Northwest High School - Tohari Yearbook (Winston Salem, NC)

Page 12 text:

MEMBERS of the committee which directed the accreditation program for Northwest High School look over the, recommenda¬ tions of the Southern Association. They are, left to right, Mrs. Lucille Speas, Julian Gib¬ son, Raymond Sarbaugh and Mrs. Louise Newman. Cause of Celebration Northwest High Gains Accreditation By ED FRIENDENBERG Staff Reporter Northwest High School has been accredited by the Southern Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges. The action was taken at .an association meeting in Texas ear¬ lier this month. Julian Gibson, the elated school principal and his equally elated staff, are now studying the final report of the visiting committee which recommended accreditation for them. Northwest is the fifth county high school to be accredited. Griffith High School has been re¬ fused accreditation because its plant is inadequate. Southwest High School just began operation in September. Accredited First Year Northwest met accreditation requirements during- the first yea of operation. Neither Mr. Gibson nor any other county school official know of another s :hool which has qual¬ ified during its first year. “People told us we were tak¬ ing off a mighty big chew,” ' Mr. Gibson said, and he added, “We did a lot of chewing. We had teachers’ meeting after teachers’ meeting. We were the meetingest school in the county.” “Our acceptance by the South¬ ern Association,” said Mr. Gib¬ son, “is a credit to the staff. They worked together and worked hard.” According to Mr. Gibson, the benefits of accreditation are significant but intangible. The chief benefit, he said, is. that the school has been “evaluated in terms of its pur¬ pose, and we will be able to keep our eye on that purpose.” The staff itself in a series of meetings developed a two-page statement of purpose and then graded each section of the school program in the light of that statement. Then last April a visiting com¬ mittee from the Southern Asso¬ ciation headed by Dr. W. A. Stumpf of the department of ed¬ ucation at Duke University went through the school. Recommendations The visiting committee checked the school staff’s evalua¬ tion and made recommendations. It found that the staff had been “rather modest” in grading much of the school work. The committee also made about 100 recommendations. They included such things as hir¬ ing of more janitorial help; or¬ ganization of a guidance com¬ mittee; require gym “uniforms”; more space for cafeteria and library. Like all accredited schools, Northwest will be checked by visiting committees from the Southern Association every three to five years to see that it main¬ tains its standards and pro¬ gresses along the lines it has planned. This is another of the big bene¬ fits that comes with accredita¬ tion, says Mr. Gibson.