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BUTLER - Senior still out of honor society despite appeal
(by April Plantamura - Staff Writer - June 25, 2008)
BUTLER - After a year of disputes with Board of Education members over their son Kyle Wikfors’ exclusion from the National Honor Society (NHS), Carol and Steve Wikfors are appalled to discover that their son’s application for admission into NHS has been officially denied.
The family filed a petition of appeal with the New Jersey Department of Education’s Bureau of Controversies and Disputes in July 2007, arguing that Kyle was wronged when members of the Butler High School staff and school board excluded him from NHS and refused to rectify their decision.
The staff’s decision was based on an incident that occurred during Kyle’s sophomore year at Butler High School, where it was thought that he may have cheated on a chemistry final. During an examination in Michael Klobus’ class, a study guide paper with formulas for the test was discovered on Kyle’s desk. Klobus found the paper halfway through the exam and explained to Kyle that the matter needed to be addressed. According to Carol, Klobus informed Kyle that he might be able to retake the test but that his parents would need to be notified.
Carol said that she met with Klobus personally and told him that if he believed Kyle had cheated, then he deserved to receive a zero on the exam. According to Carol, Klobus said that he could not give Kyle a zero because he wasn’t 100 percent sure that Kyle had cheated. Instead Klobus averaged Kyle’s grade based on the number of answers he had completed on the test. This resulted in Kyle receiving a 67 on the test. According to the Wikfors, the matter was resolved.
Following the incident, even after Klobus admitted that he could not say for certain that Kyle had cheated, Carol was concerned that this incident would negatively affect Kyle’s induction into NHS. One of the stipulations for acceptance into NHS is that a student cannot have ever been caught cheating.
According to Carol, Julia Placko, Kyle’s guidance counselor, met with her and assured her that this incident would not affect Kyle’s placement in NHS because it had not been determined that the student had cheated. These events occurred in June 2005. At the end of October of that same year, another student told Kyle that he would not be inducted into NHS because he had been caught cheating. This rumor proved accurate as Kyle did not receive an invitation to the induction ceremony in the spring of 2006.
According to Carol, after filing a complaint with high school Principal William Hanisch and receiving no results, she was forced to bring her grievances to District Superintendent Dr. René Rovtar. Carol said that both Hanisch and Dr. Rovtar reiterated that the school had made its decision (not to admit Kyle into NHS) and that it was final.
In order to ensure that Kyle received the recognition he deserved, Carol said that she was forced to file with the Department of Education’s Bureau of Controversies and Disputes and hire a lawyer. The school board was then forced to arrange for its own legal defense.
The Wikfors’ case went before the state’s Administrative Law judge early this month. The judge released a decision on Wednesday, June 4 stating that “given my findings of fact and conclusions of law, I order that K.W. (Kyle Wikfors) be allowed to apply to the National Honor Society and that a decision be rendered before graduation later this month.”
Following the Administrative Law judge’s ruling the case had to go before the Commissioner of Education for a final ruling.
“The judge is the person who sat and listened to all the testimony,” Dr. Rovtar said. “They (the commissioner) generally give some weight to that (the Administrative Law judge’s ruling) but they review it themselves and then make a determination.”
On Friday, June 13, the Commissioner of Education ruled in Kyle’s favor and in agreement with the Administrative Law judge, stating that Kyle should be allowed to apply for inclusion in NHS. Dr. Rovtar wanted to make it clear that both the judge and the commissioner did not request that Kyle be admitted into NHS, but instead they required that he be allowed to apply for the honor.
“The rulings simply state that we should not have excluded Kyle from the application process based on an incident that took place during a final exam,” Dr. Rovtar said.
In order to have the decision finalized prior to Butler High School’s graduation, scheduled for Thursday, June 19, the Wikfors’ case was expedited and the school district was asked to make a final decision by Monday, June 16.
Dr. Rovtar said that Kyle was officially given an application for applying to NHS following the Administrative Law judge and commissioner’s decisions. Candidates for inclusion in NHS must fill out an application, which then undergoes a two-step evaluation process. First, every member of the high school faculty is asked to rate the students being considered. Those students’ credentials are then evaluated by a faculty committee, which will either approve or deny that student for membership into NHS.
Carol said that she was told by someone at the school that Kyle’s NHS ribbon had already been ordered, which, if his application was accepted, he would have been able to wear with his cap and gown during the graduation ceremony. Dr. Rovtar said that the school had made plans to accommodate Kyle if he was voted into NHS.
“The school board said that they aren’t going to fight this anymore,” Carol said prior to the NHS vote. “But because of the way they have acted thus far, I never know with them.”
Dr. Rovtar said that due to the tight schedule that many teachers hold during the last weeks of school, the two-step evaluation of Kyle’s application could not be completed by Monday, June 16. The faculty committee did, however, convene on Tuesday, June 17 and chose not to extend Kyle membership into NHS.
“I have no involvement in the process,” Dr. Rovtar said. “We handled this matter the same way that we do when any other student applies (to NHS).”
The reason for the decision, according to the committee members, was that “Kyle did not meet some of the necessary criteria for acceptance.”
The Wikfors said that they do not understand how Kyle could not be accepted when he is ranked third in his graduating class and was selected as the school’s representative for Boys States, a highly respected and selective education program of government instruction.
Kyle is also a member of the German Honor Society and member of Peer, another honor group at the high school. Kyle has received the Athletic Scholar Award and was elected captain of the football team. He has also successfully completed a wide range of AP and honors courses since his freshman year.
“I just don’t understand,” Carol said. “Is this how the school district treats one of the top students in the town of Butler? This is so wrong.”
Kyle is planning to write a letter of appeal to Dr. Rovtar in hopes of reversing the faculty committee’s ruling.
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