68 Greeley seniors receive Cum Laude recognition
Saturday, November 8, 2014
~ from CCSD website
At a ceremony on October 29th, 68 students were inducted into the Cum Laude Society, which is an academic recognition program (determined by a specific GPA) for members of the senior class. Students must be enrolled in Greeley for four or more complete semesters to be eligible.
*Summa Cum Laude
^Magna Cum Laude
+Cum Laude
Congratulations to:
Matthew Altman+
Michael Ballou^
Kristina Barry^
Melanie Benson*
Hannah Berck+
Theodore Bisdikian^
Michael Borenstein^
Leyla Brittan^
Jasmine Chen^
Allison Dammann+
Tamsin de Wied*
Payton DePalma^
Michaela Dickson+
Michael Doppelt* (Valedictory Honors)
Madailéin Dubrosa+
Calder Fontaine*
Alessandra Giannasca*
Molly Gonzalez+
Divya Gopinath* (Valedictory Honors)
Dana Gottlieb+
Bernadette Grant* (Valedictory Honors)
Isabel Gutenplan*
Sydney Hamroff*
Oliver Harris^
Elizabeth Hart* (Valedictory Honors)
Liana Henderson-Semel^
Jacob Horwitz*
Dev Jhaveri+
Laura Kiernan+
Cutler Klein^
Alexandra Kung^
Alan Lee^
Benjamin Leser+
Jacob Levine^
Frank Lin^
Benjamin Linde+
Emily Maccabee^
Nicole Medway*
Emma Meyer+
Jenna Miller^
Emily Nagler*
Nikita Nagrath^
Jason Neff^
Sarah Pactor+
Margot Putnam*
Sophia Rader^
Noah Reich*
Jessica Reisch*
Amanda Rota* (Valedictory Honors)
Kimberly Rota^
Bilal Sadik+
Eleanor Sadik-Khan^
Zachary Schoenfeld^
Jennifer Semler* (Valedictory Honors)
Carolyn Silipigni+
Brianna Silverman+
Matthew Solnick+
Andrew Spiegel^
Neil Steiner+
Alice Thum^
Dean Valente*
Mira Vanchiswar^
Riya Verma* (Valedictory Honors)
Jeremy Wei+
Bryn Weiner*
Samantha Winshall+
Caroline Wolfe*
Ray Zhang+
Thank you to the CCSD website and newcastlenow.org for posting the names of these 68 students. However, for full transparency, the following items need to be included:
1. Greeley seniors are honored based on their cumulative high school grades as of the end of their junior year.
•These grades can begin as early as 8th grade (ie, Enriched Algebra)
•Students who take AP classes earn an extra uplift factor for their final grades. As such, there are students who have GPAs over 4.0
2. In all preceding years,
•Valedictorian was the highest GPA, salutatorian the second-highest. In the event of a tie, the honor was a “co-”.
•Cum Laude was a calculation of the top-10% GPA, a figure determined mathematically to the nearest hundredths, and all students with that average and above were included in the Society.
3. At the Senior BBQ at the end of August 2014, the class of 2015 was informed that senior honors were changing for their year. New rules were in place, formulated by the Greeley Building Planning Team (BPT), and effective immediately.
•Valedictorian would be anyone with a 4.0 in every high school class they took.
•No more salutatorians.
•Cum Laude would be those with a 3.8 (without rounding) and above, with three cum laude designations – 3.8, 3.9, 4.0.
4. This change in policy was not begun while these seniors were in 8th grade. To use a sports analogy, the “rules and winners of the game” were changed “after the game was over”. It has only recently been added to the online student guide, and it does not exist in the hard-copy handbook included in the student agenda planner.
•During the summer of 2014, this policy was formulated and mandated by the 8-member BPT, of which 4 of the 8 are parents of those in the class 2015.
•Whether this last-minute change by the BPT to senior honors was intentional or not, or for just one year only, the perception is that there may be a conflict of interests.
5. Two communications went out on October 1st.
•CCSD teachers were invited to the Cum Laude ceremony. There would be 58 seniors recognized.
•Greeley Principal Rhodes sent a letter to parents regarding Open House and Cum Laude. The Cum Laude portion indicated the new change to senior honors, and for almost all senior parents this was the first they heard of the policy change.
◦Individual parents immediately contacted the school. Policy was changed yet again mid-October, this time that Cum Laude would be 3.8 with rounding. The number of seniors recognized then became 68.
Hopefully, these changes will be effectively communicated to those in grades 8-11 so they are fully aware of what has to be achieved through their junior year to now earn Valedictory Honors as well as Cum Laude status.
Again, kudos, seniors.
