BHS tech, facilities need help, study says

Published 6:00 pm Wednesday, June 29, 2005

The school is still accredited, but an outside team finds some areas lacking.

The students: eager.

The staff: capable.

The facilities: need improvement.

The technology: “woefully inadequate,” particularly for science and math instruction.

Those are among the conclusions in a just-released report by the Northwest Association of Accredited Schools, following an in-house review of Bainbridge High School programs and facilities and a day-long visitation by educators from other districts.

The NAAS organization renewed BHS’ six-year accreditation, meaning the school has achieved at least “the minimum level of program and resource conditions that must exist…in order to provide a setting in which quality instruction can take place and ensure that all students have a reasonable opportunity to learn.”

“It would be huge news if they had recommended not to have our accreditation continued,” BHS Principal Brent Peterson said. “The good news is, they decided we should still be an accredited school.”

The review looked at such areas as educational programs, student services and activities, school facilities and the credentials and skills of teachers and administrators.

The report concluded that the high school offers “high quality, focused instruction and rigorous course content” across the disciplines, and that learning is valued by students, staff and the Bainbridge community.

“Students perform well on tests due to exceptional efforts by teachers,” the report said.

“The things that jump out to me on the positive side of the ledger are that we’ve got a very good staff, their training and education, and a real low turnover,” Peterson said.

But the study found the BHS campus itself in need of upgrades, with an overall shortage of 12 classrooms.

Science classes are taught in a converted English classroom and lack proper equipment, the study found, leaving teachers to purchase equipment with their own money. Math courses relegated to the Commodore building are taught in classrooms “beyond their serviceable life and removed from other instructional areas…making continuity between programs difficult.”

“They certainly did jump on the facilities and technology tools,” Peterson said.

The school library, the report said, “has lost its identity” because of demands on the room for other purposes, while the band and theater areas were found to be outmoded and inadequate.

Disabled students are unable to access many areas without help, and there is a conflict between bus loading areas and pedestrian access, the report found.

Programmatically, the school should add additional counselors for crisis intervention, the study found.

That need is driven in part by a student health survey that found respondents were engaging in drinking and other risky behavior at a higher rate than their peers in other districts.

The findings will guide administrators and the BHS site council in their annual update of the School Improvement Plan, which will be presented to the school board for approval this fall.

At the same time, the board is considering a bond measure for upgrades to the BHS campus and other school facilities, with a study session slated for 4 p.m. Thursday at the newly remodeled Commodore Commons.