With a 6-1 vote, Lewisville ISD board of trustees voted to approve a new policy that will give students who are not in the top 10 percent of their class a choice to opt in or opt out of having their class rank on their transcript.

The implementation will begin with the class of 2019. It was noted that the process of determining class rank will not change and every student will still receive a class rank. The timeline of when a student is notified of their ranking will not change.

The district will notify each high school student of his or her class rank at the end of the second nine-week grading period of 10th grade, the second semester of grade 10 and at each nine-week grading period in 11th and 12th grade.

Trustee Trisha Sheffield, who cast the dissenting vote, said she is in favor of the opt-in/opt-out system but does not approve of the implementation plan.

"I am not in support of it," she said. "We've talked a lot about systems, a lot about being thoughtful in our approach in terms of implementation and making sure we have all of our bases covered and that we don't jump into something that we aren't quite ready for and I feel like [this plan] is doing exactly that."

With a fast implementation plan, the class of 2019 will not have an individual conversation approach, where they would sit down with a counselor one-on-one, but rather have a form-based approach.
With the form-based approach students will opt out via a form that they complete and submit to their counselor by the October of senior year. Not turning in a form means their class rank will be reported on their transcript.

The class of 2021 will be the first class to use the individual conversation approach.