Bonner County Schools Flunk Department Of Education Report Card ‘Horrendous’; 15 Schools Face Loss Of Accreditation

A state report card on the Bonner County School District gave schools here near failing grades for not meeting standard educational requirements.

The Department of Education says the district has only one school that met accreditation standards without any problems noted.

Nearly half of the district’s 15 schools are on advised status, meaning they have a year to correct problems or move one step closer to losing their accreditation.

“To me this is horrendous, absolutely horrendous, to have half our schools on advised status,” said newly elected school board member Jerry Owens, who takes office in July.

The report was completed earlier this year and released recently by the state and school district.

“I really feel what the state is looking at are minimum standards,” Owens said. “When you don’t meet the minimums you need to be looking hard at what can be done.”

The report is another in a long list of problems for the district.

The state is investigating the district’s finances after school officials reported running a budget deficit. One board member is suing the district and the state, saying schools are under-funded and don’t give students a proper education. Teachers have taken a vote of no confidence in Superintendent Max Harrell and have negotiated unsuccessfully for a year on a new contract.

The state accreditation process looks at staffing, educational programs, policies and procedures, curriculum and buildings. Five of the district’s schools dropped this year from approved to advised status.

By comparison, the Coeur d’Alene, Post Falls and Lakeland districts combined have only one school on advised status.

“We have a lot of concerns in this district right now but this does not seem to be one of them with the current administration,” Owens said.

Harrell said the district’s poor showing may be because the district filed more accurate reports than in the past. Still, he said the low marks shouldn’t be overemphasized because accreditation doesn’t really measure quality education.

“If your school is not accredited because your cafeteria is not large enough, that doesn’t have a heck of a lot to do with the quality of education being provided or whether a college would accept your transcripts,” Harrell said.

The only penalty Harrell knows of for not being accredited is being barred from state athletic tournaments. If a student has the money to go to college or the good grades, it won’t matter if he attended an unaccredited school, he added.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Harrell said. “A lot of things in the accreditation documents are important … but I don’t think they get to the heart of what we are really about.”

Tom Farley, chief of instruction for the Department of Education, disagreed. The State Board of Education requires that schools be accredited. Credit for course work from an unaccredited school may not transfer to another school or college, Farley said.

His department gets calls everyday from colleges verifying that high schools in the state are accredited.

“It’s an accurate way of measuring schools,” Farley said. “You can’t measure yourself against other schools by the football team, even though some would like to. But you can measure by accreditation. It’s an important tool.”

Of the 345 elementary schools in the state reviewed for accreditation, 25 were placed on advised status. Four of those 25 are in Bonner County.

Of the 131 high schools in the state, 16 were placed on advised status. Three of those are Bonner County high schools.

Problems the state noted were overcrowded classrooms, a lack of counselors and aides, teachers being misassigned or handling subjects for which they were not qualified. To correct those problems and add staff would cost money.

“It’s a real Catch-22,” Harrell said. The district already spends all its state allocated money on teachers, aides and counselors.

“If the state is going to require or provide demerits if we don’t have (a certain) level of staffing they are recommending, what are you going to do about it? We have to have more funding for it.”

The district already is facing a $158,000 deficit, and patrons have criticized administrators for how they spend money. The district is addressing the state’s concerns, Harrell said. He’s talked about hiring aides or using team teaching and split grade levels to ease overcrowding.

“We have to look at more creative solutions … because the state is not writing us a check.”

Usually the No. 1 reason schools are docked points in the accreditation process is inadequate facilities. That was partly the case for Sandpoint High School. The library and cafeteria are too small to handle the nearly 1,200 students.

If those problems are not corrected, the school could be put on “warned” status next year, the state report said.

“There are some areas we really can’t fix because we need new facilities,” Owens said. “But I think if we get out budget under control and use our money, by my definition more wisely, some of these things can be taken care of.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Graphic: State accreditation report