BUTLER TWP — Butler School District officials are proposing a change to how the grade point average of high school students is calculated.

Under the high school’s current GPA formula, students are essentially penalized for taking elective courses, even if they earn an A in those classes.

As a result, many high school students who are shooting for the highest-possible GPA end up taking multiple study halls instead of participating in classes such as band, chorus, accounting, CPR or computer programming, assistant superintendent Brian Slamecka said at Monday night’s policy committee meeting.

The idea for the new formula came from Karns City School District, which developed it to deal with similar participation concerns, officials said.

The current number is derived by adding up the already-weighted grades and dividing by the number of earned credits. An A in worth 4 points in a regular class, 4.5 points in an honors class and 5 points in an advanced placement class.

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