April, 2012
Our parish school is preparing for re-accreditation by the Middle States Association (MSA) Commission on Elementary Schools. The MSA accreditation process requires us to engage in a year long period of self-evaluation or self-study. Upon completion of the self-study a visiting MSA evaluation team of 4 educators will conduct an on-site inspection over a period of three and a half days next year at a time still to be determined.
Our Self-Study year began at the first faculty meeting in September when information about the overall organizational plan of the process along with the formation of a 6 member steering committee composed of teachers and a school board member, the assignment of every teacher to one of the various sub-committees, the targeted timelines to complete each phase of the process and the identification of the specific State of the School areas and MSA Standards to be evaluated were presented. Our current Strategic Plan for 2009-2013 plays an important part in our self-study. As you may recall our school community spent a significant amount of time involving well over 80 teachers, school board members, parents and parishioners formulating our very successful Strategic Plan under the leader of Mrs. Roxanne Adinolfi and Planning Consultant Dick Smith. We are very fortunate that much of the self-study work for Middle States parallels the work already in progress with our Strategic Plan.
It is our hope that the overall outcome of our self-study work and re-accreditation by Middle States will enable us to be seen as a truly outstanding 21st Century Catholic elementary school and will validate our belief that Our Lady of Good Counsel School is an exceptional learning institution providing a superb environment for the academic, spiritual, and moral development of our children.
Jerome T. McGowan