Graduation Requirement:

The Becton Administration has implemented a new credit requirement: The Class of 2016 needs 125 credits to graduate, 2017 needs 130 credits, 2018 needs 135 credits and 2019+ requires 140 credits. “The new credit policy is definitely positive,” Ms. Internicola, the Supervisor of Guidance, said. “It allows students to stand out more to colleges or for post high school opportunities.”

Students are to choose 5 academic classes and 2 electives a year, as well as participate in physical education/health. If a student does not complete said amount of credits, he or she may make it up in summer school.

Attendance Policy:

After a year of experience at Becton and knowledge from other school districts, Dr. Sforza has enforced a new attendance policy, which states that late students must go to the office or the teacher on hall duty to receive a late pass to their first period class. Ms. Giancaspro, the Teacher on Assignment, thinks this is a great new change for our school. “The students are more careful about being late and are reminded by either myself or Dr. Sforza on how important attendance is towards their credits,” she explained.

Ms. Giancaspro does not see any cons in this new procedure. She noticed that in the last couple of days, there have been smaller amounts of late students and believes that this is because students realize that they have to go through the process of getting written up a pass, so they think they might as well try their hardest to not be late. Sophomore Aniela Checo thinks it makes sense to require late passes before first period since teachers expect late passes to any other class during the day.

As for tardiness from one class to another, it is considered unexcused unless the student has a late pass from his or her previous teacher. If a student is in the hallways, he or she should always have a hall pass.