The aura around school earlier this week was tense as the committee from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges came to validate the report the school staff had created.

In 2009, Clark received a six-year accreditation, which is the highest. During this most recent accreditation, classes were evaluated to see if teachers are teaching the material up to standard, students were interviewed to see how they like the school, and the committee held meetings with groups made up of teachers.

Senior D’Mario Tevanyan was invited to have lunch with the WASC committee along with other students.  According to Tevanyan, WASC committee members asked questions such as what students thought about the school and if there were groups that helped students relieve stress and worries. Tevanyan said, “I saw that the WASC committee was really well organized and informed.”

Catherine Henry was the chair of the committee. A retired school librarian, she has been done WASC visits for over 20 years. “The 3D printers are unbelievably cool,” she said about the  3D printers she had seen in the robotics room.

Another project she was impressed by was the “Bust the Bead” project by the Environmental GIS class. “The fact that the team got responses from all over the nation and some counties is beyond what anyone can experience,” Henry said.

The committee interviewed students who were randomly picked, and they asked about teachers, classes, and overall how the school is like. It’s also a chance for the members to see what students really like the school and what classes or options the students benefit from so that they can try to improve the school they work in by bringing back those ideas.

For 18 months leading up to the recent visit by the committee, the Clark staff spent time viewing prompts and writing answers to those prompts. All the writing and data is then made into a book and copies of the book are sent to the committee members.

The members then read the the book and take note of everything the report claims. The physical visit is to ensure that everything is up to standard. The committee has to ensure that that what the report says is true.

Once the committee is done with their visit, they send in a report to the head of the organization and they decide how many years accreditation the school receives. The time it takes for the decision to be made is vague, but the chair of the committee ensured that the accreditation will be decided upon before the school year ends.