Williams School Board looks to add honors classes at high school

WILLIAMS, Ariz. - The Williams Unified School District (WUSD) governing board approved a request by Superintendent/High School Principal Rick Honsinger to create a weighted grade point system for students who take honors level courses at the high school.

"We want to encourage kids to take upper level classes," Honsinger said. "Down the road I'd like to offer more upper level classes here and I want to encourage kids and reward kids for taking them."

The new system will allow the school to give higher numerical grades for students in honors courses reflecting the advanced skill required.

Currently Williams High School uses a traditional four-point system for grade point average determination. Under this system, the maximum grade point average is 4.0, which is equivalent to receiving an A in every course. Numerical values are applied to grades as follows: A = 4, B = 3, C = 2, D = 1 and F = 0.

For honor's classes numerical values would be: A = 5, B = 4, C = 3, D = 1, and F = 0.

With the new system, other rules will need to be in place to determine valedictorian and class rankings. Class rank will only be determined by the numerical grades in the 17 core courses required by most colleges.

The standard GPA used for National Honor Society and the Honor Roll will still be determined by numerical grades in all courses taken.

In other board news, the district approved the immediate purchase of a new bus for the Special Education Department. The current bus is in poor condition, spewing black smoke with occasional breakdowns. The board originally approved a new bus to be delivered at the beginning of next year.

WUSD Transportation Director Steve Schober said the special needs bus needs to be replaced as soon as possible and requested a new purchase order for another bus that could be delivered sooner.

"We need to either get this bus fixed or we need to have something resolved now," Schober said.

The newer bus has 22 more seats than the originally designed bus. It has more horsepower, better insulation, better air conditioning, better heating and LED lights. It can also be used as a back up for other district busses.

The original cost of a new bus was $118,000. The newer bus will cost $10,000 more than the original. Medicaid will pay $75,000 towards the new bus with the district coming up with the remainder from capital.