Schools to pursue elevated status

Troy School District is taking the first steps in a long process to become regionally accredited, and the way it is going about it would make it first in Montana.

Accreditation is a process in which educational entities give quality assurance and an external body determines whether the school meets educational standards. All schools must be accredited by the state according to state laws. 

Regional accreditation is optional, and something Troy believes would be beneficial to its students. 

Troy had been regionally accredited by the Northwest Accreditation Commission, but now seeks to be accredited by AdvancED, a consolidated accreditation association that has 37 states, seven countries and 30,000 schools under its watch.

What Troy is applying for is called a systems accreditation, which would accredit Troy School district from W.F. Morrison Elementary to Troy High School under the same standards, top to bottom.

This would be a first for Montana, and one of the first in the nation.

“This is significant for Troy and the state of Montana,” said Daniel Sybrant, director of AdvancED’s public-school system administration. “This is going above and beyond what Troy is required to do for its students.”

Sybrant, a former superintendent of the Corvallis School District, met with Troy Superintendent Dan Wendt, Troy High School Principal Jacob Francom and W.F. Morrison Principal Kelly Moore met last Friday to review requirements for this systems accreditation.

A long process, the accreditation would be given in two years if Troy had met all requirements. 

“They will be turning over every rock,” Sybrant said. “And in order for those rocks to look shiny on the bottom, that’s what this meeting is for.”

The readiness meeting was held to see whether Troy was ready to start the ticking clock until being inspected. 

The inspection would be three days of an external group monitoring and prying into Troy’s educational practices, making sure it is up to snuff.

Half the team would be made of out-of-state officials and half in state. If they agree Troy has met the stringent requirements for systems accreditation, they will recommend it to the state accreditation board, which will then recommend it to the national one.

What does all this hard work give Troy? Notoriety for one thing.

Only Troy, Chinook and Darby school districts have applied for this type of accreditation in the state, and Troy will likely be the first to receive it.

“It is a tool that will allow Troy to become the best learning institution it can be,” Wendt said. 

The systems accreditation takes the high school and W.F. Morrison, currently separate entities with different standards for educators in each school and combines them as one system with one set of standards. 

The goal is to streamline and make more effective the learning in the school district.

Troy filled out the paperwork last spring, and just met with Sybrant to see where the school district needs to go from here. A lot of work will need to be done, but administrators didn’t balk.

“We are putting everyone in a vehicle,” Wendt said. “And we are moving that vehichle toward school improvement.”

The administrators thought Troy’s schools would be capable of making the change, but all three admitted there was much work to be done.

The work needed ranges from facilities upgrades to evaluations of academic performance to a districtwide mission. 

A mission was an important point Sybrant kept emphasizing. 

“The first step is people have to get around a mission,” he said. “The administrators, the teachers, the bus drivers and the janitors should all know what the mission of the district is.”

He went on to say 85 percent of all discussion done by public schools should focus solely on instruction, a figure that Wendt found unreasonable and Francom and Moore found unrealistic. 

But the major thing the administrators thought might hold them back was the facilities in need of upgrade.

“We have some pretty old buildings that are pretty shoddy,” Francom said. “Teachers recognize things that haven’t been touched for years.”

Wendt said the maintenance list for the district was as long as his arms when he held them apart for effect.

Even with the school district’s needs, any talk of a mill levy was shut down. The district was dealing with enough backlash from the community to even think of asking for money. The proposed idea of a four-day school week had not been received well by Troy’s citizens.

“We have found that the four-day school week is what is best for our students,” Wendt said. “Academic or learning improves moving to a four-day schedule and the vast majority of school districts that have switched would never go back to a five-day school week.”

“But what we’ve found is that the community is overwhelmingly opposed to a four-day school week.”

Despite the opposition to the changes, both THS and W.F. Morrison have tried to expand horizons for Troy students, including Running Start and honors programs for the high school and a newly formed PTA.

What the district needed to work on was based on a self-imposed survey given to Troy’s teachers, in which they graded the district’s performance. 

The majority of standards were met, thought the teachers, but serious improvements would need to be made before AdvancED gives the go-ahead for system accreditation.

Until AdvancED can make that distinction, Troy’s schools will have to prepare for what could be some bumpy changes.