Reading = kudos + cash

Danette Goulet

NEWPORT-MESA -- Lincoln Tran, a 12-year-old student at Davis Education

Center in Costa Mesa, reads an average of 600 pages a week. His classmate

Hong-An Nyugen reads about 400 pages a week, while James Diehl reads

between 200 and 250 pages weekly.

“Right now I’m reading a 700 page book by Tom Clancy,” said James, 12.

These students are a sampling of the stars that shine at Davis, where

students read almost 2.7 million pages between October and April, earning

the school $5,000 from the inaugural Governor’s Reading Award Program.

It also means they read more than any other school in the district --

even the nine other elementary schools that also won the governor’s

award.

“I’m proud for you, and I’m proud for the school,” Davis Principal Cheryl

Galloway told students this week.

Davis was one of 10 elementary schools in Newport-Mesa Unified School

District to earn kudos and cash from the state.

Whittier Elementary school came in a very close second, with its students

reading a little more than 2.6 million pages -- without hardly trying.

“Its interesting because we didn’t really push it,” said Sharon Blakley,

Whittier’s principal. “Children are to read 20 minutes a night in

[kindergarten through third grade] for our ‘Just Read’ program, under

which children take books home. We just really value reading here.”

The governor’s program is designed to promote reading through friendly

competition between schools of similar socioeconomic circumstances. Just

by reading the most pages, students in kindergarten through the eighth

grade can earn $5,000 for their school to use however students, parents

and teachers wish.

Gov. Gray Davis set aside $2 million for the awards so 400 elementary and

middle schools across the state could receive awards each year.

Now it’s time for local students to put on their thinking caps and decide

what their schools should do with the money.

“Add books to the library,” James suggested.

“Put it in the bank and get the interest,” Lincoln piped up.

“Establish more after-school programs,” suggested Hung-An.

Each of the trio said he or she always loved to read and continued to

read the same amount after the contest ended. In fact, since it wrapped

up in April, Davis readers have topped the 3-million-pages mark.

Some students, however, found drawbacks to reading so much.

“Sometimes I don’t like reading a lot, because then I run out of good

books and have to read not-so-good books,” Lincoln said.

FYI

Here are the 10 Newport-Mesa Unified School District campuses that

captured a Governor’s Reading Award:

* Adams Elementary: 1.4 million pages

* California Elementary: 1.1 million pages

* Davis Education Center: 2.7 million pages

* Harbor View Elementary: 1.5 million pages

* Kaiser Elementary: 1.4 million pages

* Newport Elementary: 2.2 million pages

* Newport Heights Elementary: 1.9 million pages

* Paularino Elementary: 1.2 million pages

* Rea Elementary: 1.6 million pages

* Whittier Elementary: 2.6 million pages