ALPENA — The Northeast Michigan Community Service Agency School Success program may have started out small 25 years ago, but has grown from being in a couple Alpena schools to 11 counties, according to Program Director Dorothy Pintar.

She said the employees are in place in many districts in the 11-county coverage area and are in place to change the culture of learning to one that is positive for the families of kids who may have difficulties in school.

Pintar said this could be anything from a behavior issue or learning problem that a student or family needs help. She said it is the philosophy to pursue the issue and correct it before it becomes established.

“Just because families and kids are having issues at the moment doesn’t mean they can’t be a productive student or have a positive effect on the school,” she said “We’re trying to build the relationship with the home and the school and the parent and the community.”

Pintar said parents have a large role in the success of a student involved in the program.

“We need them to participate in the program and have an active role in a student’s action plan,” she said. “So for instance we really need parents to come to parent-teacher conferences so they can engage with the teacher understand the difficulties and the positives and the struggles that the student is having.”

Pintar said in her 25 years with the program she has seen it grow tremendously from the four schools it was in when it was first established.

“When I got here I kind of asked about expanding it into other counties,” she said. “It ended up we’re now in 11 counties, 34 schools, working with thousands of students.”

There also is a partnership with schools that help pay half of the program if they have it in their building. Further the programs have shown results for educators, Pintar said.

“It’s a partnership of funding and not one entity is responsible for all of the funding,” she said. “The University of Michigan did a pro bono evaluation of our program and saw something in the program that it was working in helping kids success in school.”

In order to get into the program a person must have a referral. Further the public can refer students they think may be at risk in the program, Pintar said. That can be done through a referral form that is located at www.nemcsa.org.

“The referral can be made by anybody,” she said. “It could be a teacher or a parent, it could be by a community agency. We’re not income based, anyone can be in this program.”

Jason Ogden can be reached via email at jogden@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5693. Follow Jason on Twitter @jo_alpenanews.