North Scott rolls out two-year "Check and Connect" mentoring for struggling freshmen

The North Scott Community School District board heard a presentation on Check and Connect, a structured two-year mentoring intervention designed to improve stability, trust, accountability and student connection to school for at-risk freshmen.

Presenter (unnamed), speaking for district staff, said the program began with 19 students identified by junior-high teachers and counselors and paired each student with one of eight mentors. "It is a structured mentoring intervention, and it's a 2 year commitment," the presenter said. Staff reported eight district employees received training in April 2025 from Nick Swanson; trainees included three counselors (Anastasia, Emily and Trixie) and four core freshman teachers (Zeb Lemner, Holly Olting, Heather Wand and Tim Brunkin).

District staff said the initiative is part of the district's MTSS (Multi-Tiered System of Supports) work. The mentors use a monthly monitoring form that tracks attendance, behavior referrals and family/community connections; staff said the form can take 15–20 minutes per student depending on need. Mara, an instructional coach and one of the program mentors, described the program's family communication tools and weekly PLC time during teacher prep when core teachers, counselors, AEA staff and mentors review student progress.

Staff shared early outcome data comparing eighth-grade and current high-school-year measures for the 19 students and said most showed improvement on measures they tracked, though presenters noted many variables affect results. As an example of improved engagement, staff described a case in which a parent contacted a Check and Connect mentor over a weekend and conflict was resolved quickly; another example described a student removed from class who chose to go to a roster teacher/mentor and then returned to class ready to participate.

The district described the program as tier 2 intervention that interfaces with other supports: some students receiving Check and Connect also receive services from the therapeutic classroom, and some therapeutic-classroom students are not in Check and Connect. Presenters said they use data rules developed with social worker Nick Swanson to generate a risk score (an example score was mentioned as 8.2) that helps identify candidates for services.

Presenters said Check and Connect will be scaled deliberately. The district has a waiting list of teachers who want training and aims eventually to broaden the intervention beyond freshmen. Training delivered by Swanson takes two full days (two 8-hour days). District staff expressed interest in automating weekly data pulls so monitoring forms pre-populate and mentors spend less time on manual data entry; staff member Mark has built templates to streamline documentation.

Board members asked about peer mentors; presenters and Mara said peer mentoring (for example through the Lancer Leaders group) is a likely next step and gave one example of a senior who volunteered to mentor underclassmen. Presenters emphasized that onboarding criteria exist and that the district intends to monitor and then exit students from the intervention when data indicate they are ready to be more independent.

The presentation concluded with staff noting the workload for mentors is significant but that early anecdotal and quantitative signals suggest the intervention is beginning to produce benefits for students who received supports.