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BELLEFONTE AREA SCHOOL NEWS
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Pleasant Gap Elementary Reading Challenge
Every March , educators , children , parents , and the nation as a whole celebrate reading with the Read Across America initiative . This program begins on the birthday of Dr . Seuss and then continues throughout the month of March . The goal is to educate individuals about the power and benefits of reading . It is celebrated in our schools at the Bellefonte Area School District .
One of our elementary schools , Pleasant Gap Elementary , celebrated with a special challenge . Students and staff were challenged to read 1,000 pages during the month of March . If they reached this goal , principal Dr . Duffy Besch , would have to sleep on the Pleasant Gap Elementary roof for a night ! The building had a feature book that everyone was encouraged to read , Sleep Book by Dr . Seuss and the reading intervention team created a bedroom display to highlight the book .
At the end of March , the page number was revealed by Dr . Besch and the total number of pages read was … 1,212 pages ! An incredible job by the students and staff . Then on the evening of May 24th ( which was the day before Field Day ), Dr . Besch slept in a tent on the roof of Pleasant Gap Elementary . He had this to say on the experience , “ I purposefully selected the night before field day as a way to complete my end of the challenge , but also get the students excited for field day . I took a chair , a tent , and many blankets to the roof with me . I would not have imagined temperatures that night getting into the low forties , but as luck would have it , they did . Between the wind and cold temperatures , I did sleep on the roof until 3:30 am and then had to come off the roof . I was able to greet the students from the roof in the morning . I can now check this off the principal bucket list .”
Congratulations to the staff and students for crushing the reading challenge , and thank you to Dr . Besch for completing his challenge ! The Bellefonte Area School District has a great administrative staff and these extra challenges and rewards are just a few ways in which these individuals shine . The district hopes that these reading habits will extend into the summer months and will help students get ready for the upcoming school year at the end of August .
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