Wright City R-II School District officials are preparing for a visit from state education officials later this month as part of Missouri’s comprehensive accreditation and school improvement process. Representatives with the Missouri School Improvement Program, or MSIP, will visit the district Jan. 31-Feb. 2 to interview district administrators, teachers, along with the school board, and observe classes in all district buildings. They also will have lunch with students in the school cafeterias. District officials said the team will conduct walk-throughs to observe teaching and learning and interview individual administrators, teachers and conduct focus groups among teachers and students. The MSIP team visit is part of Missouri’s five-year accreditation cycle for each district in the state, explained Assistant Superintendent David Buck. “The accreditation is done annually, and more deeply every fifth year,” he said. “2010-2011 is our year for that more extensive review.” Buck said that as the final part of the team’s visit, on Feb. 2, members will convene to write their findings before an exit conference later that day with district officials to go over the conclusions. Based on these meetings and findings, school leaders will develop an accountability plan, which will be due in May for approval by the school board. To help with this process, Buck said, the school is conducting monthly meetings with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and Heart of Missouri Regional Professional Development Center (HOM RPDC) to be proactive in creating the accountability plan. R-II has combined its Community Advisory Team (CAT) and Curriculum Review Committee to create what DESE calls a “Core Leadership Team” to aid in the creation of the accountability plan. In 2004 and 2005, R-II’s achievement declined, then in 2010 began to rise again. The trend resulted in the district receiving nine out of 14 “Met” standards on the state’s Annual Performance Report (APR) for multiple years now. While the school is fully accredited, the APR results trigger a targeted review from DESE. The district has been actively working for the past six months on a litany of reviews, data collection and other activities as part of this process and to make sure its performance stays on the upswing. “We know a lot about what we need to work on already, and are focused on measures to improve,” Superintendent Dr. Chris Gaines told the board during its December meeting.