Accreditation Status of North Middlesex Regional High School

The North Middlesex Regional School District received information from the New England Association of Schools & Colleges (NEASC) regarding the accreditation status of North Middlesex Regional High School. At its meeting of January 22, 2012, the Commission on Public Secondary Schools reviewed the District’s progress in resolving the issues upon which the Commission had based its initial decision to place the high school on probation. In its letter dated February 13, 2012, the Commission stated that "no new information was submitted to substantiate any further progress to address the longstanding, unresolved facilities, space, and health and safety concerns that continue to negatively impact the school’s educational programs and services with no short-term or long-range plans, funding, or timeline to resolve/address those issues close to nine years following the decennial evaluation visit." The Committee will appoint a building committee at our March 12th school committee meeting and will work with member towns to place appropriate funding votes for preliminary planning before the citizens at annual town meetings in May." extraordinarily good news as it will enable the District to finally address the major infrastructure issues that threaten the high school’s accreditation status." I believe that the staffing levels are secondary to the infrastructure needs." Further she explained, "The school district has already increased the media specialist to full time and staffed the high school library so that the facility is now open 8 hours daily, Monday through Friday."

Unfortunately, the Commission’s meeting to discuss the accreditation status of the high school was held just days before the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) voted (on January 25, 2012) to invite the school district to participate in the Authority’s Capital Eligibility Period. Since receiving notification from the MSBA, the School Committee and District Administration have met with town officials from the three member towns to discuss specific plans to complete the work required by the MSBA.

Susan Robbins, Chairperson of the North Middlesex Regional School Committee, stated, "

Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Maureen Marshall, explained the significance of MSBA’s invitation to participate in the MSBA’s school construction grant program as "

When asked about the staffing level issues noted in the Commission’s recent letter to the school district, Marshall noted, "
The school district must file a progress report with NEASC on June 1, 2012.