Principal Expects Warnings From College Accreditation Group

High School Principal Layne Millington told the School Committee Wednesday that he expects the school to receive warnings on three of seven educational standards from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.

He expects the school to keep its accreditation but receive sanctions under the following standards: mission and expectations;  curriculum; and assessment of student learning.

The NEASC sets standards and judges schools according to those seven standards. The administration has yet to receive official notification on the school's standing.

The remaining four standards are:  instruction; leadership and organization; school resources for learning; and community resources for learning.

NEASC representatives visited Swampscott High School between Oct. 31 and Nov. 3, and sent the school a report in February on the quality of education at the school over the past 10 years, ending with the 2009-10 school year.

Millington said the situation is a serious one.

"Being sanctioned by NEASC is an enormous liability," he said in his PowerPoint presentation.

The School Committee's chairwoman, Jacqueline Kinney, said she has sympathy for the principal because the problems predate him. He became principal in July of last year.

"This is something you inherited," he said.

Millington said that correcting deficiencies also offer an opportunity to boost the school's academic standing.

"We have the potential to be a world-class school," he said.

Millington expects the improvement effort to be the focus of the school for at least the next five years.

He said he will need autonomy and decision-making authority to carry out the work.

The school's NEASC Steering Committee will meet to develop a plan for the next year.

A key and first step in that plan will be to hold a community-wide gathering to re-examine the core values, he said.

Superintendent Lynne Celli said the time and effort to address the warnings can be done within the existing budget.

According to the NEASC website, its commission on public secondary schools says that, "At any given time approximately 100/110 schools are on warning out of a membership of approximately 655 schools."

In most cases, unless there are serious problems with facilities or finances, schools typically work their way of the warning classification in a relatively short period of time, the website states.