SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — Bijou Community School may have been listed as one of California's persistently lowest-achieving schools according to the state's education department, but local officials are contesting that description.

“This is a school that has gone through great transformation,” said Jim Watson, Director of Human Resources and staff development for district. “They have done an incredible, hard and dedicated job in improving their curriculum, the instruction, and the implementation of the standards.”

The state factors in a number of elements when compiling the list of underperforming schools. In Bijou's case this included their state Academic Performance Index score, federal Adequate Yearly Progress report and Program Improvement progress.

While Bijou's API store was 689 for 2009, 64 points above its 2008 score, that improvement was not enough said Department of Education Spokeswoman Hilary McLean.

“That's not that high considering (it's) on a scale of 1,000 with 800 being the target,” McLean said. “(It's) great that they have grown.”

Bijou also made the list because it failed to meet one of the 23 AYP criteria — proficiency in English-Language Arts for socioeconomically disadvantaged students, McLean said.

LTUSD is looking into the state's calculations, Watson said.

Schools identified on the list are required to implement a school intervention model by state and federal law. The intervention models range from closing the school to replacing the school's principal and up to 50 percent of the staff.

“They're pretty dramatic interventions,” McLean said. “Frankly these are schools that are persistently lowest achieving and it is very, very hard work to turn around the culture at a school that has been struggling. These requirements force the hand to make dramatic changes.”

However, the changes may be too drastic for Bijou, Watson said.

“The fact that Bijou School made a 64 point gain last year is totally being ignored, the fact that they made 22 out of 23 criteria is being ignored,” he said. “They are extremely drastic and give no credit for the hard work that has been done and the improvement that has been made in the past year.”

McLean said the department of education would take into account steps schools have taken to improve.

"They won't get penalized for being proactive, but has to be within the last two years," she said.

While the Department of Education is encouraging schools to select an intervention plan and implement it before the beginning of the 2010-11 school year to be eligible for School Improvement Grant, state law does not require schools to participate in the grant program, Watson said.

This means that Bijou may not have meet the June 1 application deadline to be eligible for the grant if it does not apply for a piece of the pie, which could mean $50,000 to $2 million a year for three years to qualifying schools.

Instead, the school may be able to implement change on its own schedule, Watson said.

“We don't want to be remiss,” Watson said. “We are going to do what we need to do by law, but a SIG grant is not law.”

Watson stressed that Bijou's past successes should pave the way for future growth.

“Why go in and upset the progress being made at this time?” he asked. “Give us one more year.”