WASC Visit

To assess the progress and successes of MHS’s educational objectives, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) visited the campus from Monday, April 30 to Tuesday, May 1, Principal Francis Rojas said. The visit was an audit in which the WASC committee observed classrooms and held a variety of meetings with administrators, faculty, and students.

Through the Mid-Cycle Progress Report, MHS administrators detailed the school’s growth in their “Action Plan” since the last WASC visit in 2015. Using this information and their at-school visit, the WASC Committee developed the 2018 Mid-Cycle Visiting Committee Report, providing eight major commendations and four recommendations for the school.

WASC Chairperson Paul Demsher affirms that the committee “definitely saw growth in many areas on campus: the school is very student-focused and

WASC members also asked students who they trusted if they needed to talk to someone. The majority of responses leaned towards teachers, while some added counselors.

Moreover, the notion of “Equity through Engagement” was a major theme Rojas wanted to portray to the committee. This idea is built on the belief that to engage students, teachers should take a personalized approach to help each student reach their goals, Rojas said. The school provided teachers with additional training to manage the increasing diversity of each classroom.

“We strive for more equitable opportunities for how we engage as a community. It really helped form a cohesive theme for the last three years, so that when we told our story to WASC it made sense,” Rojas said. “I think why the WASC was so successful was because even though we had such a crazy plan, we could tell a single