Aug 23, 2025 By Garrett Neese 4 min read

Members of the first year of Connellsville Area High School graduates without a class rank are asking the district to reinstate it.

Earlier this month, students posted a petition on change.org calling for a return to the previous system, which recognized a valedictorian, salutatorian and class rank. The petition had received 1,056 online signatures as of Friday afternoon.

In 2023, the district board voted to eliminate ranking, with the changes taking effect for the class of 2026.

Instead, the district instituted a tiered honors system, recognizing all students with grade-point averages 3.8 or above, with the top level being those with grade-point averages 4.15 or above and at least four Advanced Placement classes.

At board meetings this week, some seniors said they had only recently learned of the change.

“Class rank isn’t just a number on a transcript,” senior Julian Smith told the board during Monday’s work session. “To us, it represents years of effort and long nights, and the choice to challenge ourselves with harder classes when we could have taken the easy way out. For some of us, the rank is the proof of the work we put in, that it actually means something.”

Students also suggested a compromise, such as reinstating class rank but excluding online AP classes from weighted GPA, as they are considered less rigorous.

Speaking at Monday’s meeting, High School Principal Nicholas Bosnic said the change had followed 10 years of discussion at the district level over how to get students to perform at their best.

Bosnic recalled a conversation with a previous valedictorian said he’d shied away from taking shop classes that could have benefited him in his future engineering career in favor of classes that were more comfortable or carried a GPA bonus.

“I’ve had students not take a lunch…” Bosnic said. “I know what they were trying to do. They were trying to take as many weighted classes as possible.”

Bosnic wasn’t sure if students had ever been formally notified of the change, but said it had been publicized at the time and was part of their course selection book.

In addition to its use as a motivating tool, students also looked at class rank as a way to help them attract colleges.

Petition organizers said some universities they’d contacted told them that class rank was still a factor in admissions, although a diminishing one.

It’s also considered in some merit-based scholarships and financial aid, which could be important for students from a rural district, said senior Natalie Mangus.

“Without these types of financial aid, some may not be able to afford college,” she said. “If there is a possibility that our students can benefit from leaving the class ranking system in place, why change? … Class rank is not all about being valedictorian. That’s just a prize for our bigger goals.’

Carnegie Mellon University and West Virginia University do not consider class rank in admissions, their admissions departments said Friday.

Bosnic said the school would provide rank to the higher education institution if asked.

In a statement responding to the petition, Connellsville board member Robert Renzi said the universities the district had talked to looked first at GPAs, then student activities, SAT scores and community involvement.

Colleges look at GPA’s first, student activities, SAT scores and community involvement as more valuable indicators of a student’s character and academic achievement.

“Class rank was considered by some but not one of the top determining factors,” he said. “The inequity of class rank lies in the inability to compare competing student achievement when you have many schools graduating 500-plus students and many graduating less than 100 students.”

Even if it was reinstated, it wouldn’t take effect until the graduating class of 2029, Renzi said.

Senior Emma Hull said the class size wouldn’t have as much effect on ranking, as it is based on GPA. The ranking might also be factored in by schools such as Penn State when it comes to deciding among Connellsville students, many of whom will be applying to the same schools, she said.

“As we all believe you based your decision off of what you think is best for the student body, we believe that in doing so, you may have unintentionally put us students at a disadvantage and taken away an advantage some of us who are naturally academic achievers financially were counting on,” she said.