Schools look to boost mentor programs

COEUR d'ALENE — Students in Kootenai County will see a boost in access to college and career guidance through Idaho's multi-million dollar investment into adviser and mentor programs.

State Senate Bill 1290 and its companion bill, House Bill 629, direct the State Board of Education to distribute $5 million throughout Idaho school districts, based on enrollment numbers, for the purpose of giving students the "opportunity to identify academic strength, areas in need of improvement and areas of interest for the purpose of making informed choices and setting post-secondary education and career goals." Officials in the Post Falls and Lakeland school districts will likely use the funds to pay for a successful college-planning program already in place in those districts. Coeur d’Alene plans to use the funds to establish a brand new program.

Post Falls School District Superintendent Jerry Keane said he expects his district to receive approximately $80,000 from the state as a result of the bill's passage. It has not yet been determined how exactly those funds will be used, he added.

"But we currently have a Near Peer Counseling program at the high school that has been very successful and ranks high on the list of needs," Keane said.

Keane added the federal grant funding that currently pays for the program's counselors expires at the end of the year.

Post Falls High School Principal Chris Sensel told The Press Friday that his school began its Near Peer program in 2013, and he has received "nothing but positive feedback" from parents and students since it began. Through the program, recent college graduates between the ages of 22 and 26 — as "near" the age of the school's students as possible — serve as peers while high school students navigate through the college application process.

Often, the peers focus on what sort of career a student would like to enter, Sensel said, and then give those students the tools to understand what kind of post-secondary education is needed to achieve their goals. They also aid students in filling out scholarship and federal student aid applications.

"It's been an incredible program," Sensel said. "The number of kids applying for scholarships and FAFSA (free application for federal student aid) has risen dramatically since the start of the program. They (the peers) do a lot to market the idea of going on to college to our students."

The school's traditional counselors, Sensel added, still work with students to create college and career plans. However, Sensel said the peers take some of the responsibility off counselors, who wear a number of hats throughout the school day.

Having the peers on campus to not only offer hyper-focused support to students, but to get to know and mentor the students as well, has had a positive impact on the school as a whole, according to Sensel.

"It's a lot of extra support that our kids deserve," Sensel added.

The Lakeland Joint School District expects to receive approximately $75,000 from the state, according to Superintendent Brad Murray. In an email to The Press, Murray said the majority of the state funds will be used to continue the Near Peer program at Timberlake and Lakeland high schools.

Murray said for the past two years the program has been funded through a federal College Access Challenge Grant. Like Post Falls, the Lakeland district’s federal funding for Near Peer is set to expire at the end of the year.

The Coeur d'Alene School District’s share of the state funding for college and career advisers and student mentors is expected to be $165,000, said Laura Rumpler, the district’s communications director.

Rumpler said that unlike other school districts in Kootenai County, Coeur d’Alene does not currently have a program like Near Peer in place and, as such, the district is waiting on guidance from the State Board of Education on how the funds can be used.

"The State Board will create Idaho Administrative Procedures Act (IDAPA) rules that may include the type of training or professional background a career adviser or student mentor will need to have," Rumpler wrote in an email to The Press.

That guidance, Rumpler added, will likely come in June. But, according to Rumpler, district officials have already begun working with high school administrators to brainstorm the most effective way to integrate mentor-type positions into the district's high schools.

"This is a great opportunity for us to add people as strategic tools to further expand the support we give our students as they expand their opportunities to 'go-on' to college or other professional training," Rumpler wrote. "Our high school counselors wear a myriad of hats supporting students in mapping out graduation requirements, class schedules and providing critical mental health counseling. The passage of Senate Bill 1290 gives us another resource to help bolster support for our students."