Ambitious students will benefit from a change in the grading scale at Minot High School, said assistant superintendent Kim Slotsve.

Administrators plan to begin offering a weighted grading scale, a 5.0 scale as opposed to the traditional 4.0 scale, for advanced placement and honors courses. The 5.0 scale will be offered in addition to, not in place of, the 4.0 scale.

Slotsve said several other high schools in the area, including Grand Forks Central High School, Red River High School in Grand Forks, Fargo North, South and Davies High Schools in Fargo, West Fargo and Sheyenne, Bismarck High, Bismarck Century, and Legacy in Bismarck, and Mandan High School also offer the 5.0 grading scales.

“The desire for this change is to encourage high school students to challenge themselves with rigorous courses without the fear of losing the 4.0 grade point average as well as the class rank of 1,” said Slotsve.

She said the weighted grading school will also help students who are applying to colleges out of state and are competing against students from other schools that have weighted grading scales.

Minot offers a handful of AP and honors classes. It’s unlikely that any student could attain a perfect 5.0 average because there aren’t enough AP or honors classes for them to take.

Minot High does not have a valedictorian or salutatorian. Instead, it recognizes all students who attain a perfect 4.0 grade point average at graduation.

Slotsve said the district will still send out high school transcripts based on a 4.0 scale to colleges and universities, as well as the Department of Public Instruction, that request them.

The Minot Public School Board endorsed the weighted grading scale at its board meeting Thursday evening.

Also at the board meeting, the board gave second reading to the 2016-2017 $102.5 million budget, with new board members Mark Lyman and Mitch Kraft posing plenty of questions to business manager Scott Moum about how the budgeting process works.

The final budget won’t be approved until the October meeting, when a public forum will also be held. Moum said there will likely be changes made to the budget before that time. Some 84 percent of the budget is comprised of salaries and benefits for employees. Moum said district residents can expect a 10 mill increase, which will result in an $89 increase in school taxes for the owner of a $200,000 home. The district projects a $600,000 deficit, which will be taken from the district’s healthy interim fund. Less money is coming into the district because of a decline in students. Estimated tax revenue for 2015-2016 is also anticipated to be lower. Moum projects $16 million in the general fund property tax levy this year compared with $16.7 million for the 2015-2016 school year. The tuition fund levy is estimated to increase slightly for 2016-2017, from $1.05 million in 2015-2016 to $1.14 million for 2016-2017 Superintendent Mark Vollmer said taxable valuation numbers in the district for this year are “basically flat.”

The board members also heard a proposal from a health insurance consultant about how to better manage the rising cost of health care costs for people in the district.

The board went into executive session to discuss a pending lawsuit against the district by ServPro, which alleges the district failed to pay for all its flood cleanup costs following the Souris River flood in 2011. A trial on the matter is scheduled for next March.