Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Prairie Grove aims to foster love for reading with program
PRAIRIE GROVE — Prairie Grove schools have distributed more than 2,000 books to families in the community through a “One School, One Book” reading event to help foster a love of reading among students.
Cindy Love, the district’s K-12 reading specialist, recently updated the Prairie Grove School Board on how the district is using a $200,000 SOAR grant from the Arkansas Department of Education. SOAR stands for Successful Outcomes for Arkansas Readers.
Love said the district is using the two-year grant to sharpen instruction and focus to improve literacy scores and to connect families and schools through a reading initiative.
“We’re just trying to get our kids to love to read,” Love said at the March 14 board meeting.
Love said the district is using the One School, One Book reading program from an organization called Read to Them, which believes that reading aloud to children can change their future. The program brings schools and families together by everyone reading the same book.
Love said middle school and junior high students are finishing up their reading event and the initiative at the elementary school will start March 27.
The book, “Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library,” was sent home with middle school students, and the book, “Fish in a Tree,” was sent home with junior high students. Students and their families could read the book together over a period of about four to six weeks.
Elementary students and their families will read the book “Brambleheart,” and students can turn in a weekly reading log to get chances to win prizes.
Older students were able to win prizes through social media posts.
Love said teachers, families and students have been excited about the program and she hopes to expand it to all grades next year.
She added that library media specialists and the school parent teacher organizations were paramount in the success of One School, One Book, as well as community support. Businesses displayed the books for visibility and also donated prizes for students, Love said.
In other news, the board approved a recommendation from Tracie Ashley, president of the personnel policy committee, for the 2023-24 school year calendar. Ashley said staff unanimously wanted a “blind vote” so certified and classified employees used paper ballots without their names in voting for the calendar options.
Of the options, 79% voted for Option C, compared to 21% in favor of Option A, Ashley said.
The board approved Option C. The first day of school for students will be Aug. 15, and the last day will be May 24, 2024. The calendar has a week off for Thanksgiving, two weeks for Christmas break, a week for Spring Break, plus other days off during the school year. It also includes five snow makeup days.
Pete Joenks, interim superintendent of schools, said the new LEARNS Act passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor does not allow schools to use alternative methods of instruction days next year, so any days missed because of weather will have to be made up.
In other action, the board approved purchasing the following:
• 103 teacher laptops from Dell Technologies for $68,721 with the assistance of a grant from the federal Emergency Connectivity Fund.
• Eight radar speed signs from Radarsign LLC for $34,424 with the assistance of a COPS grant (Community Oriented Policing Services). The signs will be placed in partnership with the city in school zones.
• A school bus and student tracking system from TransAct Communications for $42,200, with the assistance of a COPS grant. This system will help the district in creating more efficient bus routes, providing information to bus drivers on students and providing information to school secretaries.
The board opened its meeting by recognizing the junior high boys basketball team. The team ended the year with a 23-2 record. It won the Ozark tournament, Bi-County tournament, conference and district tournament.