FULTON – Fresh on the heels of the roll out of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, the Fulton City School District has bolstered its literacy promotion efforts to include on-the-go reading opportunities.
Because the district is focused on literacy as one of the main strategic intents of its new five-year Strategic Coherence Plan, FCSD administrators and staff members were thrilled to form a new partnership with Brooke’s Books Project to begin offering the availability of “Books on Buses.”
Together, FCSD and Brooke’s Books Project piloted a program which provides free books to children on Fulton City School District bus routes.
Increased access to age-appropriate books, reading opportunities, vocabulary recognition, phonetic skills practice, and social-emotional bonding with potential buddy reading systems, among other efforts, are available through the new program.
“Books on Buses” has been implemented in a slow roll out with a few bus routes at Granby Elementary School and will, ideally, expand to include more Granby bus routes before moving on to bus routes from FCSD’s other elementary schools.
The program is also available for students who utilize smaller buses and van transportation.
Students may borrow a selection of books to either read to and from school, to take home for the weekend and then exchange it for another book, or experience partner reading on the bus.
Granby school-home liaison Amy Kunzwiler, Granby Principal Gina Salerno, Golden Sun Bus Service President Patrick Kinane, FCSD Transportation Supervisor Greg Henrie, FCSD Superintendent Brian Pulvino, FCSD Executive Director of Instruction and Assessment and FCSD Director of Literacy and UPK Heather Witter all had been instrumental in making the literacy collaboration possible.
Brooke’s Books Project has partnered with the Fulton City School District before to offer free books during the district’s 2018-2019 school supply distribution event.
Brooke’s Books Project is supported by the Literacy Coalition of Oswego County and the Weston T. Hyde Educational Foundation, and is run by Brooke Trevett, an 11-year-old fifth grader in the Oswego City School District.
Trevett said she has a continued desire to share her love of reading and that is exactly what the Fulton City School District has aimed to share with its families.
“The more we can encourage our families to read to their kids at home, it’ll increase their readiness to read when they come to UPK and kindergarten,” Witter said.
Salerno echoed that sentiment and said she is grateful “Books on Buses” is available to several Granby students.
When the program was announced at school, Salerno said the student body became excited.
She, the students and Golden sun bus drivers are all thrilled to see the program grow.
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