The Mississippi Private School Association is undergoing a makeover.

The organization’s board of directors voted earlier this week to change its name to the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools, MPSA executive director David Derrick said in a release.

The decision was made after a two-thirds majority vote of the board of directors, which includes a representative from each member school, at its annual meeting on Tuesday. The name change is effective immediately, although signage and logos will continue to sport the MPSA name throughout the 2009-10 school year.

The association’s web site, www.mpsa.org, will also continue in service. No launch date for the new web site, www.msais.org, has been announced.

Porters Chapel Academy headmaster Doug Branning said the change was an effort to make the association more accessible to the general public. Branning is PCA’s representative on the board of directors. He said he voted in favor of the name change.

“The feeling among association members was that the word ‘private’ is elitist-sounding, and ‘independent’ has a little friendlier connotation. It’s an attempt to be more inclusive,” Branning said. “And a lot of states are using that ‘independent’ term now.”

In the release, Derrick said the name change was a way for the association to move forward, as well as “align the name of the association more closely with the diversity and inclusive posture of its member schools.”

Derrick said none of the services or structure of the association are changing, only the name.