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EDUCATORS: SCHOOLS IN AREA WITHIN GUIDELINES

By Rick Joslin/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Tuesday, August 15, 2006 9:58 AM CDT

Area education officials believe their districts and individual schools are in compliance with state accreditation requirements.

The Arkansas Board of Education placed 63 schools and four school districts on probation Monday for violating school accreditation.

The Sheridan School District is listed in the state department’s report as having been cited for an accreditation flaw.

“We had a data information problem some time ago, but as far as I know, all has been corrected,” said Sheridan Superintendent Scott Spainhour. “I’m not aware of any other problem.” The report included citings against three schools in the Altheimer Unified School District, which no longer exists. The district was annexed by the Dollarway School District on July 10.

Altheimer’s Martin Elementary and its middle and senior high schools were listed as being out of compliance, as were Townsend Park North and South Elementary Schools in Dollarway.

“I’m not certain what the problems were in Altheimer, but we’ll be in full compliance when school starts (Aug. 21),” said Dollarway Superintendent Thomas Gathen. He said the finding at the Townsend Park campuses involved a librarian working under a provisional certificate. “That’s been cleared up,” he said. “We’ve hired a certified librarian.”

Watson Chapel Junior High School was listed as being on accreditation probation. Assistant Superintendent Brenda Melton said the district encountered some difficulties concerning the certification of a science teacher on last year’s staff. Melton said concerns over the teacher’s certification have been eliminated, and the instructor — who has since taken a job in another district — does indeed meet standards.

Sheridan was the lone district in Southeast Arkansas to have been listed, but 14 other individual area schools were named as “cited” or “probationary.” They are:

ARKANSAS COUNTY — DeWitt High School, cited; Stuttgart Clary Elementary School, probationary; Stuttgart High School, probationary.

BRADLEY COUNTY — Hampton High School, probationary; Warren High School, probationary.

CLEVELAND COUNTY — Rison High School, cited.

DALLAS COUNTY — Fordyce High School, probationary; Fordyce Wallace Elementary School, probationary.

DESHA COUNTY — Dumas High School, cited; Dumas Reed Elementary School, cited; McGehee Elementary School, cited.

DREW COUNTY — Drew Central Elementary, probationary; Monticello High School, cited.

LINCOLN COUNTY — Star City Middle School, cited.

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