In honor of National Mentoring Month the St. Mary’s County Board of Education paid homage recently to the school system’s mentoring program. The Future Leaders of the World (FLOW) Mentoring Program, now in its fifth year, has shown positive results, according to Sarah Taylor, the school system’ s supervisor of the program.
According to data presented by Taylor, FLOW Mentoring is in 17 elementary schools, four middle schools and all three high schools. In the 2012-13 school year, 250 students were matched with community or teacher mentors. In that school year, 120 community volunteers matched with student mentees and there were 43 trained and paid site leaders and teacher mentors. Since 2008, 1,270 students have participated in the program.
The school board was informed that last year 63 percent of mentees increased or maintained their Grade Point Average, 57 percent improved or maintained school attendance and discipline referrals for the group as a whole decreased by 35 percent. Teachers reported that more than 60 percent of FLOW mentees showed improvements in “Attitude, Behavior and Social Skills.”
The public schools and FLOW will host their 6th Annual FLOW Mentor and Site Appreciation Reception on Monday January 13th from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Student school board member Peter Widmayer has been a mentee and mentor. The Chopticon High School junior told the school board that of all the activities in his busy schedule he holds most dear his regular middle school mentoring.
The school board at their January 8th meeting honored five mentoring site leaders who go “Above and Beyond” in their roles: Gina Bonsignore at Mechanicsville E.S., Lisa McCoy at George Washington Carver E.S., David Morris at Hollywood E.S., Beejay Dothard at Spring Ridge M.S., and Antone Smith at Chopticon H.S.
