SCHOOLS: Reading reward turns principal into 'work of art'

By Joe Olenick<br><a href="mailto:joe.olenick@lockportjournal.com">E-mail Joe</a>

RANSOMVILLE — On Monday morning Michael Cancilla was a little black and blue. And red. And green. And yellow.

The principal of W.H. Stevenson Elementary in Ransomville was turned into a human painting by Tammy Sieck’s second-grade students. The kids got to dump and spray paint on Cancilla as a reward for surpassing their reading goal by a larger margin than any other Stevenson class. Sieck’s 21 kids read for 11,308 minutes, crushing their goal of 3,300 by a whopping 343 percent. Students had to keep track of how long they read at home with a parent for the annual Parents As Reading Partners program, which ran from Oct. 12 to 23.

But it wasn’t just Sieck’s class that was a success. The entire school, all 270 students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade, read 125,224 minutes over an 11-day period, surpassing the school’s goal of 63,250 minutes. That boils down to an average of 45 minutes of reading a day per kid.

Sieck said she couldn’t have been prouder of her kids.

“They worked so hard,” she said. “They would come in each day, ‘My mom made me read this for an hour.’ And this was a nice incentive. The PTA did a nice job with the program.”

At Stevenson, which is one of two elementary schools in the Wilson School District, this year’s PARP theme was “Pop Open A Good Book.” It featured gifts for each student, which consisted of a popcorn-themed tote bag, popcorn-scented bookmark, caramel-corn-scented pencil and a bag of microwave popcorn. But the big prize was a shot at painting Cancilla.

“It gives them extra incentive to read,” Cancilla said.

During PARP, a popcorn-themed bulletin board was updated each day during the program indicating which three classes were in the lead. And to further encourage the students, a local author was brought in. Peggy Thomas of Middleport met with each grade level for a number of workshops in the school library, but did something different with the third-, fourth- and fifth-graders. Those students wrote stories that were posted on her Web site at www.peggythomaswrites.com/studentstories.

When it came to reading, most of the classrooms were able to double and triple their initial daily reading goals. Behind Sieck’s class, Cindy Leberer’s first-graders read for 7,888 minutes, beating their goal of 2,475 minutes by 318 percent. Theresa Reagan’s third-graders read for 12,667 minutes, topping their goal of 4,180 minutes by 303 percent to finish in third place. The top three classes were rewarded with a pizza party.

This wasn’t the first time Cancilla went to great lengths to get the Stevenson kids to read. Back in March for the 2008-09 PARP program, Cancilla allowed Judy Zucco’s fifth-grade class turn him into a human ice cream sundae. The school read more than 136,000 pages, obliterating the goal of 60,000 pages read.

Right before Sieck’s class would cover him in paint, Cancilla congratulated the school on a job well done. When the “painting” began, the 270 kids squealed with delight as the paint started flying. One of Sieck’s students, Savannah Frey, 7, was overjoyed.

“This was really cool,” she said.

Fellow 7-year-old Sierra Westmorland said the entire class did a lot of reading to earn the opportunity to paint the principal.

“I read ‘Are You My Mother?,’ ” she said.

Cancilla said the important thing was that after PARP ended, the reading would continue. Parental support has been great, and even though PARP ended in October, kids are still telling Cancilla what they’re reading.

“They’ll come in and tell me ‘I’m reading this book,’ ” he said. “They’re learning how important reading is.”

Cancilla said the canvas he was standing against, or the “painting” Sieck’s class created, will later be signed by all students and hung at the school as a reminder of how well they all did during the PARP program. And a reminder to keep on reading.

Contact reporter Joe Olenick at 439-9222, ext. 6241.

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