Lawmaker says Chapel Hill-Carrboro dismantling mentoring program. School system says no.
A state lawmaker says the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school district is dismantling a student mentoring program he ran for 16 years before joining the legislature.
The district disagrees.
Rep. Graig R. Meyer, a Chapel Hill Democrat who represents the 50th District, took to social media this week to rally support for the program, which has served students of color since 1995.
The Blue Ribbon Mentor-Advocate Program provides mentorship, tutoring, volunteer opportunities, college visits and scholarships. Mentors and students partner as early as fourth grade, with the idea that they will maintain this relationship through postsecondary education. Mentors and staff also partner with parents of participants.
Both of Susan Headen’s sons met their mentors in fourth grade, and both sons have maintained those relationships past high school graduation.
“It is a superb program,” Headen said. “Both of my sons benefited, and I did too.”
“It created a bridge between two very different families,” she explained. “I’m the working poor, and they’re doctors. They were able to help me in the places I wasn’t equipped.”
Headen’s younger son, Alan Headen, is an engineering student at N.C. Agricultural and Technical State University, and his mentor still calls him to talk through selecting classes and meeting with professors. Alan’s mentor was with him for eight years of academics, but he also taught Alan skills like hiking, skiing and wilderness survival. Headen said the two families regularly spent holidays together.
“They’re an extension of our family,” Alan said.
Mentors and students are matched based on common interests, and Alan said he and his mentor share a fascination with science. He also appreciated the opportunity to volunteer through the program.
“It really lets you give back to the community,” Alan said. “We’ve done service projects and found ways to support minority owned businesses.”
Meyer, who ran the program from 1998 to 2014, released an open letter to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro community Monday pleading for continued investment.
“For about five years, the program has been neglected by district leadership,” he wrote. “For much of that time there has not been a program coordinator. The staff has shrunk. Grant funding has been lost. Scholarship funds have dwindled as there has been only limited capacity for fundraising.”
In addition, his letter says, the program’s website has been reduced to a single page on the district’s website which was inaccessible during recruiting season, transportation has been eliminated, and the cost of the program’s spring break trip has been transferred to the students.
Headen says the program hasn’t had a dedicated director in years, which she sees as the root of the problem. Without a director to spearhead fundraising, she said scholarships for the participants have dropped from several thousand dollars to just a few hundred.
These changes have been made, Meyer’s letter said, despite the success of the program.
“Perhaps they are unaware that a UNC School of Education evaluation found that the program has a 97.5 percent high school graduation rate and that 100 percent of those students enrolled in some type of post-secondary education,” Meyer’s letter said.
Reached by phone, Meyer said has been privately speaking up for the program for years but declined to comment beyond the letter.
Mike Andrews was inspired to volunteer for the program when he saw the relationship his daughter, a mentor, built with her mentee.
Andrews started mentoring the brother of his daughter’s mentee when he was in fourth grade. Today, Andrews’ mentee, whose parents didn’t speak English when he joined the program, is a junior in high school who is passionate about making schools safer. He serves on a student advisory panel for Sandy Hook Promise, advising decision-makers on student safety.
“That wouldn’t have happened without this program,” Andrews said. “And I don’t necessarily mean my mentorship. I mean the entire infrastructure.”
Andrews said he once suggested creating an advisory board for the program, but was told the district didn’t want one.
“It’s really clear that there’s been a decrease in administrative support of the program,” Andrews said. “What is the school system proposing to replace it?”
School board responds
The Chapel Hill-Carborro school board released its own letter Wednesday.
“The program is not being dismantled,” it said.
Instead, a version of the program will be housed in a “newly organized Office of Equity and Inclusion with some BRMA personnel located in our schools to strengthen outreach.”
Jeff Nash, schools spokesman, said money from the district, one of several funding sources for the program, hasn’t changed and the district wants to increase the number of students served.
“We’re feeling a little blindsided,” Nash said. “There’s all this talk of ‘you’re chopping this program off at the knees,’ and that’s not what’s happening.”
Lee Williams, executive director of Equity Affairs for the district, will take control of the program in July. Williams said there has never been any conversation about letting the program die.
“When Graig Meyer went to run for office, some of the funding and donations went with him,” Williams said.
Williams said he plans to look at all the ways the program has raised money in the past and brainstorm ways to increase funding in the right ways.
“I’m not saying anyone has done it incorrectly,” he said. “But I’m a stickler.”
The change will help expand the number of students served and increase the diversity among the mentors, the district’s letter said.
“District administration and our board recognize the importance of communicating plans as BRMA continues to be an important part of our toolkit for improving outcomes for all students,” the letter read.
The program currently has 108 students and 93 mentors, Williams said. He also noted the study Meyer’s letter cited was from 2012 and that Meyer’s letter said there were 112 students in the program.
“No one has ever disputed what has been done, but that doesn’t mean we can’t expand,” Williams said. “We are keeping the fabric and bones of BRMA, the mentorship and enrichments, but how can we reach more kids?”
Headen plans to advocate for a dedicated director and more investment in the program at upcoming board meetings. The school board is next scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. Thursday at Lincoln Center at 750 S. Merritt Mill Road in Chapel Hill for a budget work session.
“This is the only program that children of color benefit from,” Headen said. “There is nothing else they do for these kids. As a parent, I can tell you that it’s not fair.”
This story was originally published March 6, 2019 at 2:28 PM.
