Survey shows declines in early substance use but flags a sharp 10th‑grade vaping spike, district prevention lead says

Ashley Gleason, the district’s student wellness coordinator and prevention specialist, told the Gwinn Area Community Schools board that results from the 2025 Communities That Care (CTC) youth survey show meaningful declines in early substance use but also emerging risks that warrant targeted action.

“I’m a student wellness coordinator at Marquette, I’m an educator, I’m a prevention specialist,” Gleason said, introducing the district‑specific analysis drawn from a county dataset narrowed to 208 Gwinn students. She told the board the survey meets reliability thresholds and is used to guide prevention programming, grant writing and MTSS decisions.

Gleason highlighted three takeaways. First, middle‑school substance use has fallen and students are starting substance use later — a trend she described as a strong predictor of long‑term success. Second, protective factors are robust: “75% of our students report strong family attachment,” Gleason said, and other measures of connection, positive peers and adult support are solid. Third, she said, the district faces emerging problem areas in high school: “21% of our 12th graders do report being drunk or high at school,” and vaping remains present at all grade levels.

Gleason singled out a sharp increase among 10th graders: “We went from 6.5% in 2023 to 27.9%” for vaping in the 10th‑grade cohort, a change she said requires targeted prevention. She also flagged that favorable attitudes toward drugs among younger students — roughly 15% of sixth graders in an elevated risk category — represent an early risk factor to watch.

The presentation described the district’s multi‑tiered approach: tier‑1 schoolwide supports (PBIS), tier‑2 targeted interventions and restorative practices, plus wraparound services for students who show early risk signs. Gleason said program decisions are data‑driven and updated biennially: “We use student data to make decisions and then adjust it over time every two years as we re‑evaluate what that data looks like.”

Board members responded with approval for continued work on prevention and MTSS alignment. Gleason recommended focused high‑school interventions and sustained funding for targeted programming, noting that products and usage patterns for vaping change quickly and require ongoing adaptation of prevention materials.

The district will include the full survey report in the board packet and follow up with staff on grant proposals and specific intervention plans tied to the 2025 results.