As staff members at Penobscot Valley High School in Howland, we are compelled to respond to the article, “Board sets July 30 deadline for high school sharing plan” (BDN, June 10), regarding the discussion of the fate of our school. Our primary concern is not to save our jobs, but to defend the professional integrity of our staff and the quality of our academic programs.

SAD 31 was granted the state board approval for a new high school in January 2000. Between January 2000 and July 2002 the building site was selected and approved, the design was completed by and architectural firm, and community support was garnered.

In July 2002, the commissioner of education abruptly halted the project and asked SAD 31 to: “Discuss regionalization and consolidation with its neighbors.” Subsequently, in August 2002, the State Board of Education developed a new resolution tying new school construction to regionalization-consolidation.

For nearly two years, SAD 31 has worked to resolve this issue despite constant flux in local and state government, three different superintendents, two commissioners of education, two governors, constant reinterpretation of rules and statutes, and conflicting state directives regarding the school systems with which to regionalize. Since February, the state has pressured SAD 31 to close its high school and send its students to SAD 67 in Lincoln, disregarding the wishes of local residents.

Now that a feasible local alternative is being developed, the impetus to close our school has shifted from the facility to our academic programs. In the BDN article, the programs at Penobscot Valley High School were maligned. It is important that the public be informed of the facts regarding the “rigor” of our academic program:

. Penobscot Valley High School has been accredited by the New England Association of School and Colleges (NEASC) since 1955. A recent visit from the NEASC Director of the Commission on Public Secondary Schools reaffirmed that curriculum is sound.

. MEA scores of Penobscot Valley High School 11th-graders consistently increase from their eighth-grade scores. Other schools do not show such an increase.

. Recent graduates have been accepted to and graduated from prestigious colleges and universities through the state and nation, including Bates, Colby, Dartmouth, Harvard, Holy Cross, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rochester Institute of Technology, Syracuse University, the United States Military Academies, as well as many other schools. Alumni have also continued their education in prominent graduate and professional programs such as law, medicine, education and the humanities.

. Each year several students earn college credit across disciplines through Advanced Placement (AP) exams and college placement testing as the result of the content learned in our standard curriculum.

. Our program of studies, advisor-advisee program, and student portfolio guidelines have been used as templates by other schools.

The staff at Penobscot Valley High School constantly strives to re-evaluate and improve student programs. This is evident by the participation of the staff in the Great Maine School Team Leadership Collaborative, a project that seeks to improve schools based upon the Core Principles of Promising Futures.

Our ability to maintain accreditation for nearly 50 years is further evidence of our ongoing initiative to sustain quality programs. We are proud of our programs. We are also proud of the ability of the administration, staff and students to rise above the inaccurate criticisms of our school.

It is one thing to degrade a building – it has no ethics, morals, hopes, dreams or feelings – however many it has housed. Its students, teachers and the community that support it, do. It is unconscionable to attack the quality of the programs provided when the problem is the physical building.

To shift focus from the condition of a building to the quality of the education provided within it is unfair, unjust and unfocused. We deserve better; and we demand better.

This commentary was written by Rebecca Thibodeau, Violet Smith, Ellen Simone, Nancy Burgoyne, Sue Brown, Paulette Clapp, Dana Peterson, Jan Silbury and Sue Smithson on behalf of the Penobscot Valley High School administration and faculty.