Oregon Public Broadcasting

Most of the Oregon schools on last year’s safety watch list have come off of it - including one that had been on the list for four years. Rob Manning reports.

The federal No Child Left Behind law judges school safety by whether schools expel more than a certain number of students for things like fighting, or carrying weapons to school.

Schools are first put on a watch list.  After three years or more on that list, they’re labeled “persistently dangerous” and have to allow students to transfer out.

McKay High School in Salem was on the list for four years. But it reduced its expulsions and came off the list this year.

McKay’s principal, Cynthia Richardson, says the school culture changed thanks to small learning communities and clear expectations of students.

Cynthia Richardson: “We’ve been fair and consistent in our discipline. We let students know that we care about them, but we have high expectations for them, and that they will be held accountable.”

Two schools from Multnomah County’s Reynolds school district are on the list this year – as well as three middle schools in southern Oregon.