LTUSD appeals South Tahoe High accreditation results

The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) didn't give South Tahoe High the results the school was expecting after the recent visit by the group's visiting accreditation committee, so they have begun the appeal process.

After the committee left South Tahoe High, they told Principal Chad Houck they were impressed with what they saw, so a recommendation for the school to be placed on a two-year probationary accreditation caught Houck and other school district leaders by surprise and was contrary to what they led him to believe while they were in South Lake Tahoe.

"We’ve made amazing changes in the last two years," said Houck. "I am very proud of the progress we’ve made and proud of my staff."

South Tahoe High has an action plan, and had already been working on all portions of the plan since the school year began. The new English curriculum is being implemented as well as getting more parent participation at the school.

Houck said they have only received an email from WASC stating the school is on probation, with no other information provided. He said they are expecting documentation and justification as to why the committee felt the school should only be on a probationary approval.

WASC accreditation is an ongoing six-year cycle of quality whereby schools demonstrate the capacity, commitment, and competence to support high-quality student learning and ongoing school improvement.

Houck and Lake Tahoe Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Jim Tarwater immediately responded to the notice of probation by asking for an appeal based on several grounds. They had to ask for the appeal immediately, before receiving the justification of the committee's decision.

Their appeal is questioning the process followed by visiting committee. Houck said there were multiple errors in the process that weren’t followed, including never meeting or talking to Tarwater.

Another point of the appeal is the evidence needed to support what the school does concerning all the points the committee evaluated STHS on. They are supposed to ask for the evidence, which they never did. The committee made their decision without proper evidence.

The appeal process takes about a year to complete and Houck says WASC should conclude it in January, 2017. In the meantime, the school has one year left in their original six years of accreditation.

The visiting committee is a volunteer one, made up of people connected to education. In the one that visited South Tahoe Hig were two principals, two middles school teachers, one high school teacher and an administrator.

Houck has personally been on three such committees. He says their purpose is not to judge, just to observe that a school's self study and evaluation is working. Not all visiting teams follow their purpose and may use their own personal judgments, and that is why there is an appeals process.

"Its unfortunate we got this result," said Houck. "We don't believe it accurately portrays what we're doing here."