School Board achieves highest accreditation

AdvancED is voluntary and focuses on learning

The St. Charles Parish school district applied and achieved a recommendation for AdvancED accreditation, which is more difficult to achieve than regular state accreditation.

AdvancED accreditation is the highest level that a school system can achieve and is voluntary. School systems apply for it to keep themselves in check and make sure that they are doing the best possible job.

“It pushes them to be excellent,” said Jean Ann Petz, chair of the accreditation team and retired state director of AdvancED in Kansas. “We’re not paid to do this, so we make our own independent findings.”

The accreditation team  included principals and administration from school districts in Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Kansas who spent three and a half days examining the district.

“We examine all pieces of a district. We want to promote continuous improvement,” Petz said. “We read a lot of data…we talked to lots of people. We’re exhausted.”

The school system was judged on vision and purpose, governance and leadership, teaching and learning, documenting and using results, resources and support systems, stakeholder communications and relationships, and commitment to continuous improvement.

Petz said that this school system was one of the best she has ever judged.

“You got it goin’ on,” she said. “District accreditation is not for the weak of heart, but you have tackled it.”

The district was given commendations, things that not every district has, and required actions, things that they should do to continue improvement.

While Petz said that most school systems receive about three to give commendations, the team gave St. Charles seven.

Petz said that the school’s system of communication between all stakeholder groups “truly sets (the system) apart from other districts.”

She also said that the team was impressed with the district’s strong sense of pride and culture of excellence.

“I am now part of the Who Dat Nation,” she said, laughing.

The only required actions or recommendations that the team had for the district was to continue to improve learning and to set up a system to measure achievements in different areas.

Although Superintendent Rodney Lafon could not participate in the judging due to a surgical recovery, he said that he is proud of the school system for doing well without him.

“I feel like we nailed it,” he said.

School Board member Mary Bergeron agreed.

“It’s a credit to Mr. Lafon’s leadership that the team operated so smoothly without him,” Bergeron said.

The accreditation team said it will recommend full district AdvancED accreditation and that the final word should come in June.

AdvancED accreditation has been around for 105 years, according to Petz, and is currently the world’s largest education community.

It serves 27,000 public and private schools, 30 states and the Navajo Nation, 65 countries, 15 million students, and over 3 million teachers.