During the school board meeting held on Nov. 5, 2025, a presentation about Conejo Valley Unified School District’s [CVUSD] valedictorian policy revision, called the Latin Honors Proposal, was presented by Nicole Judd, Director of High School Education, and other administrators, Emily Nelson, Tasha Beaudoin, Carlos Cardenas and Stephen Lepire.
The current valedictorian guidelines follow Board Policy 5127 which states that students achieving a grade point average [GPA] of 4.560 or above will be granted the valedictorian honor. Currently, every high school has varying amounts of valedictorians depending on graduating class size, school culture and coursework options. “When this policy was adopted back in 2007 it reflected the academic landscape at the time when course offerings were a bit more limited and there was typically one valedictorian, one salutatorian. But today, the high school experience looks different,” Judd said during the board meeting.
Students now have more options when it comes to getting extra points toward their GPA and class options. “CTE, dual enrollment, expanded honors and AP pathways, and as a result, this current policy just no longer reflects the function as it was originally intended to do,” Judd said.
The new policy arose from constant concerns with the current valedictorian policy. Students were driven away from classes of their interest in favor of classes that will raise their GPA. Students in self-selected academic pathways were not able to earn enough credits to achieve being valedictorian, while previous valedictorians had external credits on their transcripts. Specifically, over 96 percent of valedictorians had external credits. “When we dug even further, we realized that about 30 percent or one-third of those students would never have qualified for valedictorian without the additional boost provided by those external credits,” Nelson said during the school board meeting.
The proposed policy will replace the indexed GPA valedictorian model, use students’ weighted GPA and align with college recognition standards and district Local Control and Accountability Plan [LCAP] goals. “We wanted a system that treats students equally, regardless of which school they attend or what level of classes they are taking. Academic success can be achieved in SAI, ELD, STP, coursework,” Nelson said.
The policy is proposed to be put into place for the graduating class of 2028. The policy encompasses three levels; “Summa Cum Laude,” which is a 3.90 GPA and above, “Magna Cum Laude,” a 3.70 – 3.89 GPA and “Cum Laude,” a 3.50 – 3.69 GPA. The new policy allows all coursework levels to be included, weighted GPAs and a wider group of high-achieving students. “You can have a 3.9 GPA, without having to go out and take random dual enrollment classes and [students] are not going to give up on the classes that keep them mentally healthy, like ASB, sports, art, dance, theater,” Nelson said.
The policy is set for the graduating class of 2028, allowing students time before their major AP and IB classes start. “[Board Policy 5127] is increasingly disconnected from the diverse student experiences that we see across CVUSD, and we don’t believe it fully reflects the range of the excellence that our students demonstrate,” Judd said.