Swampscott moves to solve school accreditation problem

SWAMPSCOTT – The high school will temporarily divide the athletic director/dean of students position into an approximately half-time athletic director position and a full-time dean of students/curriculum leader position, a move that Superintendent Lynne Celli said would enable to school to retain its accreditation and maintain its athletics offerings.”The (New England Association of Schools and Colleges) is holding our feet to the fire,” Celli told the School Committee at its Wednesday evening meeting. “As we progress through the steps mandated by the NEASC, we will re-assess roles and come back at an appropriate time.”Celli also reiterated after the meeting that the change “will have no negative impacts” on athletics offerings. “I know that’s an important issue for the community, that’s why we are going to evaluate the change to make sure that doesn’t happen.”The New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) accredits schools, colleges and universities in New England as part of a national accreditation consortium representing research-based best practices. At their April 27 meeting, high school Principal Layne Millington reported that an approximately three-year evaluation by the association sanctioned the high school for not meeting three out of the seven standards by which schools are evaluated and 56 recommendations that the high school has to address within five years in order to retain its accreditation.”Being sanctioned by NEASC is an enormous liability,” Millington wrote in a presentation at that meeting, explaining that NEASC standards are used in standardized testing as well as college admissions.One major issue that the association’s report addressed was the lack of a complete written curriculum for the school or for all the grade levels in the district. Celli said that the new positions will enable the district to meet its own curriculum goals as well as meet the guidelines established by the NEASC.According to a memo from Millington that Celli shared with the school committee, the new dean of students and curriculum leader position will divide half his/her time to dean activities and half to curriculum development. The school will add an athletic director position modeled after the current high school department heads.The total cost of the changes will be $33,323, according to the memo, which includes $7,467 for the stipend and $25,876 to offset a reduced teaching load planned for the new athletic director. Celli and District Budget Director Ed Cronin said it could be funded from the school’s budget that was approved at Town Meeting. Celli said that the positions would be posted by Monday at the latest and that she would like to fill the position as soon as possible.