Check and Connect mentoring program faces staffing cuts as county grant expires; district outlines mitigation steps
Summary
District staff reported mentor staffing for the Check and Connect program fell from 15 to 8 this year, with mentors able to support roughly 25 students each; a Saint Louis County grant that helped fund the program ends this year and the district says it will need budget discussions and alternative strategies to maintain services.
The Duluth Public School District presented an update Thursday on the Check and Connect mentoring program and told the board that mentor staffing has been reduced and outside grant funding is set to expire.
Sarah Lulanen, the district's Check and Connect coordinator, told the board mentor positions fell from 15 to 8, a change that removed mentors from some middle-school preventative work. "We shrunk from 15 to 8," Lulanen said when asked about staffing levels. Program staff estimated an experienced mentor can support roughly 25 students, and site-level caseloads vary: Denfeld currently has about 78 Check and Connect students and East about 27, figures discussed during the meeting.
Board members asked how the district will fill the preventive-support gap at middle schools now that mentor staffing has decreased. District staff said the district is embedding some mentoring strategies into a middle-school advisory model that runs twice weekly and is training integration specialists and homeless/family-liaison staff to provide targeted supports. The district also plans further staffing discussions and said decisions will be informed by principal input and budget priorities.
A funding question underscored urgency: district staff confirmed the program currently receives a Saint Louis County grant that will expire at the end of the year. "The grant that we received from Saint Louis County is in existence for this year. They do expire at the end of this year," a district representative said. Board members asked about advocacy and other grant routes; staff said they will pursue conversations about priorities and budget options.
Board members requested more precise follow-up data, including how many students formerly served at East are no longer receiving services because of the cutbacks; staff said they would return with exact numbers (one staff estimate given in the meeting was roughly 40 students affected by cutbacks). The district also noted plans to train other staff to deliver Check and Connect strategies at elementary levels and to collect data on outcomes.
Next steps: Staff will supply exact rosters and counts requested by board members, provide options for sustaining the program after the county grant ends, and continue conversations about staffing priorities during budget planning.
