By Jodi Hausen,Staff Writer

FARMINGTON – A proposal to weight grades for honors courses at Mt. Blue High School passed in a 10-5 vote Tuesday by the SAD 9 board.

Starting next school year, students taking honors classes will receive an additional three points per quarter, much like the five quarterly points currently added for advanced placement courses. Currently, the school offers four advanced placement courses and more than 20 honors courses. Advanced placement classes have been weighted for more than 12 years, said Superintendent Michael Cormier.

Principal Greg Potter brought the proposal to the board.

According to a survey by Potter in 2003, colleges don’t seem to consider weighted grades for admission purposes. However, they do look at the level of challenge attempted by students while in high school. Class rank and grade point average are also considerations, though they rank below college entrance examination scores in importance. More than 60 colleges responded to the survey, Potter said.

Supporters of the proposal felt providing extra points for honors course work would act as an incentive for students to challenge themselves and as a disincentive for taking lower level classes to protect a GPA and class standing.

If more students took honors courses as a result of this action, it would be a wonderful thing because they’d be learning more, said Robert Pullo of Wilton.

Opponents felt the challenge of honors courses should be enough incentive for students and that weighting classes is elitist.

Bob Neal of New Sharon told board members that his sons, now graduates, called the grade-weighting policy the “Mt. Blue class system.”

“Everything is done for kids going to Bates or Tufts,” he said, “not those heading to work or even Northeastern.”

Though students can sign up for most honors courses without approval, the weighting system becomes a disincentive for kids who don’t feel capable of that level of study, he said.

“Life is hard, we take risks, we face challenges,” said Jo Josephson of Temple, who felt the system would not set students up to succeed later in life.

Responding to comments about encouraging students to challenge themselves, Josephson asked, “Don’t you challenge yourself by going further and deeper?”

“How do we encourage those choices?” asked Potter.

“This is a philosophical discussion,” said Chairman Raymond Glass of Farmington, in an effort to take the issue to a vote.

“I don’t think the system is elitist at all,” said Pullo.

Two-thirds of the board voted to approve the policy, which will not be retroactive.