Quitman School District is starting up a new mentor program that will greatly benefit the students and community as a whole. Although the school has had a mentor program set up in the past and witnessed the positive outcomes of it, there has not been a mentor program in place for a few years.
Now, they have developed a new mentor program called QSD Connect Mentoring Program.
“What we’re starting is part of our mission, goal, and vision,” explained Quitman Superintendent Dr. Minnie Dace. “We want to focus on rebuilding, revitalizing, and restoring the Quitman School District to a school of excellence. Our new mission is empowering excellence, and there are a lot of ways to do that. It’s not always just academics. One of the things we’re looking at is implementing a mentoring program. We had a mentor project years ago called Project Score where we had 52 community members that came in and mentored students from the junior high and upper. The high school students served as mentors for students in the upper elementary through a leadership class. It was very positive in creating good communication and building relationships for the students and our community. We no longer have that mentor program. Since Covid, we’ve experienced a lot of students coming back to school with more pressure than ever. The emotional state of mind is important in the success of students and teachers. One of the things ESSER funds allows is for the school to promote social emotional learning and be able to help students be able to recover during and after Covid. We chose to name the new program Quitman School District Connect Mentoring Program because we wanted to keep the main thing: rebuilding, revitalizing, and restoring QSD by empowering excellence in order to reconnect with the community through positive relationships and positive leadership.”
They’ve already acquired an amazing, highly qualified staff that has experience in education to lead the program.
“We have employed two retired teachers,” continued Dr. Dace. “One is Mrs. Daisy McKenzie, a retired English teacher from here. Then we have Mrs. Anita Lee, who is a retired counselor from Lauderdale County and is here now. That was such a win-win for us to have two experienced educators that understand children but also the relationship of building with the community. Mrs. McKenzie will coordinate the program at the junior high, and Ms. Lee will coordinate the program at the upper elementary and alternative school.”
The mentor program will take place during the school day. Students will be pulled from an elective course for only 30 minutes once a week. There are set social emotional learning standards that will be used for the mentor program.
“Last January, the Mississippi Department of Education adopted social emotional learning standards from K through 12,” informed Dr. Dace. “It is now a requirement that it be taught K through 12. We will use MDE standards along with the Casel standards. It’s going to be great.”
They intend to have the program fully going by September 13, and they look forward to the positive connections and outcomes that are inevitable to happen thanks to the mentoring program.
