RIVERTON (WNE) — When Frank No Runner came on as superintendent of St. Stephen’s Indian School in 2015, he said the institution was at risk of losing its accreditation.

His first day was July 7, 2015 — just “a matter of weeks” before St. Stephen’s was scheduled for a performance review through AdvancED, a non-profit organization that offers accreditation for educational institutions.

“We were not ready,” No Runner said, attributing the oversight “most likely to the revolving door of administrations coming and going” at St. Stephen’s before he began his tenure there.

The 2015 review at St. Stephen’s resulted in a score of 174.91 on the AdvancED Index of Educational Quality — well below the AE Global Network average of 274.14 — and the school was put on a one-year improvement review “or they were going to revoke our accreditation for our school,” No Runner said.

“Our school, according to experts, was not a good place for students to learn,” he said.

Since then, No Runner said, his team has worked diligently to implement recommended school improvement strategies, and this year St. Stephen’s earned “Turnaround School” status, with an IEQ score of 315 — almost 35 points above the global average.

“This is awesome,” No Runner said. “I have worked for [this] my entire life — to lead a good school on an American Indian reservation, which is always the lowest-achieving ethnic group in the nation.”