RUMFORD – Mountain Valley High School’s accreditation is intact.
Superintendent Jim Hodgkin told the SAD 43 board Monday that the school has been removed from the warning list.
“The high school staff has taken this challenge seriously, and the staff and administration worked hard. I’m sure it won’t be an issue in the future,” he said Tuesday.
Matthew Gilbert, now principal at the high school, was the assistant principal at the school when the accreditation process began five years ago. In between that position, and a two-year stint in neighboring Livermore Falls before he returned to SAD 43, Gilbert and many others worked through a self-evaluation and then the recommendations made by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.
He said Tuesday that the association required that all 33 recommendations be followed before the school was taken off the warning list.
The recommendations fell under four categories: mission and vision of the school; curriculum; leadership and organization; and miscellaneous.
Many of the recommendations made under the leadership category were the result of conflicts between the board, former Superintendent Danny Michaud and the high school staff. With a change in personalities, the overall atmosphere at the school changed, said Gilbert.
“The new superintendent changed the climate, and this affected the board and the school. These changes energized a lot of people,” he said.
Also changed to meet the recommendations was inclusion of students and community members in the accreditation process. Gilbert said among the curriculum changes were new electives in physical education with such offerings as racket sports and fitness programs, and additional music courses, such as guitar and music theory.
More attention to aligning course work with the Maine Learning Results was also recommended and met, he said.
Other items recommended by the association included hiring a full-time nurse and construction of a sidewalk near the school.
“It’s never fun going through what we went through,” said Gilbert. “The staff has done a great job of turning things around.”
He said being placed on warning status is not uncommon.
“It’s not bad to be on it, but to stay on it,” he said.
The school will next be visited by association representatives in 2011. But in 2009, the school will be required again to begin a self-evaluation as it did in 2001. Gilbert said that although the process is time-consuming, it can serve as a catalyst for change.
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