The Baldwin County School system has taken its first step in working for system-wide accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools by hosting a one-day evaluation of its operations.

Tuesday, Dr. Jay Wansley with SACS CASI visited the school system and met with officials to determine the steps Baldwin County Schools would need to take to change its current form of accreditation.

“They took a look at our organizational foundation,” Deputy Superintendent Geneva Braziel said. “They are looking at our mission and vision.”

Currently when a school in Baldwin County becomes accredited, it is an individual evaluation. Under the new process, SACS would be able to gauge the system as a whole and extend accreditation to all schools. The move to system accreditation is becoming more prevalent among school systems, but requires a unity of operation.

“We are happy and excited about the process, because it is also getting everyone on the same page,” Superintendent Dr. Troy Journigan said.

“We are at the point in education where everybody knows what is going on in all the schools, and we know what we need to do at every level,” Braziel said. “Instead of concentrating on the graduation rate in high school, everybody is working on the graduation rate.”

The school district has in place a District Change Team consisting of principals, assistant principals and central office staff to look at each tenet of SACS system accreditation and ensure that the system has or will implement each aspect.

Recently the system achieved accreditation through the state of Georgia, and was designated as accredited with quality. Journigan and Braziel both said they hope to replicate that success through SACS.

If the system is able to proceed with the accreditation process, then the earliest available date would be October 2009. When the system requests the accreditation, SACS will send a team to perform a three-day evaluation. At the end of the three days, the team will issue a recommendation.

To view a list of accreditation requirements, visit www.advanc-ed.org and click on system accreditation.