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Six Utah schools are facing accreditation issues, according to a report the State Board of Education plans to discuss Friday.

Two private schools — John Locke Academy and the School for Autistic Healing — are in danger of losing accreditation, according to the report. And three Utah public high schools — Bingham, Kearns and Timpanogos highs — and the charter school American Leadership Academy have been placed on "advised" status, meaning they're not in compliance with at least one standard, have not made improvement in certain areas for at least two years, or filed an incomplete annual report.

Schools on advised status are not necessarily in danger of losing their accreditation with the Northwest Accreditation Commission, but it means they have issues that could eventually threaten it. High schools must be accredited in order for the credit they give students to be considered valid. Accreditation status is based on a number of factors, including curriculum, counselor to student ratio and assessment.

Bingham, Kearns and Timpanogos highs have been placed on "advised" status for having teachers with excessive student loads, said Georgia Loutensock, a specialist for accreditation at the State Office of Education. American Leadership Academy charter school in Spanish Fork has been placed on advised status because of under-qualified personnel and for turning in a late report, Loutensock said.

She said the Utah Accreditation Advisory Committee was actually pleasantly surprised by the number of schools that still met the majority of standards given budget issues.

"We expected to see very dramatic increases in the number of teachers with excessive loads, but as I talked to the superintendents that are on our committee, the ones I talked to said they had made cuts in the professional leave days and things like that rather than cut numbers of teachers," Loutensock said, "But they also said if the budget situation continues next year it might be a different story."

But Loutensock said parents shouldn't be alarmed if their school has been placed on advised status.

"I think it's something that especially this year some of these things are problems that are the results of budget cuts and things like that," Loutensock said. "I know all four of the schools that were advised this year are excellent schools, and sometimes things just happen."

In fact, fewer Utah schools are facing accreditation issues this year than last, when eight schools were put on advised status or on "warned" status.

Ben Horsley, Granite District spokesman, said it's not a big surprise that Kearns was faulted for giving too many students to teachers. He said the district will review the matter with Kearns to see how it can be resolved.

"I think it reflects on the staff out there that they're doing a lot with very little," Horsley said. "It's a difficult thing and it's something that comes up often in our state because of our large student population and smaller per pupil spending."

Rhonda Bromley, Alpine District spokeswoman, said Timpanogos High was placed on advised status because of the number of teachers who have more than 180 students each. She said that can happen when teachers teach an extra class period and sometimes because of class sizes.

She said principals also sometimes choose to offer some classes with lower sizes — which can leave larger numbers of students for other teachers — to protect certain programs. For example, a principal might choose to offer a certain Advanced Placement class even if only 19 kids want to take it because the principal feels it's important.

She said school officials are aware of the issue and hope to get the numbers down. But she also said she hopes parents understand the reasons behind the advised status.

"We would hope that people would understand why instead of just looking and seeing that Timpanogos High School is on an advised status, [they'd say], 'Well, what does that mean?'" Bromley said.

Bingham High principal Tom Hicks said his school also has teachers with relatively higher numbers of students because some teachers take on an extra period. Also, he said the school has some larger class sizes — 36.6 students per class on average —because it operates on a block schedule. But he feels the block schedule is the best instructional model, giving kids more time to focus. He said it's also difficult to lower teacher loads with current funding.

"Class sizes are catching up to the funding," Hicks said.

The committee also recommended John Locke Academy and the School for Autistic Healing in Salt Lake City have their accreditation dropped, but the schools are appealing. The schools, which have 26 students combined, failed to file a report and "failed to meet conditions for continued accreditation set in February," according to the report.

But Lora Sorensen, principal of both schools, said she's confident the schools are not in danger of losing accreditation. She said a former employee was supposed to file the report but didn't and the schools have met the necessary criteria, which she declined to explain further.

Attempts to reach American Leadership Academy for comment were unsuccessful. —

Troubled schools

Schools on "advised" status are not necessarily in danger of losing their accreditation, but have issues that could eventually threaten it. John Locke Academy and the School for Autistic Healing are separate schools but have the same principal.

Timpanogos High, Orem • Advised

Kearns High, Kearns • Advised

Bingham High, South Jordan • Advised

American Leadership Academy, Spanish Fork • Advised

John Locke Academy and the School for Autistic Healing, Salt Lake City • Committee recommended their accreditations be dropped