State education official visits Perham school to highlight student support program

Heart of the Lakes Elementary used a visit from Minnesota Department of Education Deputy Commissioner Maren Hulden to put its student-support model on display and test how well Perham’s approach holds up beyond district lines.

Hulden visited the school on Tuesday, May 12, giving staff and students a chance to showcase what Perham-Dent Public Schools says is happening inside the building, with a particular emphasis on ADSIS support. ADSIS, short for Alternative Delivery of Specialized Instructional Services, is the state’s funding and application process that helps districts and charter schools provide academic and behavioral interventions for students who need extra support to succeed in general education. The program is also meant to reduce inappropriate referrals to special education by identifying needs earlier.

That makes the visit more than a ceremonial stop for a district of just over 1,800 students spread across four schools in the Lakes Country of north-central Minnesota, about 70 miles east of Fargo, North Dakota. Perham-Dent’s message was clear: Heart of the Lakes Elementary is not just another building in town, but a central part of Perham and the surrounding communities, and the school wanted state officials to see how its support system is working in real time.

Hulden’s role at the Department of Education helps explain the attention. The agency says she serves as deputy commissioner and oversees Student Support Services, Educational Opportunity, Teaching and Learning, the Office of the Chief Operating Officer, and the divisions of Government Relations and Communications. That portfolio puts her squarely over the areas most tied to the kind of intervention work Perham highlighted.

The district also identified several people in a photo from the visit, including Superintendent Mitch Anderson, parent Kelly Achterling, Brooklyn Thompson, Keshia Fulford, Hannah Frink, Erin Spies and Hulden. That mix of administrators, family members and school staff suggests the stop was meant to show both the mechanics of the program and the community behind it.

For Perham, the larger question is whether the support model can show measurable results that other rural districts can sustain. The state’s interest in ADSIS centers on early academic and behavioral intervention, but local districts still have to prove those services are not just well-intentioned, but effective enough to justify continued funding and expansion.