Mentors and community members urge stronger support for Blue Ribbon Mentor Advocate program

Several community members used the public-comment period to praise district arts programming and to press the board for concrete action on mentoring and early-childhood supports.

Brenda Whiteman, the district arts coordinator, invited trustees to arts events across the district and highlighted an honor-band collaboration that drew 44 district students. Dozens of other arts and choral events were listed for the coming months.

Multiple Blue Ribbon Mentor Advocate volunteers and mentors asked the board to provide clearer follow-up on the program. Dr. Janice Dodds said she has mentored for seven years and raised concerns about broken feedback loops: "There seems to be no reporting back about issues presented... I don't understand why there isn't a board member assigned to report back to the board about issues presented during this comment period," she said, adding that social workers had identified 20 students who needed mentors but training and matching had not happened.

Chris Castellano, a Blue Ribbon mentor, described the program’s services and urged community members to sign up: "We are currently in need of 23 members to be new mentors. New training and matches will happen in January," he said.

Board response: Trustees thanked the commenters, acknowledged the program’s history in the district and asked administration to provide a status report and clearer communication back to the community on mentoring recruitment, training and matches.

What’s next: The board requested that administration provide a detailed update on the Blue Ribbon program’s staffing, current mentor numbers, training schedule and a plan for assigning board follow-up.