VAIS Accreditation Team Visit
Earlier this week, Massanutten Military Academy hosted the Virginia Association of Independent Schools (VAIS) Visiting Accreditation Team. This visit comes at the culmination of a year-long self-evaluation performed by members of MMA as a required part of the VAIS accreditation process. The VAIS process of accreditation is authorized through the Virginia State Board of Education and is based on the school’s ability to support its mission statement in a “thoughtful, sustainable, and responsible manner.” In order to evaluate this ability, VAIS sends a visiting team once every five years. Schools are then accredited for a ten year span.
Earlier this week, Massanutten Military Academy hosted the Virginia Association of Independent Schools (VAIS) Visiting Accreditation Team. The members of the team included Mr. Jeremy Mclean (Chair) the retired Head of School for Bridgewater Academy; Mr. Dan Frank (Vice-Chair) the Head of School for the Stuart School; Ms. Peggy Knuckols the Director of Faculty Professional Development and Associate Director of Accreditation for VAIS; Mr. Michael Bussman the Associate Headmaster for Benedictine College Preparatory; and Mr. Jamie Miller the Director of Admissions for the Blue Ridge School.
This visit comes at the culmination of a year-long self-evaluation performed by members of MMA as a required part of the VAIS accreditation process. The VAIS process of accreditation is authorized through the Virginia State Board of Education and is based on the school’s ability to support its mission statement in a “thoughtful, sustainable, and responsible manner.” In order to evaluate this ability, VAIS sends a visiting team once every five years. Schools are then accredited for a ten year span.
The visiting team arrived on Sunday October 18th and were greeted by the faculty and staff in a brief meeting where Mr. Mclean explained the process and what to expect over the following days. The team members then met with the MMA staff who had prepared the self-study and documentation for review. Afterwards, they were given a tour of our historic campus by several of our cadets and had an in-depth discussion with our Board of Trustees.
Monday, our visitors got the chance to audit classes, meet with various committees at MMA, and attend our weekly “Family Meeting.” Here, staff and faculty meet with the corps of cadets to discuss upcoming events, policies, sports, promotions, and other important information. They also met with our Dean of Academics, Kim Elshafie, to discuss the STEM program that we offer here at MMA.
Tuesday, gave our visitors a chance to see more of our classes and observe our responsiveness during a fire drill. Even though they were tasked with a detailed review of a plethora of paperwork and an in-depth examination of our programs, team members were given the opportunity to interact with staff, faculty, and students to get a sense of our daily lives here at Massanutten.
Dr. David Skipper commented, “It was our pleasure to host the VAIS Visiting Team Members here at MMA. In their discussions with me and various other members of our Senior Staff Visiting Team Members expressed great support for the programs and activities they saw during the visit and congratulated MMA for the job we are doing working with Cadets.” We would like to thank the team members for their visit and look forward to the official review documentation.
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Massanutten Military Academy is a co-educational, non-profit military boarding and day school in Virginia for students in 8th-12th grades with post graduate studies. We welcome all faiths and live by our motto: Non Nobis Solum (Not For Ourselves Alone).
Massanutten Military Academy admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school administered programs.
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