BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- Two Kern County schools aren't so bad, after all.

California education officials identified 188 of the state's "persistently lowest-achieving schools" earlier this week, saying the schools need to adopt major reforms or close entirely.

Twelve Kern County schools made that preliminary list, but two were removed from the list as it was finalized Thursday, according to the Kern County Superintendent of Schools.

The state Board of Education removed Boron Junior-Senior High School and Rosamond High School from the list.

The Kern County schools still on the list are: Bear Mountain Elementary, Sierra Vista Elementary, Beardsley Intermediate, Buttonwillow Elementary, Shirley Lane Elementary, Maricopa Elementary, McFarland High, Semitropic Elementary, Palm Avenue Elementary and Kern County Community.

Arvin Union School District was the only district in Kern County to have more than one school make the list.

The schools will have to implement reform measures that could include replacing the principal, closing and sending students to other schools, or closing and reopening as a charter school.

The schools on the list will be eligible to apply for federal school improvement grants ranging from $50,000 to $2 million.

California has about 10,000 public schools. The remaining Kern County schools on the poor-performance list represent just 4 percent of the county's student enrollment of 175,000, according to the superintendent's office.

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The Associated Press information was used in this report.