Update: JISD Superintendent Michael Walker issued a statement from the District at 4p today (Thursday) about the situation. His comments have been added to the story.
According to a release from Jefferson High School Principal Joel Windham, the valedictorian and salutatorian for the class of 2025 have swapped positions following the completion of an audit of final grades.
“We have the audit conducted from an outside source,” said Windham. “It is something that the state doesn’t require, but we go above and beyond to make sure the data is correct. We do the audit every year and every time we pass out the Senior ranking to the students, which is at the end of 1st semester grade submission, end of the 3rd-9 week grade submission and Final Grade submission. ”
Windham went on to explain that the school’s “Walking rank” is calculated from the March 7th or 3rd-9 week grade period submission.
“We have our “Final rank” calculated at our end of the year submission of grades,” he said. “The audit process usually takes around 2 -3 weeks to get finalized and given back to us to publish or distribute as needed.”
JISD Superintendent Michael Walker issued a statement for the district on Thursday afternoon congratulating both Haiden Shields and Christiana Justice for their success in the 2024-25 school year. He also provided the district’s policy on how class ranking was calculated and the positions of valedictorian and salutatorian are determined.
“I want to start off by congratulating our top two 2025 graduates, Ms. Haiden Shields and Ms. Christiana Justice. Their hard work, dedication, and perseverance helped them best 85 other students in their graduating class. Both of these young ladies certainly have what it takes to succeed on whatever path they choose,” Walker wrote.
The district’s policy, which has been in place since 2022, outlines that Justice is the valedictorian of the Class of 2025, but that is a local graduation honor only, and Shields is the Number One Ranked Graduate for the Class of 2025.
The policy, in compliance with Texas Education Code, requires the district to calculate the “number one ranked graduate” for the Class of 2025. That re-calculation must be done after the school year is completed. This re-calculation determines which student receives an “honor certificate” from the State of Texas.
“Our current policy was followed when making these determinations,” Walker wrote. “We went a couple steps further than required to ensure the accuracy of the respective GPAs, which were within thousandths of a point, by having them independently audited and involving Region 8 Education Service Center to take a third look,” thus the delay in announcing the results.
As a result of the Board Policy and the recalculation, “Christiana Justice is the class of 2025 valedictorian, a local graduation honor. Haiden Shields is the number one ranked graduate of the class of the 2025, #1 of 87. Both students earned those honors based on the criteria used for each honor,” Walker wrote.
Walker also indicated his understanding of the situation and the implications to the students.
“I share the sentiment of the Board in our empathy for both young ladies experiencing the unintended rollercoaster of emotions this has brought them. We will be modifying our EIC (LOCAL) policy to prevent similar circumstances in the future,” Walker wrote.
The top ten percent did change spots per the end of year grade submission.
From the original top 10 percent listing, Grace Champion and Faith Franklin also swapped positions. Aiden Cooner was listed in the original top 10 percent listing, but was replaced by Kinsley Powell.
Final top ten percent are:
- Haiden Shields
- Christiana Justice
- Krina Desai
- Alize Beham
- Grace Champion
- Faith Franklin
- Nichols Wood
- Kayleigh Snead
- Kinsley Powell
The Jimplecute will continue to follow this issue and have a more detailed story in next week’s Jimplecute (July 18, 2025).
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Who is the third party?
How much does it cost?
Where is the evidence it’s done every year?
How many times has this school changed the top 10 since the audit?
Why keep doing the same thing if it proves you are incorrect?
I’m working on getting more details for next week’s paper.
However, some of what you’ve asked I can answer now:
– One of the 3rd parties was Texas Education Agency Region 8 service center. I do not know who did the first check after the school
– My understanding is the school has been auditing grades for some time, but started using a 3rd party to around 2021/22
– I do not know what the cost is for this – will find out.
– I’ll see what public information is available as evidence of prior audits. BUT student privacy is also in play so that may be hard to obtain.
– How many times the Top 10 percent has changed is part of what I’m looking for.
– Policy will be changed, according to the Superintendent and several members of the school board. I’d guess this will happen before the beginning of the next school year – probably August school board meeting. But we’ll see.
– The big thing is in this appears to be 2 fold:
a. The Val/Sal are selected at the end of the 3rd 9 weeks grading period, so 3/4 of the students grades are used to make the calculation.
b. The state requires the school to name the Top Ranked Graduate using all of the grades, so after the last day of school, using all of the student grades. More grades are used, and thus ranking can change in those final 45 days.
I hope that helps and thanks for reading the Jimplecute!