What’s up with WASC? Haskett guides school through accreditation process

By LANDON BUTLER  
The Tower 

When you walk through the door of Room 33, you’re met with posters, symbols of activism and other tributes. It’s a rush of color and shapes, each evoking a different emotion and conversation.  

To your immediate left is a shrine to Jake Gyllenhaal.  Beyond that, layered on the wall behind her desk, are the faces of students past. Cuddled up next to The Jake is the “sports wall” – a collage of basketball, soccer, football and other student-athletes.  

Running back and forth, from desk to desk, student to student, is Haskett, who rarely sits during class. She’s always milling about, finding her way into conversations.  

In this space and on this campus, Haskett is many things, like the collections that hang on her walls. She is involved in several activities such as co-Department Chair for the English department, the High School Director for MEA (teacher union), a member of the negotiations team (bargaining for teachers’ rights), as well as on the Dual Enrollment Committee and AP English QISA Committee. 

But more importantly, for this academic year, she is the school’s WASC coordinator.  

Western Association of School and Colleges is essentially an organization that ensures that schools are teaching state and federal standards. Failing this process would result in no credit for classes taken and a faulty high school diploma. 

“It’s a big job,” Manteca High principal Megan Peterson said. “Haskett is definitely the right person for the job.” 

Every six years, a WASC committee visits each school in order to accredit each school for teaching to the state’s standard with a checkup usually occurring 2-3 years after the main visit.  

Six years ago, Haskett was appointed coordinator of WASC. In this position, Haskett is to make a document representing Manteca High School, from its curriculum to the racial breakdown of the school. Haskett’s job is to ensure that each person and their work is accounted for, showing off the strengths of the school to the accreditors at WASC.  

Along with the document she is also hyperlinking evidence to prove the facts that Haskett gathers. A lot of hours and work go into this process, and so Haskett has been given a period of class time to work on this project every day.   

Being the WASC coordinator is a difficult and tedious job, but Haskett is the perfect person to take the challenge head on. And she is grateful for the opportunity to represent Manteca High.  

“I love covering every single person and getting to see just how much everyone is doing.  I feel tied to a greater sense of community and feel a lot more pride in being a Buffalo when I get to see, on this much bigger scale, just how much everyone is doing and contributing to the school,” said Haskett. 

The visiting committee will come to Manteca High on March 24-26. This is an intense process where they will read over the document that Haskett created.  

This is a very important visit because not only will lack of passing the accreditation result in students diplomas not holding any value, but it could also result in the teaching faculty losing their jobs.  

Haskett knows the weight of the other teachers’ jobs and students are at stake. Haskett has been given a period off strictly to work on her duties as WASC coordinator. This extra time ensures that she has an adequate amount of time to finish the document and the hyper link.   

This process is very tedious and can be stressful at times. Haskett keeps a positive out look knowing that the work she is putting in affects her peers and students. This is what keeps her motivated.  

They will highlight the strengths and point out what can be improved, along with any missed strength that was glossed over in the creation of the document.  

Teachers should expect daily visits and 1-2 meetings, which are mandatory. They must give their own personal feedback. Their input is incredibly valuable to the visiting committee. Along with teachers being asked for their feedback, students will also be questioned, and some may be asked to attend a meeting where they will discuss their opinions on Manteca High.  

“Everyone’s participation is crucial to the scoring,” Haskett said, “and will affect the school’s accreditation, so ... 

“Be ready.”