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By MICHELLE LOVE | Staff Writer

PELHAM – At the Pelham Board of Education meeting on Monday, Jan. 31, Superintendent Dr. Scott Coefield announced that Pelham City Schools did “phenomenally well” in their recent accreditation review.

“That’s a big deal,” Coefield said. “It’s when peers from all across the country, other educators come into your school system and evaluate your school system. We got our results last night and I can’t tell you how pleased we are with our results.”

The Cognia Accreditation Engagement Review is a continuous improvement process for school systems to review the areas of leadership, learning, and resources and examine how well the areas work together to meet the needs of learners. Each area is thoroughly reviewed by an external team and reported back to the school system with scores in four categories ranging from insufficient (lowest) and initiating to improving and impacting (highest).

Coefield said the average score for this type of review is between 278 and 283. PCS received a score of 332.74.Accreditation is conducted every five years for school systems in Alabama. PCS went through the review process in December 2021.

“Pelham City Schools earned the highest ratings of impacting and improving in all categories of standards measured,” said Nicole Knight, PCS’s communications manager. “Of the 31 standards measured, 17 were ranked as impacting, and 14 were ranked as improving, meaning that the system places focus on continuous improvement processes and embedding best practices that demonstrate ongoing growth, improving student achievement, and organizational effectiveness.”

Shannon Bogert, director of curriculum and instruction at PCS, said the scores are a positive reflection of the hard work and dedication of everyone involved in the school system.

“Our system’s mindset about continuous improvement guides us to always push forward, look at data and feedback, and implement meaningful ways to help our students grow and reach goals,” Bogert said.

“We all put our best foot forward and it was recognized,” Coefield said, echoing Bogert’s sentiments. “I appreciate Shannon and everyone involved for making this happen.”