A Bend alternative high school has been named one of 11 Oregon public schools on a watch list of dangerous schools. But district administrators dispute that the school should be on the list, and said Wednesday the district plans to fight the Oregon Department of Education on it.

Marshall High School, Bend-La Pine Schools alternative high school, is the only school in Central Oregon on the list this year .

It is the high schools first year on the list.

I think Marshalls inclusion is an error, said Principal Dave Holmberg. Were in the process of challenging the data.

About 170 students are enrolled at Marshall. To be placed on the watch list, at a school of Marshalls size, at least five students must be expelled for violent behavior, weapons possession, or arrests on campus or at school-sponsored activities for one of eight crimes. Those crimes include kidnapping, coercion, hate and bias crimes, robbery, and arson. They also include sex crimes, assault and the manufacture or delivery of drugs.

Susanne Smith, a communications officer for the Oregon Department of Education, said schools are placed on the watch list if they have five or more of those expulsions in one year.

If a school stays on the watch list for three consecutive years, it is labeled persistently dangerous, giving students the option of transferring to another school in the district.

Most schools, Smith said, are removed from the watch list after one year. Last year, Pilot Butte Middle School was on the list, but it didnt make the list this year.

A school placed on the watch list must create a safety improvement plan, and the Oregon Department of Education works with the schools. The schools are also entitled to federal Title IV money through the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act to use for drug-prevention and safety programs.

Smith said the school was placed on the list for two weapons expulsions, two vandalism expulsions that were coded by the district as violent behavior, and one expulsion because of threats and intimidation, also termed violent behavior by the district.

Holmberg said during the 2007-08 school year, the school held 20 hearings that ended in student expulsions. Two students, one with a pair of scissors and another with a 7-inch nail, were expelled for weapons possession.

He said two students broke three windows in the middle of the night last year. Security cameras identified the students and police arrested them, and they were also expelled. He didnt have any information on the student expelled for threats and intimidation.

Different views

But the vandalism, Holmberg said, shouldnt have been considered violent behavior.

How does a broken window make a school unsafe, consistently unsafe? he asked. It seems like a complete mystery to me, that were dangerous because we have broken windows. … My view is this designation should be contested. I believe its inappropriate.

But Gene Evans, the communications director for the state, said its the districts responsibility, because it labeled the vandalism crimes as violent behavior when it sent the information to the state.

I dont know if the incident should or shouldnt be considered violent behavior, Evans said. But the school reported it as violent behavior or a threat to a school. It was coded as violent behavior.

Holmberg said he still plans to contest his schools placement on the list, and he said he hopes the school will be removed from the list once the state reviews the records.

We pay attention to student conduct, we dont tolerate illegal activity of any kind, and that is communicated in a lot of different ways, he said. We have a safe school, and we have a safe school because we pay attention to behavior. We encounter it, we deal with it and we take action on it.

Vicki Van Buren, district administrator for high school programs, said shes not worried about school safety at Marshall.

I have no concerns. I think all of our schools are safe, she said. We see this list as an interesting list because I would assume that … our expectation is that our school administrators are ensuring student safety and welfare by acting on all of these incidents and taking the action appropriate with the level of the offense.

Instead, she said, schools that make an effort to expel students for being violent or dangerous on campus are given a negative label and placed on the watch list.

Evans agreed. Theres a case to be made that the schools identified as on this list may be the schools that are the safest in the state, he said. Theyre dealing with the issues rather than saying, ‘Nope, no expulsions here. Everythings rosy and fine here.

Smith said the state was aware the district was contesting the label, but she said it was too late.

There is a two-month period, from May to June, that they have to give us information, she said. Then they have to verify the information. We sent them a letter in August, and they had a period of time to check the data. They verified it as being correct .

We cant go back and check every single one. Its totally on them. If you think about the number of students and schools we have, theres just no way.

The school district did not return calls for comment about the verification period, and Holmberg said he was not aware of his school receiving a letter.

On the list

Bend-La Pine Schools:

Marshall High School

Eagle Point School District:

Eagle Point High School

Eagle Point Middle School

Klamath Falls City Schools:

Mazama High School

Portland Public Schools:

Alliance High School

Reynolds School District:

Reynolds Middle School

Salem-Keizer School District :

McKay High School

Stephens Middle School

Three Rivers/Josephine County School District:

Illinois Valley High School

Fleming Middle School

Lorna Byrne Middle School