfriend’s brother has been pulled out of class at Etowah and yelled at over what’s happened, she said.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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189 comments Add your comment
Liar
February 5th, 2011
1:14 pm
I know you’re not an Academy Student- nobody that ignorant is in the Academy, and you spelled “duel-enrollment” (DUAL ENROLLMENT) wrong… sorry, you’re a liar.
Likewhoaemory
February 5th, 2011
1:51 pm
@BottomLine,
Essentially, your argument boils down to “Patty McCahill is a bad person because she wanted to save money AND she should have changed the private school rules, so Kelly could attend UWG.”
You are probably the most irrational person I have ever encountered. You propose that Mrs. McCahill pay for Kelly to attend UWG and the private school, in which she does not attend anymore. Many people think the state pays for the whole program for Kelly to attend. It does not. As a former Advanced Academy student, who even received UWG’s highest honor, the Presidential scholarship, I still had to pay for housing and a meal plan. This amounted to about 3,000 dollars a semester. To suggest that Kelly’s mother was exploited EHS in any way is laughable. Kelly is required by law to attend high school, and the public school was there for her to take advantage of. Kelly needed a host high school to attend, and EHS is required by law to let her be enrolled at her school.
This is utterly ridiculous. EHS still receives funding for Kelly. People who say the high school does not receive funding for joint-enrollment, are simply uninformed. The high school still receives money for Kelly, and because of this, Kelly should be able to enjoy the Valedictory just like any other student. The school district still receives money like Kelly is enrolled, but they don’t even have to deal with her, except for her coming in for the counselor to sign papers!
Sham
February 5th, 2011
3:26 pm
@Angela Smith – You said she is being taught classes “which are college level but taught at a high school level”…hmmmm which is it, college level or high school level? Make up your mind.
I bet that Patti McCahill is basking in the joy this is all causing now that the community knows all about her daughter’s accomplishments. I also bet that most of you would be singing a different tune if this was happening to your child and they were the one on the losing end.
Toto: Exposing naked body scanners...
February 5th, 2011
4:33 pm
@redhousecat
” I’m not questioning the duel enrollment situation”
Thanks “red” for the great visual! LOL!
Yes, I think the best way to solve this problem is to allow the top two contenders to duel to determine the rightful valedictorian. It worked for a few of our Presidents…..
Jnritt
February 5th, 2011
6:13 pm
Usually when someone calls someone else a liar they are either….
1. Too stupid to to be able to refute an argument.
2. Too ignorant to be able to refute an argument.
3. Both.
If the only thing that one can come up with that is wrong about an argument is the spelling, one should stay quiet and not prove to all who read that 1, 2, or 3 apply to you.
Toto: Exposing naked body scanners...
February 5th, 2011
7:13 pm
Yes. On an education blog predominantly populated with public school teachers, who are currently discussing the merits of valedictorian selection, I would agree that knowing the difference between “dual” and “duel” is a very minor point.
mediafail
February 5th, 2011
7:37 pm
@ Sam
Nice job of picking on semantics. Your skills of argumentation are exceptional. Kelly wanted and still wants a compromise. The other family refused, for what at this point is pretty much nothing more than bragging rights. College applications are already in. Sydney has already been accepted into some schools. Why draw this out and start a media frenzy?
@ C’mon People
I’m sure you’re well aware of how the news likes to cut out certain portions of an interview to make a totally different point come across. The McCahills have already offered to compromise. That entire WSB segment is a joke anyway. They literally call the Academy nothing more than a “GPA booster,” and they don’t even get the name of the university right. None of these articles have made any mention of how challenging it can be to get into the Academy and maintain a 4.0 GPA at the university. Heck, none of these articles have even made mention of the Academy’s name.
I can’t believe how some of you people are faulting a teenage girl for just wanting to challenge herself further academically and have access to better extracurricular and research opportunities. That is nothing other than commendable. She’s not “gaming the system,” and she did not create the rules. She did not take anything from anyone or ask for any of this. Last time I checked, it’s the school and school system that determines the valedictorian position and the GPA conversion. Any hatred should be directed to the administration.
Jnritt
February 5th, 2011
7:38 pm
If spelling on this blog counts for so much, should we not expect the same for punctuation and dismiss or ridicule those who insert an unnecessary comma too?
Maureen Downey
February 5th, 2011
7:45 pm
@mediafail, I am not sure anyone deserves any hatred in this controversy. This is a unique situation that Cherokee policy never envisioned. I still think that bending the rules to allow two valedictorians is the solution. There are many schools that have more than one student ranked No. 1. (As I posted earlier, some schools out West have 40 kids sharing the top rank. Hopefully, not all 40 give speeches at graduation.)
Maureen
RunningLuCy
February 5th, 2011
8:55 pm
As a parent of a past dual-enrolled child in Cherokee County, I support Ms. McCahill and want to point out that Ms. Perlotto was afforded the same opportunity to enroll in the dual-enrollment program.
Additionally, I do not think that Ms. McCahill should be penalized because Ms. Perlotto, for her own reasons, chose not to participate in the program. Dual-enrolled students must work very hard to be invited to partcipate in the program and to maintain a high GPA in order to continue with the program.
As a dual-enrolled student, you are a student of both the high school and the college (as others have pointed out, that’s what dual-enrollment means). As such, the high school counselors are required to work with you and the college to make sure that you are fulfilling all the requirements needed to graduate from high school. My son actually was required to go in to meet with his counselor once or twice a semester even though he didn’t have any classes on campus.
I know that Ms. Perlotto and Ms. McCahill both have worked very hard to get where they are today. I don’t think that anyone can say that being in college at 17 is easier than going to high school. Ms. McCahill deserves the recognition for her extremely hard efforts and Ms. Perlotto and her friends would be better served to put their efforts in their studies as their senior year winds down.
Lastly, let me say that Ms. Perlotto has the unique opportunity to be in a position of true leadership here and this is her time to step up and show who she is as a person. She has the power to ask her fellow Etowah classmates to stop threatening Ms. McCahill and her friends and family. There is nothing wrong with forming a protest but there is no need to bring in dead animals and threaten an innocent boy who has nothing to do with the decision, nor is there any reason that Ms. McCahill should feel a backlash from Etowah students and parents. We are forgetting here that she didn’t make the rules. She simply did as Ms. Perlotto did, she worked hard and as a student in college, we must assume that she worked extremely hard. How is that wrong?
mediafail
February 5th, 2011
9:22 pm
@Maureen Downey
I agree that nobody deserves hatred in this situation, but as there seems to be some anyway, the last place it should be directed to is a teenage girl who only wanted to expand her academic opportunities.
Atlanta mom
February 5th, 2011
9:47 pm
Well, school boards need to figure this out, because MOWR is only going to make this situation more difficult.
Melissa
February 5th, 2011
10:19 pm
@Sam… hence my question… WHO yelled at him. Was there no follow up on this statement by the reporter? And if there was no follow up, why include it in the article?
Toto: Exposing naked body scanners...
February 5th, 2011
10:32 pm
“McCahill has been warned that dead animals might turn up at her door and her boyfriend’s brother has been pulled out of class at Etowah and yelled at over what’s happened, she said.”
Now why would this intelligent young lady want to represent this crass group of high school seniors? And really, what NICE things would she have to say about them in her speech? “This Etowah class of 2011 does Don Corleone proud!” or “Etowah has welcomed this private school carpetbagger with open arms because they knew I would salvage their school GPA, and I did not let them down.”
“While I didn’t get to know any of you in person over the last three years, I can tell from your Facebook pages that your friends are my unfriends. Isn’t that the way it should be?” ….applause!
“With a 10.2% unemployment rate in Georgia, the Etowah Class of 2011 has nothing to fear but unemployment, so who cares who is valedictorian anyway?”
LIT
February 5th, 2011
11:35 pm
While I certainly sympathize with the situation facing both young ladies, unfortunately the damage has been done to both of these incredibly intelligent ladies. Give it to one, the other is, unfairly, left out. Give it to both and they both feel slighted in some small way. The fault of the entire controversy lies solely with the Cherokee County School Board for not learning from the surrounding counties and preventing this problem in the first place.
I must, however, comment on the disparaging remarks made about The University of West Georgia. My daughter will graduate this coming May from UWG with a degree in early childhood education. While in her junior year of high school, we sat down and determined which college would be the best for her in the area she was interested (teaching). Based on a great deal of research and even discussion with the head of hiring for Gwinnett County schools, two colleges were determined to be the top in the state of Georgia for an education degree, Georgia State and the University of West Georgia. For those of you touting the greatness of UGA, the UWG resumes that come in are given higher consideration overall (this again coming from a top official in the Gwinnett county school system). Make sure you have your facts straight before firing off about a school you know nothing about.
Likewhoaemory
February 6th, 2011
3:06 am
@Toto, So, what you’re saying is, Kelly should not want to be valedictorian because the class does not want her to be? That kind of logic where the masses control what the minorities do, leads to atrocities. Give me a break.
Toto: Exposing naked body scanners...
February 6th, 2011
8:13 am
@Likewhoaemory
Actually, I was just pointing out the sad truth of the difficulties she would have writing a traditional valedictortian speech. It has turned into class warfare, and the underclass isn’t receptive. It turns out that the best education in Cherokee County is obtained through private school and non-traditional classes (college). They don’t want to hear it.
Etowah Parent
February 6th, 2011
8:51 am
After studying the policies, there are two things which appear to be the underlying problems: Because West GA does not provide numerical grades, Cherokee County policy “rounds up” and converts those grades to the highest possible numerical grade for that student. Therefore theoretically, a Dual Enrollment student who would have received a 90% if West GA gave numerical grades is automatically given a 100% for the purpose of the high school GPA calculation. On top of that, the Dual Enrollment students receive 1 full year of high school credit for a one semester class while the student enrolled at the high school does not receive this “rounding up” and also receives only 1/2 credit calculated into their high school GPA. In essence, the Dual Enrollment student get two of these “supercharged A’s” calculated into their high school GPA while student at the high school only gets one “non-supercharged A” calculated into their GPA–even for a nationally-standardized Advanced Placement (AP) class. It seems to me that this is DEFINITELY not a level playing field and there is no way that their GPAs have been calculated in a comparable way. Therefore they cannot be “ranked” against eachother in the class standings in this manner. Maybe those involved with the Dual Enrollment policies and GPA calculations should take a remedial mathematics class? This isn’t about either student, on the surface both have undoubtedly worked very hard. This is about the county and school administrators comparing apples to oranges. At the very least, an investigative reporter should look deeper into the facts behind this issue. It also seems to me that the idea of a Dual Enrollment Valedictorian and a class Valedictorian that has been suggested has some merit given the different ways they use for calculating GPAs.
Toto: Exposing naked body scanners...
February 6th, 2011
9:18 am
@etowah parent
A smart student/parent would have studied this school policy and taken advantage of it.
I didn’t hear anyone from Etowah protesting this policy prior to the valedictorian standoff. These are the realities of public school. Why don’t you home school and save taxpayers thousands of dollars, yes?
Etowah Parent
February 6th, 2011
9:25 am
With respect to the post from Fellow Academy Student and the link to the Gradick Communications portal article link: Based on the piece I saw that aired on WSBTV, It was Ms. McCahill mother who took any compromise off the table, not anyone from Ms. Perlotto’s side of the controversy.
commonsense
February 6th, 2011
4:04 pm
Why is it that only Stats girl gets it( thankyou statsgirl, you are valedictorian for life) Kelly did go to Etowah for YEARS. The WGU program is by ETOWAH’s decision an extension of their program. Let me repeat, by ETOWAH’s decision an extension of their program. And if you read all the articles you will further note that the girls are from the same neighborhood, same sports teams. Kelly is no aristocrat in fact her parents are too busy working to be calling the press or sitting on the school board.Kelly didn’t steal anything. Kelly did grow up with these mean spirited kids, maybe that was why she went to another school for two years. Maybe her parents won’t let her start hateful facebook pages and whatnot. I don’t know. But she cetainly had every right to return to ETOWAH and she did for the past few years. She got an A in College Calculus( premed not business) not math 4. ETOWAH gave her this chance and she certainly has people to thank. And I’m sorry for the woman who still supposes she was cheated. Kelly and Sydney are both 17 year old high school students. both girls have feelings. Kelly is a High school student and has just as much right to be valedictorian. Kelly didn’t take this to the court of public opinion. Kelly is the victim here make no mistake. Her grades and rank were made public without consent starting this maelstrom. Her picture appeared nowhere in the shotty opinionated AJC reporting.
teamsyd
February 6th, 2011
7:30 pm
none of us even knw kelley or whatever her name is….how is she going to make a speech about her experience with etowah or the graduating class of 2011 when she has no experience? This shouldn’t even be a question, it should be sydneys. it IS sydneys
teamsyd
February 6th, 2011
7:33 pm
mean spirited? I’ve seen harsh words on facebook from kellys side too, shes not little miss perfect victim here. I dont knw why she’d want to speak to a class that does not want to hear that speech from her.
teamsyd
February 6th, 2011
7:36 pm
shes not victim, just a random girl that pops up out of no where leaving EHS wondering who she is, given none of our school has seen her?..hm
teamsyd
February 6th, 2011
7:44 pm
sydneys “crew” consists of the whole class plus more of students ,all against kelly. she didnt get threatened get real.
teamsyd
February 6th, 2011
7:48 pm
no animals worth wasting over a fake valedictorian by any means, Kellys parents are obviously trying to make it look worse an gain sympathy, why doesn’t she just stay at West Georgia instead of causing a riot? That would be a good solution.
another comment
February 7th, 2011
12:41 am
Here are a couple of facts for those of you saying that everyone has the option of dual enrollment. That is false. You can not be a Varsity Cheerleader your senior year in Cobb County and go to school anything but full time, all day at your home school. Which means, no dual enrollment, if you want to be a cheerleader. If Cheerleading has been your life for 16 years, since you were 2. You intend to try out to be a SEC Cheerleader, you had better be on a Varsity Cheerleading team your senior year. Other Varsity Sports teams also require the same thing of their atheletes full time enrollment senior year. No part-time, no half days, no dual enrollment. Sorry, some of us are still hopeing that our 4.0 students can also pick up at least a partial athletic scholarship. Or that their participation in Athletics sets them apart to the admissions committe. But then my children are getting the heck out of Georgia for College.
I was a hiring official in my career and never hired a West Georgia Graduate, I hired one Albany State grad. and that was the biggest mistake of my hiring career. You hire from top schools. Don’t kid your selfs. Why do you all think their are so many of us Yankee’s in town?
lisa
February 7th, 2011
7:09 am
The honor of valedictorian should go to student who attends the school period. A person who takes advantage of “dual enrollment” should not be eligible for the honor. There is no question that dual enrollment is an excellent option for the participant, but when you LIVE, STUDY, etc. at another school, you are a “student” at that school. Most colleges have a policy similar. For example, if I attend classes at West Georgia, I can’t transfer to the University of Georgia and take one class there and receive my diploma from UGA.
There is a simple solution to this and it is residency. You have to register and attend so many classes on a University campus to receive your degree from there.
That being stated, there is a problem with the GPA calculation and that should be resolved.
As for this year, both girls may be an option.
Toto: Exposing naked body scanners...
February 7th, 2011
10:46 am
“Don’t kid your selfs. Why do you all think their are so many of us Yankee’s in town?”
Well, for someone with such erudite spelling skills, I AM CLUELESS.
Maureen Downey
February 7th, 2011
11:58 am
@rehousecat, In mentioning Woodstock, the story was locating the high school geographically. (Etowah’s address is 6565 Putnam Ford Drive, Woodstock, GA 30189) It would be akin to describing Grady High school as an Atlanta high school.
Maureen
Toto: Exposing naked body scanners...
February 7th, 2011
1:04 pm
@teamsyd
You said, “sydneys “crew” consists of the whole class plus more of students ,all against kelly. she didnt get threatened get real……why doesn’t she just stay at West Georgia instead of causing a riot? That would be a good solution.”
As I said earlier, “why would this intelligent young lady want to represent this crass group of high school seniors?” Don Corleone would be proud.
lisa
February 7th, 2011
3:38 pm
The answer to this problem is a residency requirement. If you are not a “student” with a physical presence on campus, you do not get the awards. In my opinion, if you are living on campus at West Georgia, you are a West Georgia student. That being stated, the young lady made a great choice in dual-enrollment, but her honors should come from West Georgia, not Etowah.
Clearly, the policy on calculating GPA should be changed if this is an issue.
Etowah Alumni
February 7th, 2011
5:37 pm
Coming from a previous Etowah Student, I am personally disgusted at the fact that a stranger is most likely going to receive the title of valedictorian for the Class of 2011. Being a valedictorian isn’t just about a student’s GPA, it is about knowing your classmates and teachers, participating in school activities and clubs, and attending school functions, which if I may add, Sydney Perlotto has done more than any other student at this high school. It sickens me that Kelly is going to the papers to make herself appear as a victim when this is clearly NOT the case. For someone who is trying to be the victim in this situation, how is sending numerous Etowah seniors rude messages via FACEBOOK a way of trying to receive attention in a negative light? If you ask me, I think she deserves to get dead animals left at her doorstep. For someone who has earned such a high GPA at West Georgia due to jetting, maybe she should go be THEIR valedictorian, instead of trying to represent a sea of strangers at their graduation ceremony. What a joke. Kelly, don’t bother showing up at that graduation ceremony, they should literally boo you off the stage, and we Etowah Alumni will be there to help.
Careful Reader
February 7th, 2011
6:01 pm
For Random Thought: The 80% GPA is not required in order to graduate; you can graduate with a 70%. If you look carefully to the left of the chart, you will see that the 80% refers to graduating with distinction–a special honor.
Careful Reader
February 7th, 2011
6:36 pm
Traditionally, it is the job of the valedictorian to give the valediction at graduation. Valediction is a Latin word meaning “farewell speech.” It is ironic that Kelly’s job will be to say farewell to a place that she never arrived at. This irony, however, is not of her making but of the short-sighted policies of the Cherokee County School System. Surely it was someone’s job to say, “What if…?”
Lurkinator
February 7th, 2011
8:55 pm
Make both girls co-vals and change the policy for next year to state that in order to be eligible for Val or Sal status, the student must physically attend the high school full-time for one year.
I had friends that were homeschoolers who used to take PE, Music, Art, languages, etc, at my school but weren’t eligible to be our Val/Sal b/c they didn’t attend full-time. Likewise, we had Dual-Enrolled kids who were ineligible unless they attended the school for at least one class each semester AND had gone to the school full-time for a year…. no college-campus living for those kids. We had a 4.0 GPA system with bonus points added in for Honors, AP, and DE classes, so our Val and Sal and nearly 5.0 GPAs.
ArtsyAmy
February 7th, 2011
9:07 pm
It isn’t ethical to retroactively devise rules to design the situation you personally want.
McCahill had to be enrolled in her assigned high school according to where she lives in order to have dual enrollment for West Georgia. She also had to have the grades and the work ethic to engage, survive, and thrive in such an environment. And, based on the way grade are weighed by Cherokee County Schools, McCahill was determined the Valedictorian.
The point of making good grades is to challenge yourself, to inspire more learning, and to more fully develop yourself. The purpose of earning high marks is not to become Valedictorian. Becoming Valedictorian is a pleasurable and enjoyable by-product of hard work.
Undeniably, both young women have worked very hard and are very bright. And, understandably, it is always frustrating to think you have an award “in the bag” only to learn it will not be yours. However, based on the current system (which as the article states has had no issues with inequity in over ten years) McCahill is the Valedictorian.
And, really, all the bother about “she isn’t from Etowah!” sounds very mealy-mouthed. As an educator, a sister, and a friend I have attended countless graduations, and the best graduation speeches are those that focus on future inspiration rather than “the good ole times of high school” (which for most, were perhaps not that many). Furthermore, in graduation classes that have well over 100 students (such as the case with Etowah) very few of the students even personally know the Valedictorian as s/he has been enrolled in honors classes with the same small coterie of students since sophomore year (and as such hasn’t been fraternizing much with the non-honors-enrolled students in day-to-day school activities).
Learning that sometimes you don’t win, and that sometimes it will feel unfair and unjust is a valuable life lesson. One, that I daresay, Ms. McCahill, with her more exhaustive educational experience in public, private, and college schools (which anyone at Etowah could have chosen to participate) has probably already learned. I just hope that Ms. Perletto, and the entire Etowah community for that matter, takes their lessons with more grace next time.
duh
February 7th, 2011
10:06 pm
you all are not getting the point, McCahill is not enrolled in Woodstock she was enrolled at Etowah, she has NEVER stepped foot on the campus EVER!!!!!!! she does NOT go to Etowah she is there for not part of the school simple, Sydney worked hard for her grades and to be at the top of her class there for she is # 1
it's in the details...
February 8th, 2011
6:30 am
“….she’s enrolled at the Woodstock high school.”
People, this means that Etowah is IN Woodstock….she is not enrolled at Woodstock High School. She is enrolled at Etowah, in the town of Woodstock. It was written quite clearly….high school is not capitalized, therefore the author is not refering to the building.