Sole Valedictorian Named At Malverne High School After GPA Calculation Error
MALVERNE, NY (1010 WINS) -- There's a new valedictorian at Malverne High School after human error lead to a grade calculation mix-up.
Thursday night, the Malverne Board of Education named Aalique Grahame as valedictorian for the class of 2011.
Grahame was originally awarded salutatorian with classmate Sarah St. John given the top honor. But a discovery by the Board of Education found that Grahame actually had highest grade point average in his class, not St. John, who was a close second.
Grahame had a GPA of 95.42 while St. John had a 95.16.
When the error was discovered, the Board decided to make both Grahame and St. John valedictorians, saying in a statement "Because the ranking announcement was made and communicated several months ago, the district believes it is only fair to identify both Aalique and his classmate, Sarah St. John, as Valedictorians of the Class of 2011, with an acknowledgement that Aalique's grade point average was slightly higher than Sarah's."
1010 WINS' Mona Rivera reports: Grahame 'Very Happy' To Be Named Valedictorian
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"We were taken by surprise when this was brought to our attention," Malverne Schools Superintendent James Hunderfund said Wednesday. "We corrected that and now we're moving on."
But after an emergency executive session Thursday, the board decided to name Grahame the sole valedictorian.
St. John was named salutatorian and the original salutatorian, student Xavier Bernard, will instead be given a speaking part at graduation.
"If Aalique really deserved it and he did beat me, if only by a little bit, then I don't want to take it away from him," St. John said.
On Friday, Grahame, his aunt and other students met with the school administration to request the district recalculate GPA's for entire graduating class. A spokeswoman for the superintendent said there are no plans to do any more re-calculations, 1010 WINS' Mona Rivera reported.
Malverne's graduation is on June 24. Both Grahame and St. John have been offered full scholarships to college.
