This past week The Preuss School has undergone the WASC certification process.

WASC stands for the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. They are in charge of reviewing schools and making sure that they meet their standards and highlight areas of improvement for schools.

The accreditation process happens every six years, where WASC commissioners visit a school and monitor the school’s academic rigor and its impact on student learning. They then create an action plan that focuses on areas of the school that could be improved, and determine whether the school should be accredited to give out diplomas.

The school has also committed to improving the school in various fields, especially, committing to modernizing the campus and improving mental health resources here at the school.

This year there was a particular emphasis on student involvement in the WASC process, especially during the meetings and with the 11th grade class project.

“One of the things the WASC group highlighted as a strength of our particular WASC process was the fact that we brought students into the conversation, and each of the committee meetings there were a handful of students and their voice was heard and they were represented,” said Ms. Bandy, college guidance counselor.

The school also encourages the students to be more involved in the improvement of our campus. They have assigned the 11th grade advisory classes to work on a project that focuses on areas where the school needs improvement, such as the trolley, bathrooms, general campus beautification, and more.

Overall teachers are happy with the WASC visit and are looking forward to hearing the report.

“Our WASC visit has been very successful, and we are happy to examine ourselves as a school and we were complimented on having our students involved in this process, something that many other schools don’t do, and we are very pleased with our results,” Mr. Carr, social studies and ASB teacher shared.