Grand Prairie students tape administrators to a wall

A reading incentive program at Grand Prairie Elementary School was a huge success, resulting in administrators being taped to a wall.  The 750 students at the school each had a goal to read 360 minutes to accomplish the all-school goal of 270,000 minutes of reading. 

The book they read was “Frindle” by Andrew Clements.  Guest readers from the school and community got the program off to a great start by reading the first chapter of the book to children gathered in small groups.  Community guest readers included Frankfort Mayor Jim Holland, Frankfort Library representative Sandy Anderson, Frankfort Police Chief John Burica, and Frankfort Fire Department firefighters Joe O’Dette and Denis Merz. School readers included Interim Superintendent Dr. Patricia A. Wernet, Chelsea Intermediate School Principal Kristin Simpkins, Director of Curriculum & Instruction Janet Goggins, and technology teacher Barb Campbell and Reading Recovery teacher Lindsay Reipsa.

As the culmination of the reading incentive, an all school reading celebration was held on April 17. Because the students reached their reading goal, Principal Mrs. Eileen Nelson and Assistant Principal Mrs. Sharon Nepote kept their promise to allow the students to duck tape them to the wall while they read the final chapter of the story.  Each class was given a piece of duck tape and had an opportunity to tape them to the wall. The duck tape was to show everyone that the students were “stuck on reading” after the successful reading incentive.