The James Logan Courier

A team of evaluators from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges arrived on campus today to begin the three-day process of determining if Logan High School deserves to be accredited and, if so, for how long.

"The 8-member WASC visiting team is "in the building," Logan Principal wrote in an email to school staff this morning.

"The team will be visiting every teacher at least once during the next two days, "Montoya wrote, "but they may accidentally miss one or two staff. Please remind your students that our special guests are here Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday."

In a March 8 Student Senate meeting, House Three Principal Lorrie Barrera said that WASC evaluators will come into classrooms, and stop students in their routines to ask questions about safety, the learning process, and diversity. "They are here to validate our self-evaluating report, to see whether we have truthfully... addressed our strengths and issues."

At meetings this month, faculty reviewed a draft of the self-evaluating report, composed over the school year by a team of teachers and administrators. The team attempted to evaluate accurately dozens of aspects of the programs offered by Logan.

The WASC team will try determine how well they did.

The team arrived in Union City on Sunday and met with members of the school community. "The Logan admin team, WASC writing team, teachers, parents, board president, ESC rep, parents and students had a nice introductory "social" meeting with the team on Sunday afternoon. Frankly, we had a very enjoyable time," Montoya said.

He said students and staff should relax: "Enjoy demonstrating to our guests what Logan is all about. We should be very proud of what we all do here."

Still, theoretically, at least, the stakes are high. “Every public school in the Western States goes through an accreditation to have its diplomas validated," Barrera said. "At best, we will have yet another six years before another accreditation; at worst, we would lose our accreditation- your diplomas would be worthless."

The Logan staff will hear the results of the visit at a mandatory staff meeting on Wednesday afternoon at 3:10pm in the Little Theater. The visiting WASC team will "report-out on commendations and recommendations," Montoya said.

WASC's official accreditation won't come for a few months. ""We will have the results of the inspection in June or July," Barrera said.