Schools across the country participate in voluntary accreditation programs.

In the Northeast, accreditation is granted by the Committee on Public Secondary Schools under the auspices of New England Association of Schools and College, a private, Massachusetts based company that aims to ensure high standards and on-going school improvement.

According to NEASC reporting, all of Maine's ninety-two public high schools are accredited. The NEASC accreditation process takes place every ten years and Boothbay Region High School is beginning another accreditation cycle. For various components of the process, BRHS will be seeking help from the community to complete the process.

The NEASC accreditation process begins at the school level with a year of self-study.

Faculty work together to examine seven standards: core values, beliefs, and learning expectations; curriculum; instruction; assessment of and for student learning; school culture and leadership; school resources for learning; and community resources for learning. Any deficits are identified and improvements are designed and implemented.

In the second phase of the process, committees are formed for each of the seven standards to include faculty and staff, parents, students and community members who will be solicited by the principal and the accreditation steering committee. They will also be seeking information and input from many sources as well as volunteers to serve on the standards committees. These committees evaluate to what extent the school meets the standards and gather evidence to support their findings.

With the completion of the standards committees’ reports, an evaluation visit, which is an on-site visit of a team of NEASC members and teachers from other area schools, will take place over a period of three and one-half days in 2016 to determine the extent to which BRHS meets the seven standards for accreditation and what improvements need to addressed.

BRHS must form an ad hoc committee to identify and articulate core values, beliefs and learning expectations which is necessary in completing the work of the seven standards committees later.

This committee will include members from faculty, school committee, parents, student body and community. If you are interested in serving on this committee, please contact Principal Dan Welch at dwelch@csd3-brhs.orgor at BRHS 207-633-2421.