Vol. 41, No. 46
June 21, 2007
CONTACT: JIM MORRIS |
Riverview Gardens School District Is Unaccredited
The State Board of Education voted today to classify the Riverview Gardens School District, a district in St. Louis County with about 8,000 students, as unaccredited.
It is the second time this year the board has taken action to strip a school district of accredited status. In March, the board voted to de-accredit the St. Louis Public Schools.
The board voted 7-0 to approve the recommendation of Commissioner of Education D. Kent King to de-accredit the school district.
"We have seen a precipitous decline in the academic performance of this school district. At the same time, there has been a dangerous decline in the district’s financial situation. We don’t know for sure if the school district will end this year in the black or in the red," said Commissioner King.
On its most recent academic evaluation, the school district met only 3 of the 14 academic standards that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education uses to evaluate school districts for accreditation purposes.
The former superintendent of the Riverview Gardens district, Henry Williams, has recently been charged with crimes involving misuse of school district funds and other offenses. He has been suspended by the district.
The school district will have until June 30, 2009, to demonstrate sufficient academic progress to qualify for provisional accreditation status. If it does not make adequate progress in that time, it faces the prospect of state intervention and the dissolution of the local board of education.