LPOSD welcomes reading program

SAGLE - Kindergarten teacher Marril Valle hopes a new volunteer reading program will help children in Southside Elementary's lower grades become better readers.

After learning about the success of AmeriCorps' America Reads program from a teacher friend in Kootenai County, Valle submitted an application to bring the program to her school.

This is the first entrance of America Reads in the Lake Pend Oreille School District.

It helped that Southside had a volunteer parent - Sue Lockie - who was willing to coordinate and stay with the program. Lockie has a son who attends fourth grade at Southside.

A coordinator must agree to stay with the program for three years, find volunteers willing to work with the students and help set it up in another school.

It is believed that struggling readers in grades K-3 who receive an additional 30 minutes of reading assistance a week will become proficient readers, said Lockie.

“I enjoy getting books into their hands,” Lockie said.

So far, nine volunteers work with 24 students. The volunteers are paired with the students based upon each child's specific needs and their own strengths, she said.

“I don't know if people understand what kind of impact they can make with a half hour a week,” Valle said.

Southside Elementary School has a strong volunteer corps of parents, grandparents and community members who help with everything from school fundraisers to assisting teachers in the classroom.

Those volunteers who help with reading often find that they enjoy doing so much that they take on other responsibilities, Lockie said.

Studies indicate that those children who are reading below grade level in grades K-3, but receive additional help can make up that gap, she said.

Although focus is on grades K-3, older students also have benefit from the program, she said.

Lockie also has worked with Verizon to bring its Heart reader program to Southside. Students are given books that they can take home to build their own libraries.

She also coordinated a book drive through the Boys Scouts food drive for the Bonner Community Food Bank this past fall and hopes it will become a permanent part of the drive.

It takes a person with special skills to coordinate the program and Lockie has those skills, said Southside principal Pat Valliant.

A Vista coordinator needs to work well with people and be a self-starter who is willing to develop the program, Valle added.

The program hasn't always worked in some places, usually because a coordinator did not have the kind of skill set needed for the position.

Lockie received a stipend from the program and at the end of her stint, which cannot last more than five years total, can receive money to attend college.

Her primary goal, however, is to make sure that the program becomes sustainable in the Lake Pend Oreille School District.