SALAMANCA — Students of the elementary and intermediate schools in Salamanca received a special visit last week from Salamanca City Central School District staff with the initiation of the Great School Book Delivery.
“It was incredible,” said Gayle Pavone, principal at Prospect Elementary. “Anytime kids can get extra books is a good thing.”
From Aug. 1 to 3, staff from Prospect Elementary and Seneca Intermediate schools delivered to students in kindergarten through seventh grade a pack of 10 books that included fun activities for students and their families, a letter from their newly assigned classroom teacher and basic information for the upcoming school year.
“We had a phenomenal amount of teachers involved in the process,” Pavone said. “And that personal connection that everyone was able to make before school starts is huge.”
Staff delivered books throughout the day and into early evening, depending on the teacher’s availability and schedule. Pavone said the teachers partnered up and used a map of the city to see where in the district their students lived so they could plan out their route.
“Some of the outskirts I had done by our art teacher and our family support worker just so it would become more manageable,” she added.
If no one answered the door, the teacher left a note so families could contact the school office to pick up their pack of books. Some kids who attended Camp Scholar, the district’s summer program, received their books and letter from the teacher when their parents dropped them off or picked them up at the school, Pavone said.
“It was just such a positive experience for the teachers” Pavone said. “One teacher told me this morning in her 25 years of teaching, this is her biggest highlight. It really had such a big impact.”
Ironically, the whole thing happened by accident.
The books were meant to go home with the students at the end of the school year, but they weren’t delivered in time. The delivery truck pulled into the parking lot as the school busses pulled out, Pavone said.
“The intent was every kid is going home with 10 books for the summer, but I think this worked even better,” she said. “At the end of the school, they’re usually done with all this. But come Aug. 1, we’re starting to think about school again and it created an excitement around the books that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.”
Pavone said she wanted the students to have the books because if they read during summer, their reading fluency won’t decline before classes resume in September. She said reading fluency between June 2016 and September 2016 showed a huge decrease.
“I was kind of bummed initially, and then I was trying to figure out how to get these home to families,” she explained. “I knew we were sending the homeroom letters home Aug. 1, so I figured what if we delivered their letter and their books at the same time.”
Dr. Mark Beehler, assistant superintendent for academics, and Karen Magara, assistant superintendent for finance and operations, secured the funds in last year’s budget to purchase the books at no cost to the students or their families, something Pavone said she is thankful for.
“With our first time doing it, I think it went phenomenally well,” she said. “The kids were so excited to have someone come to their house with a delivery.”
Pavone said she had involvement from 27 teachers at Prospect, adding that when she talked to her teams were working on curriculum, they were all excited about the idea. She said some newly hired teachers also participated.
“Just the fact that everyone was so involved with it made it run smoothly. I couldn’t have done it without all the teachers being willing to go and do it,” she said. “There’s always things to adjust, but it’s definitely something I want to keep doing in the future.”
For more information, contact Pavone at gpavone@salamancany.org or 945-5170; or Lloyd Long, assistant principal of Seneca Intermediate School, at llong@salamancany.org or 945-5140.
(Contact reporter Kellen Quigley at kquigleysp@gmail.com.)
