Clarke County School District accreditation review to take place in early December

The Clarke County School District is one month away from a yearly review following being placed on probationary accreditation.

The Athens school district is still accredited by Cognia, an accreditation agency that oversees school districts and performs routine reviews of local school boards, but was it downgraded to “accreditation under review” following the initial visit in January 2020.

More: Clarke County schools accreditation still under review following progress report

Cognia is set to conduct a virtual site visit again, which will take place on Thursday, Dec. 2. Board members, principals, parents, district leadership, and the community will be interviewed by Cognia officials.

There are five total standards that are looked at by Cognia and during the initial visit in January 2020, two of those standards were already met and three areas were outlined as needing to be addressed.

A second review was conducted in December 2020 and all three of those areas had improved, but two of them still needed further improvement.

There will be a third review this December and during a November work session, the Board of Education was briefed on where the process currently stands.

The two areas that still needed improvement as of the December 2020 review were “Adherence to Code of Ethics” and “Organizational Effectiveness.”

For adherence to code of ethics, it was outlined that the board needs to begin training with confidence, exhibit cohesiveness, and work on professional decorum in individuals’ actions.

For organizational effectiveness, the board should involve stakeholders, use committees to gather feedback, and avoid establishing quorums at committee meetings.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Clarke County School District Cognia accreditation review upcoming