The Berkeley Institute has further cemented itself as one of the crown jewels in Bermuda’s public education system.

The storied high school, which has operated in three different centuries, earned a new accreditation from the Middle States Association in the US.

It was an accomplishment ten years in the making — marred in delays brought on by personnel changes, moving facilities, and cost.

“There were challenges at the beginning,” admits Calvin White, chairman of the school’s Board of Governors. “But certainly it’s been worth the wait.”

The man who started the process back in the 1990’s was the school’s deputy principal Carlos Symonds.

The idea was handed off to other educators, then handed back to him, before he left a second time to become principal at Clearwater Middle School.

He returned Thursday for the big announcement.

“We ran up against a few challenges. It was a matter of convincing the authorities about the idea and getting buy-in from all the stakeholders because it became a team effort,” said Mr. Symonds.

The final push seem to come from as high as the Cabinet level, which gave the accreditation idea it’s an important burst of momentum.

The Middle States Association “is dedicated to educational excellence and improvement through peer-evaluation and accreditation,” according to its website.

The group visits and grades school systems in the United States and in foreign countries.

At Berkeley the association’s evaluators spent three-and-a-half days at the Pembroke school in April 2006.

The accreditation which the high school ultimately received is built not only on strategic planning, but mostly on student performance.

The honour is not permanent — as it is effective only until November 2013, said Michelle Simmons, the school’s principal.

“We are required to develop objectives which span the next seven years. And most of the objectives are directed at improved student achievements.”

And if the school’s administrators, teachers, and students can’t keep a consistent trend of improvement in the classroom, the accreditation will be lost.

But after a long ten year journey to achieve the accolade, there will be a focused effort on campus to keep it.