Office of Governor Gary Locke
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - April 16, 2002
Contact:  Governor's Communications Office, 360-902-4136
Alt Contact:  Kim Schmanke, Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 360-725-6015

Gov. Locke, Superintendent Bergeson announce Reading School of the Month

OROVILLE — Gov. Gary Locke and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson today announced Oroville Elementary School as the fourth Washington State Reading School of the Month.

Locke and Bergeson presented the award to the principal, Kay Sibley, during a school assembly in Oroville this morning. Students, volunteers, staff and parents also joined the governor and superintendent for a roundtable discussion in the library.

The governor praised the school’s outstanding improvements in academic performance and thanked the students, teachers and parents for their excellent work.

“Reading is essential to all academic achievement,” Locke said. “Oroville Elementary School has done an amazing job of building reading and math skills and serves as a shining example for other schools to follow.”

“It’s very exciting to be at a school that emphasizes the value of reading to its students,” Bergeson told the students. “Reading is a part of the basic foundation to a successful life. Whether you open a textbook to read an assignment for class or just pick a book for fun, you’re using a skill that will last your entire life.”

Fourth-grade students at Oroville Elementary School have improved their reading skills for the last five years as measured by performance on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL). Of the students who took the test in 1997, only 20 percent met the state standard. By last spring, the number of students meeting and exceeding the standard increased to nearly 60 percent.

Principal Sibley credited much of the reading success to the team-like atmosphere created at the school under the motto, “Building Bright Futures Together … We Make It Happen.”

“The whole staff, from certified teachers to classified personnel, has a role on the curriculum, site-based management and child study teams,” Sibley said. “Community volunteers who spend one-on-one time with students needing extra reading help also have made a noticeable difference.”

Locke and Bergeson also congratulated school volunteers and staff for their recently announced win of the Washington Organized Reading Development (WORD) award. After sending evaluators to the school, WORD – which is part of the International Reading Association – selected Oroville as the state winner because of its strong reading program and community involvement.

Sibley and three staff members will accept the award at the International Reading Award conference in San Francisco later this month.

Information about Oroville Elementary and the Washington State Reading School of the Month award program is available on the Internet at www.schoolofthemonth.org, a Web site developed in partnership with Verizon Reads.

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Related Links:
- Washington State Reading School of the Month
- International Reading Association
- Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction

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