The award had been given out every year prior to this one. Yet, this year, the administration made the decision to remove the award.

The Principal Scholarship Award was given to students who received at least a 3.6 GPA each consecutive quarter of their high school career.

Mizoguchi and the administration at Wayland decided on this removal for specific reasons.

“There are students who for their second quarter of freshman year get a 3.58, and that forever disqualifies them from ever getting this award,” Mizoguchi said. “We definitely don’t mean to diminish the exceptional achievement that is for students who do meet that bar, but we’re also mindful of all of the circumstances and situations that make it really challenging for students to meet that bar and also to sustain that bar.”

Mizoguchi has specific ways that she and the administration want Wayland High School to be viewed. She believes that this award doesn’t properly represent WHS.

“It’s about sustaining that GPA quarter after quarter after quarter,” Mizoguchi said. “We just think it’s not keeping with the spirit of what we do around here, which is that it is okay to fail and it’s okay to falter. These failures shouldn’t forever disqualify you from getting this award.”

Students have had mixed feelings towards the removal of the Principal Scholarship Award.

“I don’t have a strong preference towards the removal of the Principal Scholarship Award, but I thought the award was a nice idea because it rewarded students who worked hard all year,” sophomore Amanda Armstrong said.

Armstrong is not concerned, however, that removing the award will diminish student motivation.

“The removal of the award has not depleted my motivation to do well,” Armstrong said. “This award should not be a student’s motivation, but rather their motivation should be to do well so they can have the best opportunities later in life.”

Some students believe that the prerequisites for this award may not have been fair.

“A student has to get a 3.6 GPA unweighted, so some students in all honors classes might not have gotten the award, but someone in all college classes might have,” Armstrong said.

Mizoguchi supports recognizing students’ accomplishments, but she also believes in giving out awards that she stands behind.

“We believe in celebrating students; we believe that it’s really impressive when you achieve that bar quarter after quarter,” Mizoguchi said. “But there are so many other factors at play that again we sort of had to make that difficult decision. I would imagine there are people who are dissatisfied with this, but I believe that we have to do what we believe in.”