After months of preparation and three days of stressful observation by the WASC team, the school will not find out the status of its accreditation until September.

The WASC team visited every classroom noting strengths as well as areas of weakness, which it used to compose a set of recommendations regarding the school’s eligibility for accreditation.

The WASC recommendations will be incorporated into the required 280-page school report.

This report must be updated and submitted to the State of California by June 1; because of this long and tedious process, the school will not know the accreditation rating earned until September 2007. At this time, Uni’s current accreditation term will have expired.

Therefore, all students except for the graduating class of 2007, will be affected by this decision since an unaccredited school cannot issue valid diplomas.

There should be little need for worry, however, as administration feels that faculty and students performed well during the week of WASC visits and are expecting either a 6 year accreditation with a three year revisit or a three year accreditation. There is little worry that the school will not receive accreditation.

Advisory classes were a big hit with the WASC team, and they noted it as one of Uni’s biggest strengths.

However, since this is a new and growing program, they also noted that much improvement is needed. WASC recommended developing ways to incorporate teacher, student, and parent input into the advisory agendas.

“It took some time, but every class now has the ESLR’s and agendas up,” said Jose Castelo, Assistant Principal, Curriculum.

Uni’s biggest advantage, however, is its amicable student body.

“They loved the students [WASC],” said Castelo. “That’s one of Uni’s strengths: the students,” he added.

Castelo believes the months leading up to accreditation were a positive influence on campus organization and unity.

“Many teachers have said that they liked the process [of preparation] and would like to continue meeting to reflect and discuss student accomplishments.