Club M will lose considerable state funding; asks Mt. Pleasant School Board for help

By BROOKS TAYLOR

Mt. Pleasant News

Cassie Gerst is being proactive.

Faced with the challenge of losing 50 percent or more of her Club M program funding, Gerst is appealing to the Mt. Pleasant and Winfield-Mt. Union School boards for funding to continue the program.

Club M, a youth mentoring program based in Mt. Pleasant, has been in existence for nine years. Gerst is the coordinator of the program whose mission is to ?positively impact the lives of young people in Henry County by providing adult support and learning opportunities that promote character development and life-enhancing values.?

The program matches students in grades K-12 with mentor volunteers. A number of the volunteers are Iowa Wesleyan College students and others are community adults.

Gerst made her funding appeal to the Mt. Pleasant School Board Monday night. She did not ask for a specific amount. In her presentation, she noted that Club M has received between $110,000-$130,000 annually from the Iowa Department of Public Health, ?but they said our funding would be cut in half. We?re just being proactive and asking now,? Gerst stated.

Since its inception in 2006, Club M has provided mentoring matches for over 400 youth in the county. The club follows established policies and procedures based on evidence-based best practices in mentoring as outlined in ?Elements of Effective Practices for Mentoring.?

In a 2014 survey, Club M learned that 70 percent of its mentees had improved academically; 60 percent reported increased school functioning (i.e., prepared for school, ability to avoid delinquencies, attitude toward school); 65 percent reported improved interpersonal skills; 72 percent demonstrated an increase in intrapersonal skills; and 78 percent showed an increased interest and involvement in new hobbies.

During the current school year, 57 percent of the mentees are from the Mt. Pleasant Community School District, 27 percent are from Winfield-Mt. Union, 12 percent from New London and 3 percent from WACO.

There are 113 mentoring matches this year, down slightly from 145 last year. Club M?s highest mentoring matches were in 2011-12 with 146.

Some 70 percent of the mentors this year are Iowa Wesleyan College students. Ten percent of IWC student mentors volunteer without course credit and 20 percent are return mentors. High-school students account for 27 percent of the mentors with the remaining 3 percent coming from the community.

Due to the possible funding cuts, Club M reduced its fiscal 2016 budget to $62,575, nearly a 50-percent drop from its current $93,306.

Gerst said she would not know how much state funding Club M receives for the next fiscal year until the coming spring.

The school board will be looking for a new member as Michelle Skubal announced her resignation effective following the meeting. Skubal, who is serving her first term on the board, cited health issues in her resignation letter. The board thanked her for her service and said it will seek applicants who later will be interviewed by the board. No timetable was established to fill the position.

Directors approved membership on a 45-person committee to study district facilities. The committee is comprised of administrators, school staff, parents and patrons.

?We still have the same needs as before,? Superintendent Dr. Mike Wells told the board. ?We can bond up to $12 million and will bond as much of the sales tax as we can.?

Most of the facilities needs that will be revisited were included in a $17M bond referendum, which was overwhelmingly defeated in September 2014.

The board hosted a public hearing and later adopted the 2015-16 school calendar. The calendar calls for school to begin Aug. 17 and dismiss for Christmas vacation Dec. 22. The second semester begins Jan. 4, 2016, and the last day of classes is set for May 17, 2016.

However, the dates are dependent on the district receiving an early-start waiver (state law says school can start no earlier than the week of Sept. 1, but the state has granted waivers in the past) from the Iowa Department of Education. The department said it will be cracking down on granting waivers this year and that a reason was needed for wanting to start school early.

?If it (waiver) is denied, we will come back to the table,? Wells said.

Personnel matter saw contracts approved for Ruth Sunderland, high school at-risk para-eductor; Isabel Sanchez, food service (2.5 hours per day); and Lonnie Jones, high school night custodian.

Cadey Nichting?s resignation as high school one-on-one para-educator was accepted.

Finally, the board:

? Approved a contract with Henderson Photography, Inc., d/b/aStudio K, to be the sole provider of school portrait services for the district, its students and staff. Studio K was also the provider last year, winning the bidding process. This year, bids were not solicited, Wells said.

? Appointed Lonny Morrow as the school board member on the master-contract negotiations team.

School board members meet again in regular session Monday, Feb. 9, at 7 p.m. in the high school media center.