2 Queens School Boards Reject Scribner's Request Not to Stipulate Behavior on Diplomas

At least two of the city's 31 decentralized local school districts have rejected a suggestion by School Chancellor Harvey B. Scribner and decided to continue to award traditional junior high school diplomas stipulating that the graduates have achieved satisfactory records in behavior and citizenship as well as scholarship.

“In the light of the difficulties schools are generally having with ‘acting‐out’ kids, dropping the emphasis on school conduct is almost an inducement to misbehavior,” declared Dr. Max G. Rubenstein, the superintendent of Community School District 29, in the Springfield GardensQueens Village section of Queens.

District 29 and District 26, which covers Bayside and Douglaston in that borough, are the only two districts known to have not followed the Chancellor's recommendation.

Last Week of School

Dr. Scribner, informed of the action of the two Queens districts, said, “That's O.K. with me, if that's the way they want it.” But he added that the local boards might have to defend their action if a parent brought a challenge to the State Education Commissioner.

The city's more than 150 junior high schools are holding graduation exercises on various days this week, the last week of the regular school year, for an estimated 80,000 eighth‐ and ninth‐grade graduates. Some junior high schools end at the eighth grade; others have a ninth grade.

Dr. Scribner had recommended that the local districts, which have general jurisdiction over the elementary and junior high schools in their areas, grant diplomas that show that the students had “successfully completed the requirements of the educational program,” Traditionally, school diplomas here, and in many other systems, have also made mention of satisfactory behavior and school citizenship.

A policy similar to that proposed for the junior high schools is now in effect in the city's 93 senior high schools, as the result of an order issued last December by Dr. Scribner. High schools are still operated udder central authority.

At that time the Chancellor declared that high school diplomas must be awarded on the basis of educational standards and could not be withheld or delayed to punish a student for poor conduct in school. Dr. Scribner's edict has been strongly criticized by the organizations representing the city's academic and vocational high schools.

Nyquist Concurs

The, State Education Commissioner, Ewald B. Nyquist, has also held that schools, including junior high schools, could not withhold diplomas because of “nonacademic or attitudinal factors.”

Although Dr. Scribner's proposal regarding junior high school diplomas was conveyed as a recommendation, when the local school districts recently received their supply of the centrally printed diplomas they found these contained only a reference to educational record and not behavior and citizenship. The community school boards of District 26 and 29 then decided to print their own diplomas with the old style wording.

Lawrence S. Kryger, the chairman of the District 26 board, said that his board's decision had three elements.

One, he said, was “a rejection of efforts to water down requirements,” and another factor reflected the local board's belief in the importance of emphasizing standards of pupil behavior and citizenship.

The third element, he said, involved the community board's view that while the decentralization law gave the Chancellor the responsibility for maintaining minimum citywide standards, a local district could, if it wished, have “expectations and standards that go beyond the minimum.”