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Kalamazoo schools mentors African-American males

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About 180 men who work for Kalamazoo Public Schools will serve as mentors this year to male students.

The Kalamazoo Gazette reports that the program will focus mostly on black students.

The initiative was announced recently by Superintendent Michael Rice, who says he will mentor five students.

He says they have enough mentors for 900 male students, who will meet with their mentors at least once a week.

He is talking to the Kalamazoo Metropolitan Branch of the NAACP and the Northside Ministerial Alliance to recruit even more mentors.

The initiative is designed to help close the performance gap between female and male students, particularly black males.