A group of teachers, parents, and community members are working to raise $15,000 to send Miller School students home with books for the summer to help combat reading level loss.
Called the Miller School Community Council, the group’s mission is to connect the school with the greater community in hopes of generating more support for academics.
As part of that mission, the group is aiming to send home each of the roughly 330 students in grades pre- K to six with six to eight books of the student’s choosing (at reading level) this summer.
Called “the summer slide,” students can lose between two to three months progress on their reading ability during the summer months, council members said.
Miller kindergarten teacher Jessica Berry, a member on the council, said students can return to school in the fall behind on reading, and staff has to spend time getting the students back up to speed.
In the council’s research on the subject, they found a study where students were sent home with 12 books and summer reading loss was completely eliminated, Berry said.
The council is discussing incentives to have students bring their books back to school after the summer, either for use in classrooms or to be sent home with other students the following summer, Berry said.
Including $1,800 in proceeds from a book fair held last fall, the council has so far raised a total of about $5,000 through a piggy bank drive in classrooms, direct donations from businesses, and a GoFundMe campaign.
The remaining $10,000 to fulfill the council’s goal needs to be raised by the third week in May, and several avenues are available to those who wish to contribute.
On Saturday, May 2, the council is hosting a fundraising evening at Miller School, including a spaghetti dinner, an open mic night for students, and a book fair.
Admission to the event (including the meal) is $5 per adult, $3 per child, or $12 for a family. The dinner will include spaghetti, salad, dessert, and beverages.
Families of students have been contributing donations for the dinner, such as spaghetti from families of second graders, and paper products from the families of pre-kindergarten students.
The event will run from 5 to 8 p.m., with dinner served from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., and the student open mic from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. A book fair will be open the entire time, and will run in the school until the following Thursday, May 7.
Representatives from the Waldoboro Public Library will be on hand at the dinner to sign people up for library cards.
The redemption center at Townline Video Plus in Warren is also accepting donations of bottle returns.
To donate to the GoFundMe campaign, visit www.gofundme. com/n1hmfs.
The Miller School Community Council is looking for more parents and community members to volunteer in various ways.
For more information, contact Jessica Berry at 832-2103 or jessica_berry@msad40.org.