Wiscasset High School faces challenges, but is doing a lot right, according to a new report by the organization that has renewed the school's accreditation.

The renewal is good for 10 years.

The 100-page report from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges commends Wiscasset High on several fronts and makes recommendations on what to improve. It also acknowledges the tight budget times the school has been under since the Maine Yankee nuclear power plant closed and, more recently, since the town joined Regional School Unit 12. The report was drafted before the town’s November 2013 vote to leave the district; it notes that the work toward a possible pullout was under way.

“Since the closing of the (power) plant, Wiscasset has faced a steep loss in jobs, residents and public school enrollment,” the report states. Joining the school district didn’t help, due to a piece of Maine’s school consolidation law that let parents in most towns choose the high schools their children would attend.

As for the school’s graduation rate being the worst in Maine, the association’s report notes that the school has to take students other schools no longer accept, and who have few credits.

“Sometimes a student will be uninvited from another local high school and never actually attend a day at WHS ... and yet the dropout statistic belongs to WHS,” the report states.

It describes the school’s funding as sufficient, but strained and diminishing. “Budget difficulties make the funding and implementing of a long-range plan that addresses programs and services, enrollment changes and staffing needs, facility needs, technology and capital improvements tenuous.”

Nonetheless, from students' gauging their own learning, to Principal Deb Taylor's rapport with students and staff, Wiscasset High has many strengths, according to the report.

“The many initiatives and effective pilot programs at Wiscasset High School are a direct result of the principal's effective leadership ...,” the report states.

In a telephone interview January 20, Taylor said she was very pleased by those remarks, but that she considers everything the school accomplishes to be a team effort.

The report praises the school’s use of electronic portfolios, or “e-portfolios.”

“(They) allow students the ability to self-assess and document their understanding of the school’s curriculum,” it states.

The report held no surprises, due to a self-study schools have to do ahead of the committee’s visit, Taylor said. So facility issues and other points the committee found to improve on were ones the school had already identified, she said.

Some of those improvements, such as addressing mold in the school’s alternative education building, have already been made since the association’s visiting committee was in town in May 2013, Taylor said.

The report also notes a lack of cold water running in eyewash stations in labs at the school; the cold water is working now, Taylor said.

In other areas, the report calls for the school to find more ways to get parents involved with the school, including involvement in decision-making.

“It’s wholly appropriate to invite parent feedback,” in policy changes, for example, Taylor said.

“It’s an ongoing struggle to create avenues that work for parents,” she added.

No funding hinges on the accreditation; however, it helps graduates get into competitive colleges, school staff have said. It also gives a school an objective look at its programs.

The only real surprise in the renewal process was that it took until early 2014 to complete, Taylor said. She had first expected to get word on the renewal last fall, but the visiting committee's report wasn't ready in time, delaying the association’s decision.

The committee spent four days in Wiscasset in May 2013, meeting with teachers, administrators and other staff, shadowing students and touring the school.

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