Bright and early on Saturday morning of April 1st, student volunteers and Mrs. Gonzalez, Arroyo High’s Principal, cleaned the campus in preparation for the WASC (Western Association of Schools and Colleges) visit.

WASC is one of six official academic bodies responsible for the accreditation of public and private universities, colleges, secondary and elementary schools in the United States and foreign institutions of American origin. An accredited school is a statement to the broader community and the stakeholders that it is a trustworthy institution for student learning and committed to ongoing improvement. WASC’s last full visit at Arroyo was in 2011 and they returned in 2014 for a short visit.

On Sunday, April 2nd, Arroyo staff, and the Associated Student Body (ASB) students welcomed the WASC committee onto campus and held an introductory meeting in the Media Center, where administrators and staff met to discuss certain questions that the committee had for them. ASB Students gave the seven representatives of the committee a campus tour, pointing out the different departments as well as the academic and extracurricular organizations available.

The committee began observing the learning atmosphere on Monday, where they visited classrooms and interviewed students. WASC visitors gathered information needed for Arroyo’s accreditation.

Students, staff, and administrators have prepared well for the visitation. Students became more aware of the school’s slogan “ School-wide Learning Outcomes” and welcomed WASC with posters and banners.

“For the most part, I felt very nervous to see them evaluating the classrooms. It was different to have them see what we were doing and ask us different questions. I believe that teachers were probably even more nervous to have them evaluate the class and see how their [teachers’] systems made a good experience for the students. However, I also believe that they felt confident in what they did. “ Tais Manzano, 11.

Prior to the visit, five WASC focus groups were formed and students in each group were given the opportunity to give their input, which was helpful for teachers because they were given student perspectives. Teachers were also well prepared for the three-day visit. They made sure that Arroyo’s mission statement and learning slogan were in clear sight for the visitors. Continuing the regular routine and curricular agenda was the plan teachers followed. Many were confident that Arroyo was already doing very well and did not need to make a bigger impression.

“  We were probably very nervous because it’s a really big deal, but we were also confident because we felt that we had prepared very well. Laura Vasquez and I worked for the last two years to write the reports for WASC and it went out to the staff, who reviewed it. Then we prepared for the actual visit,” said Jennifer Swanson, Journalism Teacher.

“I felt confident. I’ve been not only an administrator here but a former staff member here as well and our kids are always performing and there’s always room for improvement at our school but overall I think our students have high achievements and the teachers speak for themselves so there wasn’t any worry on my end,” followed Mr. Oscar Gomez, Assistant Principal of Activities.

With confidence, administrators planned ahead and readied the students, parents, and staff. “ Well, it was pretty much a year and a half process of working with our teachers and looking at our self-evaluation. We looked at our areas of strength and areas of concern that we needed to focus on. We had a realistic approach when it came to solutions for some of our downfalls,” stated Mr.Gomez.

The WASC team left several comments and recommendations to highlight Arroyo and encourage improvement.

“They had a lot of positive things to say, which was nice. They said students were friendly and helpful and the campus was clean. There were a lot of good things they saw in classrooms. The only negative thing they had to say was they wanted to see more parent involvement,” commented Ms. Swanson.

“ My biggest push these last three years was to have a clean campus and those were some of the highlights they told us. They’ve never seen a campus as clean as Arroyo High’s and I think that resulted from the hard work of ASB students, us as administrators, teachers, and staff. There were also some comments that we can improve on,” added Mr. Gomez.

Throughout the three days, WASC interviewed certain students as well as organizations on campus. One such group was the Associated Student body, who were pulled into an interview 2nd period on Tuesday to answer certain questions.

“During the meet up with various ASB members and the WASC committee, we were asked questions such as, ‘How do you impact the school?’ and ‘What are some things the school provides so that students feel safe?’ Another key question was, ‘How do administrators utilize the student body group?’” responded Kamille Reyes, 11.

“Personally I responded to the best of my ability as well as the other students. I did my best to be as honest and helpful in order to receive the help and criteria needed. The atmosphere was very comfortable and we didn’t feel obliged to say a certain phrase to impress them. We simply gave our feedback and responded when asked a question,” Reyes continued.

Positive remarks on student response to the visit were that they responded extremely well.

“ I think our students did a very good job with the visitors because they’re used to seeing visitors on a day-to-day basis, whether it’s a WASC group, a district group, or teachers evaluating programs Arroyo so I think they were very receptive to these individual visitors coming on campus,” said Mr. Gomez.

Now that the biggest part of the process has concluded, teachers and administrators are more relieved.

“I am honestly relieved. We were very happy with what the WASC team left us with The recommendations were very appropriate and they will help our school. This was a really long process and while Ms. Vazquez and I were co-chairs of it, there were a lot of other people who did things to make this really a good visit and not many people know about their hard work. I certainly want to thank them, especially Ruth Arellano and Patricia Filimaua for decorating the room WASC visited in and for providing the food. There were just a lot of people and we’d like to thank the whole staff for really coming together with the students and making this a really positive experience.” stated Ms.Swanson.

“ I just want to thank all the students and teachers for their hard work in supporting the WASC process. It’s not an easy task. The process is never really over. It’s just that they left some recommendations we need to look at as a team to address those concerns and recommendations and create We need to create an action plan to address the concerns. Our goal right now is to look at whether or not what the final evaluation will be, either we get a 6 year with a one day visit or a 2-3 day visit,”  expressed Mr. Gomez.