The State Board of Education voted on December 1 to grant provisional accreditation to Normandy Schools Collaborative, which lost its accreditation in 2012. The new status will take effect on January 2, the end of the district’s first semester.
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) recommended the provisional accreditation based on “improvements in student performance, operations, and school culture and climate.”
The district’s scores have been in the provisionally accredited range for the past two years and, according to DESE, its near-term finances have improved.
In 2014, the state board took full control of Normandy’s troubled finances. Then known as Normandy School District, it was reorganized as Normandy Schools Collaborative. Governance was turned over to a Joint Executive Governing Board (JEGB), whose initial members were appointed by the state board. The JEGB hired current superintendent Charles Pearson in 2015.
In the past three years, Normandy has raised its scores on the Annual Performance Report for school districts from 7.1 percent in 2014 to 62.5 percent in 2017. The report measures performance on metrics like student performance, attendance and graduation rates.
“We are pleased with the progress made in Normandy, particularly in improved student achievement,” said Margie Vandeven, DESE commissioner, in a press release. “The students and teachers have worked very hard, and they should be proud.”
According to Nancy Bowles, a communications specialist at DESE, there is no set timeline for when the district might achieve full accreditation, but they will need to continue making the kinds of gains they have over the past few years.
Jessica Karins is an editorial intern for the St. Louis American from Webster University.
