Proud Member of VAIS

Christopher Academy is a member of the Virginia Association of Independent Schools (VAIS). This means that CA is an accredited school. Does this really matter to your child on a day to day basis? Is CA a better school because of accreditation? My answer to both questions is an emphatic YES!

Christopher Academy (formerly The St. Christopher School ) has been known for high academic and citizenship expectations since we were founded in 1970. Providing a developmentally appropriate curriculum in a stimulating environment has always been the mission of CA. Accreditation did not change any of that, but it certainly has helped us build upon the School's strengths. Let me tell you how.

My predecessor, Dottie Seward, on the eve of her retirement asked me as her successor to lead the school through the accreditation process. During her 27 year career with The St. Christopher School she had developed an exceptional faculty, strong curriculum , and excellent reputation in the community. Accreditation had not seemed necessary for the school to continue to serve our families. However as she looked to the future of education, she saw great value to our being part of a network of schools that also worked to attain high academic and citizenship standards. She researched options for accreditation and identified VAIS as the accrediting association that she felt was best for our school. She told me the process would be rigorous...and she was correct.

I encourage you to visit the VAIS website at www.vais.org to learn more about this association. You will be hearing much more about it over the next weeks and months as CA has begun preparation for our ten year accreditation visit. We are going to need your support and participation as we prepare and work through this process. Your first opportunity to participate will be to complete online surveys about CA for our accreditation study. You will be receiving detailed information about when the surveys will be scheduled and how you will login to complete them.

When you visit the site, please take a moment to look at the state and regional maps showing the VAIS member schools. I think you will immediately see that CA is part of a group of excellent independent schools across the Commonwealth and especially here in Hampton Roads. You also will see the Standards of Accreditation that each school must meet. The process of accreditation is ongoing. A school does not simply meet the criteria one time; schools must demonstrate that they continue to meet the standards. This process of continuous review and improvement is why I so strongly believe that CA and our students benefit from our membership in VAIS every day.