BUTLER TWP - Students in the Butler School District now will have to take the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment test more seriously because of a decision made Monday night by the Butler School Board.

Board members voted 7 to 2 to adopt the PSSA graduate requirement that all students must be proficient in math and reading to graduate.

That requirement will affect the Class of 2006 and thereafter.

Kathleen Sherman and Diane Snyder voted against the requirement, stating their opposition to basing a student's proficiency on one test.

Assistant superintendent Michael Strutt said the requirement is something administrators have discussed and the issue had been brought to the board's education committee as well. That committee recommended it come before the entire board for a vote.

Strutt said students on the district's student advisory committee have told administrators they do not take the PSSA test seriously and therefore do not always try their best on it.

Strutt said that kind of student attitude could keep the district's PSSA scores from meeting the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. That act states all students must be proficient in math and reading by 2014.

While the requirement includes the PSSA test, Strutt said there will be a alternative assessment test created by the district for students who are unable to pass the state's assessment test.

"We do recognize and realize that we do have some special students who will not be able to pass the state's assessment," Strutt said. It is those students who will be able to take the alternative test.

Students who have difficulty achieving proficiency will be tutored and helped until they are able to meet their highest level of proficiency according to their abilities, Strutt said.

"We do not intend to place an obstacle in front of any student and graduation," Strutt said. "But we have students telling us they do not take this test seriously because there are no consequences, and we must address that."

Sherman and Snyder said they could not support the requirement because it places too much emphasis on one test rather than a collective effort of the student throughout the school year.

"You're asking us to put in place… a pass/fail on a one-test situation," Sherman said. "That makes us no better than the state."

Superintendent Ed Fink said the district has "entered this very, very cautiously" and it was only being done in the students' best interest.

Butler is the second school district in the county to adopt a PSSA graduation requirement. The Moniteau School Board adopted a similar policy in January.

Fink said information on the new requirement will be sent to parents and students.