Oak Park kids read to win
By John Loesing
Acorn Staff Writer

A voracious appetite for reading by Oak Hills Elementary School students in Oak Park has made the school $5,000 richer.

The school participated in the 2000-2001 Governor’s Reading Award Program in which students were challenged to read as much as possible. The 488 students of Oak Hills read 2.6 million pages from Oct. 1, 2000, to April 1, 2001; the most of any Ventura County school.

"Oak Hills is a community of readers," said Tony Knight, principal. "All children at Oak Hills keep a reading log year-round and students are required to turn it in to their teacher every month.

"There are no additional incentives offered––instead we are helping childen to become lifelong self-motivated readers."

The second annual Reading Award Program required students to keep a log that was signed by their parents each month. The log kept track of the number of pages that were read. Kids in kindergarten through third grade were expected to read or have read to them 500 pages a month. Fourth- and fifth-graders were expected to read 333 pages by themselves.

The Oak Hills students went above and beyond the call of duty. Each child averaged 5,408 pages––or 901 pages a month––for a whopping total of 2,639,020 pages. Oak Hills students also read more than 2 million pages in the first year of the program, second best in the county.

The governor’s office announced that 800 California public schools from 545 counties received this year’s awards. The Reading Award Program is part of a $4 million state Assembly bill passed in 1999.

Knight said Oak Hills would use its prize money to purchase newer digital cameras for each grade level. Students use the cameras, he said, to tape the subjects about which they write.

Oak Hills Elementary school was built in 1988 and is part of Oak Park Unified School District.