South Orange Middle School Looks to Modify Honor Roll Recognition

Report cards are in the mail for secondary school students, and many middle school kids made the honor roll. How their teachers and classmates will mark this achievement depends on which school and team they attend, a practice that South Orange Middle School principal Joseph Uglialoro looks to make more uniform next year.

Students attain High Achievement with A- or higher in all courses. Students attain Achievement with B- or higher in all courses, according to district spokeswoman Suzanne Turner.

However, celebrating those grades happens in different ways, from the traditional Honor Roll breakfast at SOMS to year-end trips.

"Currently, the Honor Roll celebrations/acknowledgements at SOMS are very decentralized, and vary greatly based on the team a child is on," explains Uglialoro.  "Some teams hold their own celebrations during the school day, some hold lunches, while others organize end-of-the-year field trips to amusement parks.  While no changes will be made to Honor Roll celebrations this year, we will be looking more closely at how we can create a consistent and school-wide celebration of students achieving at high levels that does not impact instructional time.  The goal is to have these changes in place for the fall of 2012.  There is no intention to eliminate Honor Roll celebrations at SOMS, but merely to make them more uniform and less intrusive on instructional time."