School staff members are putting the final touches on preparing for the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) visit and review on Nov. 4 to Nov. 7.

WASC, which serves as an Accreditation Commission for Schools, defines its purpose as an evaluator of schools that assures other institutions, whether educational or not, and the general public and checks to make sure the goals of a school are high enough, are being met under the correct conditions for said goals and is well equipped to do it. According to www.acswasc.org, the committee promotes this by self-evaluation by school staff using certain grading criteria and policies, with regular checks-ins at different times. Esperanza was last visited by the ACS WASC in 2012, getting the top  score of “6 years clear,” meaning the school will not be revisited by the committee for another 6 years. WASC is now back to reevaluate the school.

Starting the preparations for the visit more than 18 months ago, the WASC staff-self coordinator took charge of organizing the school for the visit. Having done it for the past 24 years, overseeing the last four visits and having extensive a background in WASC themselves, WASC staff-self coordinator is the “keeper of the vision.” Establishing timelines and support  mechanisms, providing orientation for staff and forming the committees, she has been responsible for the organization of it.

There are seven different committees with a variety of staff members and a couple of students in charge of leading that section in the preparations. Governance and leadership is headed by Erica McNab and Sue Gehringer, with the curriculum under Suzanne Munsell, assessment with Bird Potter, the visiting committee headed by Ron Garrett, with the support for students committee under Carrie Platz and Frank Perez and the instruction committee under Dave Tennant. Seniors Jada Maglinao and Gavin Braun are in charge of the student committee.

Munsell, the curriculum leader, explained that her task “entails directing the writing/revising/editing of our section (30 pages +) of the school-wide self-study report (400 pages +).” The process is collaborative with administration, staff, students and parents.

For the curriculum committee, Munsell gave a brief description of their job. “Our committee had to answer 10 broad questions in detail that evaluated the overall quality of instructional programs/courses of study (what our students are being taught) and provide extensive evidence to support our claims. I’ve lost track of the countless hours my group members and I have spent training, researching, discussing, writing, revising, editing, studying, etc.”

WASC staff-self coordinator said that amongst many other reasons for the importance of the visit, that the UC system, the United States military and California Student Aid Commission (CSAC) requires a “school to be accredited in order to establish and maintain an accreditation” in order to join the institution or gain the grant from CSAC.

The staff were confident that the visit will go well, citing the mock visit they had.

Principal Gina Aguilar said, “This past Monday [Oct. 8] we had a mock WASC visit where administrators from the district served as mock visiting team members, and we did a ‘dress rehearsal,’ so to speak, of the visit coming up in November. They provided us with great feedback in order to help us be fully prepared.”

Munsell said, “I thought the mock visit went very well. We received numerous compliments on our preparation and a constructive critique telling us where we can enhance our presentation of our results.”

The WASC staff-self coordinator added that she believes the visit will go well. “A Visiting Committee could stop by any day, unannounced, and we would still have a great visit and the team would be impressed. As I’ve said, I’ve been on many visits, and I still feel that EHS is the best.”