School’s Accreditation Threatened; Failure to Improve Five Science Labs at Issue

By ANDREW LIGHTMAN

Rockland High School is jeopardizing its accreditation by failing to renovate its five aging science labs.

Principal Stephen Sangster told the school committee Monday night that the New England Association of Schools and Colleges is seeking to put the school’s accreditation on probation because the town has failed to improve the labs.

Colleges consider accreditation crucial when they evaluate the quality of education applicants received. Some school systems, such as Uxbridge, for example, have had an exodus of students if they lose accreditation.

In a July letter to Sangster following up on a 2001 inspection of the school, the accrediting agency cited the science labs as the only problem imperiling accreditation.

In response, Sangster was to send a letter to the organization today, not to protest the school’s need for new science labs, he said, but to question the sudden urgency.

"The last thing we want to do is let them take the accreditation away," he said. "Especially when we’re 99 percent there."

School committee Chairman Mark Norris said his committee will make the science labs a top priority this year and instructed Sangster to do the same.

"It’s something that we will get done, one way or another," Norris said.

Both Sangster and Norris said the town should soon have the money to pay for the project, last estimated to cost $250,000.

Although LNR Property Corp., the developer of the former South Weymouth Naval Air Station, has set aside money to pay for the school project as part of its mitigation package to Rockland, the town has not yet received it, Sangster said.

As the town awaits the payment, it has also applied to the state for financial assistance for the science classrooms as part of a larger high school renovation project that would coincide with the construction of a new middle school. The town won’t know until January, at the earliest, if that project will receive state approval, Norris said.

If the school building project is not immediately approved and the town has yet to receive the LNR payment, Sangster said he would be forced to pay for the renovations out of his regular school budget.

Rockland’s students need the new science labs, Sangster said.

"At this point, it has been six years and they figure enough is enough," he said of the accrediting agency. "We are now under the gun."

Andrew Lightman may be reached at alightman@ledger.com.

Originally published by By ANDREW LIGHTMAN, The Patriot Ledger.

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