• A program that has been successful at lowering chronic absenteeism may lose its state funding
• State officials say the program is redundant with another service, though school officials disagree
• The fight is on to restore the $1.5 million in funding in the 2026-27 budget

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OSSINEKE — In a rare break from her work as a School Success liaison at Sanborn Elementary, Lisa Werth laughs when asked what she does all day. She picks lice out of hair, comforts kids whose parents are getting divorced, supervises reading lessons, finds transportation for those who can’t get to school and hands out more Slim Jims and granola bars than she can count.

She’s not a teacher, counselor or school employee. But the work she and colleagues do at more than 50 schools in the northeast Lower Peninsula is succeeding where the state has struggled:

Increasing school attendance.

The School Success Partnership program is credited with improving grades among vulnerable students by serving as a bridge between schools, families and community services in 12 counties. 

Hailed as a model program, it’s facing drastic cuts: Almost half its funding comes from a $1.5 million allocation from the state that is absent from the proposed 2026-27 budgets of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the House or the Senate. 

Related:

• Gov Whitmer vows to boost literacy in Michigan. Here’s where we stand
• Michigan K-12 crisis: state slow to respond as kids miss school, scores fall 
• Up North Michigan, schools struggle between pull of home and promise of college

Local officials point to what they consider the irony of a state that is struggling to improve literacy defunding a program that data indicate is working.

“Who’s going to do this” if the program is downsized, asked Kori Knudson, principal at Sanborn Elementary, a rural school about 13 miles south of Alpena. “It makes such a difference when we build these relationships with families, when we can help regulate students.

“How can we do all that work?”

Higher attendance, higher grades

Among 20 elementary schools with School Success liaisons based in their buildings, 16 had chronic absenteeism rates below the state K-5 average of 24.7% in 2024-25, according to a Bridge Michigan analysis of the most recent data available.

Onaway Elementary School, in Presque Isle County, went from 20.6% chronic absenteeism rate in 2023-24 to 12.8% the following year when a school success partnership liaison was placed in the school.

Higher attendance means higher grades, said Tina Williams, director of Alternative Education of Iosco County & Ogemaw County, which houses three School Success liaisons across four sites.

“If your body is in school, we’re going to be able to help you move forward academically,” Williams said. “If you’re not coming in, we have very little control over what we can do to help a student.”

The program, operated through the nonprofit Northeast Michigan Community Service Agency, does what school officials don’t have time to do — work intensely with at-risk students and families, inside and outside of school.

“We remove the barriers to be able to work with the family first, get their basic needs met, so they can focus on their child,” said Dorothy Pintar, longtime director of the School Success Partnership program. 

The program started in 1991 in Alpena Public Schools and has expanded rapidly in the past two decades as Michigan’s test scores plummeted. The last time Michigan’s fourth graders scored above the national average in reading was 2003. In the most recent national test, Michigan ranked 44th, and poor school attendance is considered by experts to be one of the primary causes.

According to the most recent data, Michigan had the highest rate of chronic absenteeism in the Midwest, with more than a quarter (28%) of students missing 10% or more of school days.

Werth, the program supervisor who is also serving as the liaison at Sanborn, attends soccer games and doctor’s appointments of children she’s working with.

“It’s not just the student,” Werth said. “We work with the family, because if you don’t take care of the family, the student’s not going to win.”

On a recent Friday, Werth put food in the lockers of students so they wouldn’t go hungry over the weekend and worked with a student on a classroom assignment in the hallway.

“They do all the things between classroom and home that maybe a teacher can’t tackle because we want them to teach and maybe an administrator can’t fully tackle either,” Knudson said.

State switches gears

In a statement to Bridge, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services defended the defunding, saying School Success is redundant with a program expected to expand statewide this summer.

That program, called Family Impact Team, embeds family resource specialists with child protection and foster care staffers to connect families with social services like Medicaid.

The $26 million program currently operates in 72 counties, primarily those not now being served by School Success.

“Both (programs) take a preventative approach to help stabilize families before a severe crisis may occur,” the statement said.

While both programs work to support at-risk children and their families, there are significant differences. 

Grand Traverse County is one of the few counties currently served by both programs. 

Traverse City Superintendent John VanWagoner told Bridge Michigan he’d not had contact with any employees of the Family Impact Team in the six years he’s been the leader of the 8,600 student district, while the School Success liaison officers housed in four of the district’s elementary schools see hundreds of students annually.

VanWagoner was familiar with the School Success program from his time as superintendent in Alpena, and asked the northeast Michigan-based program to expand to Traverse City.

“It’s a critical program that helps a ton of northern Michigan students,” VanWagoner said. “When we’re trying to improve third-grade reading scores, living in poverty often makes that a struggle. This is one of the key things we’ve had success with.”

Slipping scores

Education has become a major issue in the November election to select the state’s next governor, and Whitmer says improving literacy is her top priority for her last year in office.

Only 25% of Michigan fourth graders were deemed proficient in the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress, compared to 30% nationally.

Several educators told Bridge that downsizing the School Success program would add to the challenges of rural northern Michigan students, who typically have fewer Advanced Placement courses and career tech offerings.

Northeast Michigan is one of the two regions of the state with the lowest college enrollment and college readiness scores as measured by the SAT, according to an analysis conducted by the Michigan College Access Network. 

Just over half, 51.2%, of high school grads enroll in college within 12 months in this region of forests and rivers, compared to 59% statewide.

Alpena parent Taylor Schuch said the program was a life-changer for her daughter, who came into kindergarten with behavioral issues and now is a straight-A fifth grader.

Lisa Werth, the liaison who works with her family, “has brought in food and … helped at Christmas,” Schuch said. 

“I cannot imagine her excelling like she is now (without School Success). The relationship is more than faculty, it’s like family. It cannot be matched.”

An hour south in Tawas City, 17-year-old Bella Verdusco says she probably would have quit school if not for her relationship with Madison Nachtrieb, the School Success liaison at Alternative Education of Iosco County & Ogemaw County.

“You ask for help, and she says ‘What do you need? I’m here to help you,” Verdusco said. 

“These guys just need love,” said Tina Williams, director at the alternative school in Tawas City where Verdusco is a student. “They need those relationships, they need a chance to build trust again, because a lot of times in their past they’ve had adults that have hurt them and they’ve learned that they can’t trust. It is challenging, but it’s not impossible.”

Williams said it would be “devastating” if her students didn’t have easy access to School Success liaisons.

“We want our teachers to teach,” Williams said. “They look at academics. School Success deals with the non-academic barriers that affect academic success.”

An ally in Lansing?

Three years ago, the School Success Program won a 2023 Governor’s Service Award for its work with youth, with the award presented to Pintar by Whitmer.

Now, the $3.4 million program faces a crippling decline in funding that would likely force Pintar to lay off employees and pull out of some schools.

Pintar said she will ask schools to expand their contributions, which now total 47% of costs. Several school leaders who spoke to Bridge said additional school funding is unlikely.

Pintar and Traverse City’s VanWagoner told Bridge they are pleading with legislators for more money — and may have an ally in Rep. John Roth.

“There’s a misunderstanding of what all the program is,” said the Interlochen Republican who chairs the committee that oversees the Department of Health and Human Services’ budget. “It’s kind of a community action agency that maneuvers along with schools.

“I’m going to put it on my list for one-time funding,” Roth said.

Lawmakers are expected to approve the budget, which likely will tally about $80 billion, by September. In the meantime, Pintar is scrambling to apply for grants in hopes of salvaging as much of the program as possible.

“We’re just a small little blip, a small little item on the (budget),” she said. “It’s going to be really emotional for the kids and the parents and tough for the teachers, too.”

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