The New England Association of Schools and Colleges, commonly known as NEASC, is an organization whose purpose is to help reevaluate the public schooling systems in New England.

Every ten years, secondary schools across the New England are evaluated by this organization, and in the fall of 2016, Naugatuck High School’s ten years were up. The NEASC committee visited and evaluated the school over the course of three days in October.

NEASC does many things in order to gain a full understanding of how the school is run, both during and after. NEASC does their best to evaluate any school that they will be visiting, in the very limited amount of time they have to do so.

For the volunteers, the reevaluation process often involves a great deal of personal effort.In order to serve as a volunteer, many educators must travel grat distances and be away from home. Once such individual who has taken the time to travel a long distance and put forth a huge amount of time and effort to help the high school is Sandra Tessier.

Tessier states that, “I traveled for about 3-4 hours to reach this school to help participate in reevaluating this school.”

Sandra Tessier is like any other hard working teacher. She’s calm, she’s collected and she also shares the same principles that any good teacher has, which is to want what is truly best for the school and its students. Like most educators, Sandra is passionate about making sure students receive the quality education they deserve.

Tessier explains that her school administrators often urged their teachers to get involved with NEASC visits, so that they will be prepared for their own school’s evaluation. The gain of knowledge of how the process works allows the teachers to be well-informed. Aside from this, it helps gives the teachers a different perspective on how kids can grow in their learning environment.

Tessier is also realistic. She states that, “My school will be going through the same process, and that everyone involved are teachers and staff. It’s just like our own and we have been simply out on a mission to experience other schools.”

This was not just like any other visit however. The Naugatuck High School students, teachers and staff have all worked countless hours, both days and nights. All in preparation for the NEASC evaluation.

The school has not failed to live up to their motto “In pursuit of excellence.”

For Mr. Dunn, a physical education teacher at the high school, the NEASC visit is purely an opportunity to show off the school’s talents.
“This event will help shine a light on the things we’re already doing, and will help pay credit to where the credit is due,” Dunn said.

Mrs. Campbell, an English teacher at NHS agrees. “In NHS we do an amazing job with the limited amount of resources that we have,” she said.

Fortunately, here at Naugatuck High School, all of the staff members are openly willing to share the responsibilities of moving forward as a school community.
One of the key people in the preparation for this visit was Mr. Leary, the Dean of Students. Mr. Leary also spent a significant amount of time and effort into this opportunity to showcase all the amazing things our school has to showcase.

While Mr. Leary states an overwhelming amount of confidence in both his co-workers and himself, he admitted this process can be a bit nerve wracking. “Mrs.Saam and all of the school staff have worked extremely hard to reach the point that we are at. I understand it’s okay to be nervous for such a thing again. It’s only human nature.”

The preliminary results of the evaluation process are positive, and now the entire school body anxiously awaits the full report.