In what has become a much-anticipated annual event, children in the district’s five elementary schools start logging their reading hours tomorrow to raise money for School-Force while having fun.  The Reading Power Read-a-thon was started six years ago to support libraries, reading and literacy programs in the district.  Last year the district’s children logged over 650,000 minutes of reading time and raised more than $104,000.  That amount makes Reading Power the second-biggest initiative of the foundation’s fundraising programs as measured by funds raised.  Only the Annual Giving Campaign raises more.

Each school tailors the Read-a-thon to its own site, but most have school-wide competitions recognizing the students who read the most, as well as the classes with the highest participation rate.   The theme this year is
“Fire Up With Reading!” and all schools will have a large paper dragon to display.   The students will decorate the dragon with “scales” that they receive for reaching reading milestones.  Read-a-thon volunteers will use the scales for random drawings, awarding small prizes to the children over the two-week reading period .

 

Themes have varied over the years, but regardless of the theme, the kids are consistently excited about earning leaves, apples or dolphins for display.   Top readers at each school can win bigger prizes such as iPod Nanos or book store certificates.  Last year quite a few classrooms reached 100% participation, earning rewards such as a pizza party or extra recess time.  During the Read-a-thon most schools also have a PJ reading event, when younger students wear PJs to school in the evening for a special read-a-loud hour.

In the past two years many schools have created a “1000 Minute Club” for those children who reach that goal.  While membership in the “club” typically rewards students with a certificate, a photograph or maybe a special movie event, the children feel extremely proud to have read so much. 

The program has received kudos from both teachers and parents for encouraging the students to read.   Some teachers use the Reading Power log instead of their regular reading log for the week.   Many parents have commented how they don’t need to encourage their children to read during the Read-a-thon—the kids just do it!  Cipriani fourth-grader Nick DalPorto won one of the top reading prizes as a first grader. His mom Jaime tells us that he voluntarily gave up TV for the two weeks, so he’d have more time to read. (In fact, today he continues to set reading goals for himself and gives up free time and activities like watching TV to meet them.) She also feels that the extra reading time has boosted his reading skills.  Organizers of the Read-a-thon over the years have heard similar comments many times.

Unlike other School-Force fundraisers, the Read-a-thon does not rely primarily on parental giving.    Rather, it empowers children to help their school while also having fun and improving their reading skills.  It also provides an opportunity for parents to reach out to caring friends, extended relations and neighbors, who often welcome the chance to both encourage a child to read and to support his or her education financially.  Grandparents tend to be especially responsive.  For example one family at Cipriani has collected about $1000 each of the last two years, thanks in large part to one particularly generous set of grandparents. Most of the other donations this family collected, from aunts, uncles, other grandparents and friends, ranged from $20 to $50.

If each elementary school family secures the same level as giving last year and also identifies just one more $50 sponsor, the Read-a-thon could raise an additional $75,000.   So, do what you can to encourage your child to read and have fun and please help them to find sponsors to support their efforts.  To see a sample letter your child could send to a relative asking for sponsorship, please click here. 

Reading can be logged through 3/19.  Reading logs, sponsor sheets and pledges are due by 3/24.

Huge thanks to Wells Fargo Bank for its generous $6,000 donation to sponsor Reading Power this year!

 

Let’s Fire Up with Reading!

 

 

 

At 8:45 a.m., the Central Elementary School library is peaceful yet inviting.  The seating areas are tidy and the floor cushions plumped up. Bright posters highlighting the latest award-winning children’s literature decorate the walls. And the books, all 8,000 of them, are in order. Classes will troop in all day for out-loud story sessions and independent browsing and reading. Dozens of students will visit during recess or lunchtime to play chess, read, or just decompress.

Patty Branscum, Central’s library media specialist, is at the ready to make recommendations or guide students to books on topics from art to zoology. When she’s not helping students face-to-face, she’s operating behind the scenes, checking in the dozens of books returned daily and reshelving each to await the next eager reader.

The scene at Central is similar at each of the five elementary schools and one middle school of the Belmont-Redwood Shores School District, in which almost 3,000 students currently enjoy the invaluable benefits of an on-site library. Funded by School Force and parcel taxes, the libraries bear heavy and regular use.  

 

 

Current funding of $180,000 from School Force and $56,700 from parcel taxes supports the district’s library staff of five, down from six last year.  The numbers reflect an unfortunate national trend:  According to a recent national survey by the American Association of School Librarians, most of the 5,824 respondents reported a budget decline in 2008 from the prior year. And last fall, according to a report prepared by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a research group in Washington, D.C., 25 states cut funding to primary and secondary education, a move that impacts school libraries.

Even a temporary loss of a school library erodes students’ educational experience. Consider the Folsom Cordova Unified School District outside Sacramento: As budget woes cascaded down the system, the district’s 28 libraries were closed for about two months last fall. Without school libraries, students had to scramble for transportation to the public libraries, recalls one parent and administrator in the Folsom district.  The closings especially affected the elementary students, she adds, because as beginning and emerging readers, those students benefit the most from easy and regular access to books.  “Parental feedback was not positive,” she says.  Ultimately, the Folsom district’s libraries re-opened later in the fall, but they don’t operate for as many hours a week as they did the prior school year.

The Belmont-Redwood Shores district hasn’t had to close any of its libraries yet. Following the departure of one fellow staffer, some of the five remaining library media specialists this year have picked up the slack by floating between two libraries. The upshot: Because they are spreading themselves thinner, hours and services simply can’t be what they were in the past.

Only Sandpiper and Ralston, the two schools with the largest enrollments, continue to open their libraries five days a week. The remaining libraries this year are open either four or three days a week, down from five last year. Despite each school’s increased enrollment, every class continues to visit the library once a week, the same frequency as in the past, so outsiders might easily assume that students aren’t feeling any impact.  But the staffing and scheduling changes this year mean something’s got to give, and so students miss out in other ways.  At Nesbit, for example, Ms. Cutter works four days a week from 9:00 to 2:45, overseeing 24 classes weekly, up 33% from 18 classes a year ago, when the library was open every day.  More classes packed into fewer days leaves Ms. Cutter with less time to plan and prepare lessons on important skills students need now and in the future, such as using browsing and search software and locating individual books.

Likewise, Ms. Branscum, who splits her time between Central and Cipriani, hasn’t yet been able to plan and prepare lessons that review the ideas students hear from their classroom teachers. In the past, for instance, Ms. Branscum has reviewed with students the uses of varied reference materials, including the atlas, dictionary, thesaurus, and encyclopedia. “They hear this in the classroom, but it’s helpful to them to hear it repeated” in another setting and from another person, she says.

Instead, the library media specialists say, when they’re not reading to classes, helping individual students, and checking books out, they’re running the crucial day-to-day operations such as checking books in and reshelving. Some tasks, including repairing books and weeding out those that are fragile, out-of-date, or just plain musty, are being postponed. Staffers have also been putting off ordering new books, a time-consuming job that requires research and consultation with teachers. It’s also far more difficult to do the extras that make the library special, such as putting up seasonal wall decorations in a timely manner. “It feels like we’re doing the bare minimum,” says Ms. Cutter.

Yet despite the challenges, the staff remains determined to keep building up students’ appreciation of books and libraries.  “The kids are always smiling when they come in,” says Ms. Branscum. “They love it here.”  Adds Ms. Cutter:  “To see a child just sitting down and reading … it’s the best.”   With the support of School Force, library staff, teachers, and parents can all hope that the school library will stay a part of every student’s life.