Panther Valley school district officials are angry about showing up on a published list of the state’s worst school districts, and the website which provided the raw data says it had nothing to do with it.

At the monthly board meeting last week, school board officials criticized news outlets and niche.com for publishing the list of the “50 worst schools in Pennsylvania” that they say was based on faulty information.

“You have to get your facts straight before you mess with the livelihood of teachers and staff,” school board member Renee DeMelfi said. “The students don’t need to hear that their school is in the bottom six, or bottom 10 — it’s not true.”

Pennlive.com published the rankings earlier this month, citing data from niche.com. It called Panther Valley the number 6 worst school district in the state. The Times News published an article with the ranking and reaction from Superintendent Dennis Kergick.

During his monthly report at last week’s school board meeting, Kergick said he lost sleep over the district’s rank, because it was based on a mix of faulty test score data and unscientific surveys.

“We’re far from perfect. We’re not the top 50, but we sure as hell ain’t the bottom 50,” Kergick said.

Kergick shared the response he received from niche.com. He said the representative told him the pennlive.com article took the data out of context and used it in a way that was never intended.

An email Kergick said he received from niche.com said, “We would never make a list of the worst schools because it is unfair to schools and the families who depend on them.”

Niche.com has a list of the “Best School Districts in Pennsylvania.”

The rankings stop at number 262, but the other 250-plus school districts are listed below them. The schools on Pennlive.com’s ranking are the last 50 that appear on Niche’s list.

The email stated that Niche only ranked schools if they met certain statistical criteria.

Board members said they are looking for a way to stop the misinformation from the ranking. They thanked Kergick for standing up for the district.

“We have a great staff, great teachers, great kids. Dennis does a great job. I applaud what you’re doing. This was disheartening,” Keith Krapf said.

Irene Genther, who was participating by phone, said she wants to know the source of the data that went into the ranking.

“Did they gather it, did they dream it up, where is the validation on what this is based?” she said.

Kergick reiterated that part of the ranking is based on faulty data that the district corrected, but has shown up in other publications.

The school board agreed to post an explanation on its website. Board President Wayne Gryzik thanked Kergick for his efforts.

“You’re probably the only superintendent I know who has taken issue with what has been published by some of these papers and publications, with their unscientific research,” Gryzik said.