[StBernard] St. Bernard school district wins SACS accreditation

[Westley Annis]

Capping an effort interrupted by Hurricane Katrina, the St. Bernard Parish
school district said it will receive the prestigious accreditation of the
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. 

A team of educators that recently visited the district to meet with
administrators, teachers, elected officials, parents, students and community
members as part of the credentialing process has recommended "without
reservation" that the district win the accreditation, the school district
said. 

The SACS team judged the district on 10 standards, including its
expectations for students, its efforts to keep improving, student/teacher
ratios, safety and the involvement of parents and the community. 

"It's a great accomplishment," schools Superintendent Doris Voitier said,
adding that the accreditation shows the community has a school district in
which it can be confident. 

St. Bernard School Board President Diana Dysart said St. Bernard is one of
only 10 systems in Louisiana to receive district-wide accreditation. 

Voitier said the SACS team had been scheduled to visit the district for its
review in November 2005. But Hurricane Katrina put that visit on hold and
instead of hosting a team of outside educators scrutinizing the district's
workings, Voitier and other school officials found themselves scrambling to
re-open a school as quickly as possible. 

"But once we got back up and running we thought it was important to put the
process back in place," Voitier said. 

She said the district wasn't cut any hurricane-induced slack by the SACS
reviewers. 

"The standards are absolute," she said. "We may have a reduced student body
and reduced number of schools, but the standards are all in place." 

Added Dysart, "Everything that made ours a good public school system before
Katrina is even better now." 

The district currently serves around 3,800 students on three campuses. It
plans to open additional campuses next school year. 

Pre-Katrina, the district's enrollment was around 8,800 students.