Guest Opinion | Let’s Make Sure our Youngsters Develop Great Reading Skills

Monday, March 25, 6 p.m., Island Hoppin’ Brewery

— from Tom Owens —

I will be giving a presentation at Island Hoppin’ Brewery in support of the school district’s summer reading skills program. The first section attempts to illustrate the situation that our children are in. The child behind NEVER catches up. Being behind could lead the child to conclude that he or she is a failure. Without good reading skills and the idea that he or she is a failure, how can a child learn all the other important lessons at school? Where will that child go in life? Will he or she become a productive member of society or a burden on society? So what can we do?

The second part is what we can do! One small step that OIES and I propose we take here on Orcas is to have, this summer, a reading skills program for 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade children that are struggling to learn to read. This program is open to ALL students on Orcas that need this help and whose parents will commit to having their child attend every day.  Right now, at the public school alone, there are 33 of such students. 29 are at high risk of failure. There are about 100 students overall in these three grades.

This summer program works in sets of 15 children. Each set requires one professional teacher and 6-7 volunteer instructors. These fine volunteers will be trained by the school and work very hard 5 mornings a week for 4 weeks. They allow us to get to a student/teacher ratio of about 3 (and this is vital). The cost of one set is $7,500 (covering OIES costs). To expand the program to 30 students would add another $7,000 and another 6-7 volunteers.

At this point I have pledges for $5,800, including Rich’s pledge. In my experience trying to raise funds for this project, pledges tend to appear and disappear. If more funds can be raised, they would support an expansion to 30 students or be carried over to the following summer.

At the end of the summer program, results will be measured. We want and will to know how much each child improved. We will understand areas where we must improve. Changes will be made for the following summer.
Your interest and support of this project is very important.  63% of prison inmates can not read. It costs $20-40,000 per year to house one inmate.  It cost $6-14,000 to just treat one opioid addict. While I hope none of our students go down this path, some might. Reading is certainly one of the keys to becoming a successful member of our society.

The “event” will be at Island Hoppin at 6 p.m. on March 25.