In October, the Butler staff began a mentoring program that has U.S. Navy personnel from the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve in Belle Chasse visit the school to spend time with troubled students. The idea is to provide students with positive role models from outside the school. The mentors typically spend a day every other week at Butler, working in small groups on conflict resolution, playing games and eating lunch with children.
“A lot of our kids have challenges in their families that they have to deal with, and some don’t have a father figure,” school social worker Niki Madere said. “It’s very important that they have positive male models.”
The program is part of the school’s broader initiative to address behavior and discipline problems that have, in the past, made progress at Butler difficult. Of the 485 students at the school, 90 percent receive a free or discounted lunch, a standard measure of poverty in education circles. The average in Jefferson Parish public schools, is 76 percent, and the state average is 66 percent.