The reading hours have been counted, and Caldwell Heights stood above the rest, Round Rock ISD elementary students were challenged to a district-wide school reading competition, and Caldwell Heights Elementary School stood above the rest.
The number of hours read at each elementary school was calculated in relation to the school’s student population in order to fairly judge the participation despite varying school sizes.
Caldwell Heights won the $1,000 prize for the summer reading contest with a total of 944.5 reading hours among 628 students, which relates to 150 percent participation. Gomer Kirk was the top student reader.
“Our job is to really maximize kid’s learning and we do that every day,” said Barbara Bergman, Caldwell Heights principal. “Reading is such an essential skill. We want kids to get better at reading and really fall in love with the practice.”
Caldwell Heights staff encouraged students to participate by reaching out to parents and sending home reading logs. Bergman said there were many students who went above and beyond the 1,000 minute goal, equaling over 16 hours, which certainly helped push the school to first place.
To further encourage students to read during the next summer break, Bergman has plans to contact the Texas State Governor’s office to award certificates for students who completed the reading goal.
The second place prize of $500 was awarded to Pond Springs Elementary School who completed 798.5 reading hours among 641 students, which translates to 125 percent participation. Naomi Sheppard was the top reader.
The Pond Springs library was open for six Wednesdays over the summer for students to check out new books and come together as a community. Each week there were 50 to 70 people during the library hours, Pond Springs Elementary principal Edie Binns said.
“I’m so excited and proud of my kids and campus,” Binns said. “I’m especially appreciative of my librarian and all my teachers who came up during the summer to be here and be present during summer library hours.”
Teravista Elementary was awarded the $200 third place prize for reading 1,000.25 hours among 824 students, which is 121 percent participation. Phillip Wong was the top reader at Teravista over the summer break.
Teravista Elementary Principal Kristina Snow encouraged summer reading through parent reminders in the electronic newsletters and provided reading logs to every student before the last day of school.
“I’m really proud that the children took their own learning seriously. They read over the summer and that’s huge,” Snow said. “The award is nice, but what’s more important is the reason we got the award.”
