Gravette receives district accreditation

All four of Gravette's schools evaluated and accredited through AdvancEd

A banner, recognizing Gravette schools' achievement as AdvancED Accredited by ACE, is held by Glenn Duffy Principal Zane Vanderpool and Gravette School superintendent Andrea Kelly. All four Gravette schools received AdvancED accreditation and framed certificates are displayed in each school office.
A banner, recognizing Gravette schools' achievement as AdvancED Accredited by ACE, is held by Glenn Duffy Principal Zane Vanderpool and Gravette School superintendent Andrea Kelly. All four Gravette schools received AdvancED accreditation and framed certificates are displayed in each school office.

— All four of Gravette’s schools - Glenn Duffy Elementary School, Upper Elementary School, Middle School and High School - have received accreditation as AdvancED schools by the North Central Association.

Certificates for the recognition have just been received from North Central Association and will soon be displayed in the offices of the respective schools.

Receipt of the certificates is a visible notification following a comprehensive review of the school district held in February of 2011.

Achievement of the AdvancED designation was actually received last year. The certificates note the accreditation is valid for five years, through June 30, 2016.

A five-member accreditation team visited the schools just over a year ago when its members spent two days evaluating the schools, touring the facilities, meeting with staff and administrators and visiting and questioning numerous citizens from the community.

Michael Lodico, an educator from North Carolina who headed the team, told the school board and staff at that time, “We are going to recommend your schools be accredited.” Teamwork Achievement

To achieve the accreditation, each of the principals of the four schools had appointed teams which prepared reports documenting that their schools met the AdvancED standards and were developing a continuous systemic improvement program.

Superintendent of Schools Andrea Kelly said it was the work of those teams that resulted in the achievement. She had special praise for Pat Hastings, special projects coordinator, and Donna Rush, literacy specialist, “for their outstanding job of solidifying our curriculum for grades kindergarten through 12th to achieve a continuous and integrated learning flow of math, science, literacy and social studies.”

The district evaluation document reported, “The district is exceptional in its demonstration of the standards and exhibits practices not commonly found in other schools. A small percentage of schools havestandards ratings at this level.”

The report also challenged the district to develop a multi-year plan to guide curriculum and instruction priorities in response to internal and external evaluations and “provide systemic feedback to teachers on best practices.”

Kelly said, “The work of Dr. Hastings and Donna Rush enables us to meet these recommendations.” Community Support

The evaluation report also noted, “Gravette School District has enlisted and sustained exceptionally strong community support to develop facilities and programs that are a source of great civic pride.”

Voters, who just last week passed a financial package for further development of school facilities, continued the pattern of support exhibited in recent years which has resulted in facilities unrivaled by many larger school districts.

The NCA will be monitoring the district in coming years and will re-evaluate the school system, a requirement to extend the AdvancED status past June 2016.

School News, Pages 6 on 02/22/2012