MPCSD pushes graduation to June 27, board approves graduation requirements for seniors

MT. PLEASANT - In a special session on Tuesday evening, the Mt. Pleasant Community School District board approved graduation requirements for students expected to graduate in May as well as discussed second semester grading and tentative graduation ceremony plans.

'We spent a lot of time on this to make sure we are doing this in a competent and coherent way that meets the needs of our students under these circumstances,” superintendent Henriksen said of the graduation requirements the administrative team presented to the board.

The amended requirements note all students in the Class of 2020 and previous graduation cohorts, such a fifth year seniors, 'who have successfully completed, or are enrolled in courses* needed for graduation, will be deemed to have met the requirements for graduation.”

Henriksen explained 'enrolled in courses” means students currently participating in classes needed to graduate as well as students who would have started courses in the fourth quarter of the spring semester at Wisdom Quest and would have been on track for a May 17 graduation.

'We have students who are doing credit recovery but the number of credits they currently have, even if they would have been enrolled or gotten enrolled in the fourth quarter, they would not have been on track for a May 17, 2020 graduation. It's just three or four,” Henriksen said of students who do not meet the graduation requirements.

Students who do not meet the requirements can appeal the decision to the 2020 Graduation Appeals Committee, Henriksen added.

The board approved the new requirements unanimously.

The board also heard from building principals and the district's director of instruction on how second semester grades would be handled.

Todd Liechty, the high school principal explained graduating seniors would have a choice between taking a P for passing or choosing to receive a letter grade in each class based on work assigned and turned in before the March 13 closure.

'The other significant comment by the DE has been that we need to work hard to make sure our seniors have every opportunity to graduate. And they've also said that we have to make that happen for them if at all possible,” Liechty said.

Students will need to inform the school of their decision on grades by May 15, if not a ‘P' will be assigned.

'The ‘P' will count toward credit but will not affect a student's grade-point average,” the high school principal said.

For ninth through eleventh graders, students will have an opportunity to choose between a letter grade, a ‘P' for work completed at '70% or higher proficiency” or a Withdraw (W), which would mean no credit is earned and the class would have to be retaken if it is a requirement for graduation. Students who do not inform the school of their decision will be assigned a grade option 'based on the best interest of the student's grade-point average.”

Liechty added teachers will update gradebooks as soon as schools start again in August to let students know where they stand grade-wise before they will be asked to make a decision.

Similarly, middle school principal Nathan Lange, said his students will have a choice between a passing of a letter grade and students who do not inform the school of their decision will receive a ‘P.'

Kathleen Gavin, the district's director of instruction informed the board that kindergarten through fifth grade students, who have a 'standards based report cards,” will be marked on standards 'reviewed and assessed before the March 13 closure.” For standards not yet reviewed, students will receive an ‘NA' for 'not assessed.”

'That way we know that was the content for the fourth quarter intent so the student will not be held accountable for having mastered those standards. The note that will go in the box is ‘Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic status in Iowa NA or ‘Not-Assessed' standards will be covered through the curricular content area in subsequent years,'” Gavin said.

Following discussion of grading procedures, Henriksen informed the board the district has tentatively marked June 27 as the graduation date.

Liechty explained the school has a graduation plan to address social distancing as well as one if restrictions have loosened.

'Overwhelmingly, they want to graduate at Mapleleaf,” Liechty reported the results of a survey sent out to senior students and their families.

'Depending on what our situation is, we'll determine how many people we invite and how we operate,” the principal added.

The graduating students overwhelmingly voted to do something 'together as a class,” something the district is trying to accommodate. Students also expressed through the survey that if an in-person graduation was not possible, they still wanted an opportunity to walk across a stage.

'If we're still social distancing, we've worked out a plan where we would bring the kids in groups of 30 and spread them out through the commons. We would have the speeches on loop on the TVs in the common and then we would have them come into the library here. We would set up a stage, nice backdrop, announce themselves, walk across, with their parents in the room,” Lietchy said.

During the meeting, the board also approved an extended Pandemic Pay Resolution, which states the district will continue to pay employees through the May 29 closures.