Beverly High School

Accreditation Update

The New England Association of Schools & Colleges, Inc., (NEASC) is the nation’s oldest regional accrediting association whose mission is the establishment and maintenance of high standards for all levels of education, from pre-K to the doctoral level. NEASC serves more than 2,000 public and independent schools, colleges, and universities in the six states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont and American/international schools in more than sixty nations worldwide. NEASC’s Commission on Public Secondary Schools monitors its schools in relation to its Standards for Accreditation, which are developed and approved by the membership.

As part of the accreditation process, the Commission notified Beverly High School in July 2005 that it had voted to recommend to NEASC’s Board of Trustees that the school be terminated from membership “because of its continued failure to adhere to the Standards for Accreditation on Curriculum, Instruction, and Community Resources for Learning”. Before forwarding that recommendation to the Trustees, however, the High School was given the opportunity to “show cause” why that recommendation should not be made. On August 24th, the “show cause” document prepared by Dr. Carla Scuzzarella, Principal, and Dr. James Hayes, Superintendent of Schools, was submitted to the Commission.

On October 3rd, the Commission formally notified the High School that, despite the information provided in the “show cause” document, it had voted to forward their adverse recommendation to the Trustees. The school actually received two communications, one from Dr. Pamela Gray-Bennett, Director of the Commission, and one from Martin Gray, Commission Chair. In accordance with NEASC procedures, Beverly High School then had two options available to respond to this recommendation.

One option was to appeal directly to the Board of Trustees. Following a timeline established by the Trustees, our written Appeal was submitted to the Executive Director of NEASC on November 30th. Appeals can only be made on any of four specific bases. A school must demonstrate that
A. There was a departure by the Commission from the procedures established by written policy or agreement or by recognized custom;
B. The Commission cited factually incorrect information as a basis for its decision;
C. Bias on the part of the Commission’s professional staff prejudiced the evaluation or other review of the institution’s status of affiliation; and
D. The adverse recommendation is of an arbitrary and capricious nature.
Beverly High School provided evidence and argument on all four bases.

Once it receives an appeal, the Board of Trustees sets up an independent Appeals Committee, which will consider Beverly’s appeal as well as prior communications from the school and the Commission. The Appeals Committee planned to meet on January 4, 2006, to consider the appeal and make a recommendation to the Trustees. The Board of Trustees plans to meet to consider that recommendation on March 16, 2006.

The second option made available to the High School was to present “new evidence” to the Commission. The two opportunities have deadlines of ten business days prior to the meeting of the Appeals Committee (January 4th) and ten days prior to the meeting of the Board of Trustees (March 16th). Beverly High School submitted written “new evidence” on December 19, 2005.

A New Evidence Subcommittee of the Commission considered the High School’s “new evidence” and responded to the school In a letter dated December 28, 2005. That Subcommittee response stated, in part, “The New Evidence Subcommittee was pleased to learn of efforts to clean up classrooms and other areas as well as the replacement of broken furniture and plans for additional improvements. However, in the absence of funding approval for the renovation/ construction project accompanied by an updated construction timeline there remains no evidence that the range of needed long-­term facilities improvements at Beverly High School will be fully resolved in the future.”

The Appeals Committee met on January 4th. They considered our appeal as well as a response from the Commission on the points we had made in our appeal. In their January 13 response to our appeal, the Appeals Committee stated that “The Appeals Committee upholds the finding of the Commission that Beverly High School has failed to demonstrate reasonable progress resolving facilities deficiencies originally identified in the decennial evaluation report and that these deficiencies have a negative impact on teaching and learning as well as health and safety implications. Therefore, the Appeals committee unanimously recommends to the Board of Trustees that the appeal of Beverly High School be denied.”

On February 17th, the New Evidence Subcommittee of the Commission on Public secondary Schools reviewed the information presented by Superintendent Hayes and Mayor Scanlon reporting the vote by the City Council to appropriate $65 million for a new academic wing at Beverly High School as well as for the refurbishment of common areas to include the cafeteria, auditorium, and gymnasium. By a unanimous vote the New Evidence Subcommittee determined that the information was significant and warranted review by the Commission on Public Secondary Schools at its meeting on March 26-27, 2006. Accordingly, the Commission requested that the President of the Association postpone any further proceedings or action until the Commission was to met, considered the new evidence, and made a further recommendation upon the basis of all the evidence.

Following its March 26-27, 2006 meeting, the Commission responded that it had accepted the New Evidence Report of Beverly High School, withdrew its recommendation to terminate the school's accreditation, and continued the school's accreditation. While the Commission acknowledged that progress had been made, until all cited concerns have been satisfactorily resolved the school will remain on probation for the Standards for Accreditation on Curriculum, Instruction, and Community Resources for Learning. The Commission requests that school officials submit a Special Progress Report by September 1, 2006. The school's probationary status will be reviewed when the Commission considers the Special Progress Report.