The top campuses and winning students in the district’s 2022-23 Chill Out and Read Initiative received a special Spotlight recognition from Spring ISD trustees during the Jan. 10 regular board meeting.
Overseen by the Spring ISD Instructional Technology team, the Chill Out and Read program is designed to motivate and inspire students to read during the winter holidays by combining old-fashioned reading for pleasure with the modern technology and cloud-based digital libraries that students now have access to.
“Thank you so much for the opportunity to be able to recognize the great work of our students,” Director of Instructional Technology Kevin Holiday told trustees during his remarks at the meeting. “I’d like to extend a special thanks to each and every board member and cabinet member for supporting all the initiatives that lead to the success of our students.”
Spring ISD students participating in the contest utilized the myON platform on their district-issued tablets and computers to access selections from among thousands of grade-level-appropriate titles available in both English and Spanish. The myON app tracks the number of minutes students spend reading, with prizes for the top students and bragging rights for the top campuses.
“We’re excited to spotlight six campuses, three elementary school campuses and three middle school campuses,” Holiday said, “as well as two students that just simply crushed it over the holidays.”
The top elementary campuses in this year’s contest were as follows:
- 1st Place – Beneke Elementary School
- 2nd Place – Cooper Elementary School
- 3rd Place – Heritage Elementary School
The top three middle school campuses were:
- 1st Place – Roberson Middle School
- 2nd Place – Spring Leadership Academy
- 3rd Place – Dueitt Middle School
Finally, the top students at the elementary and middle school levels, together with the number of reading minutes they each logged over Winter Break, were:
- Oscar Ezuma, Grade 5, Beneke Elementary (5,678 minutes read)
- Gustavo Rodriguez, Grade 7, Roberson Middle School (8,788 minutes read)
The trustees offered their congratulations to each of the winning students and campuses, and thanked campus administrators, teachers and library specialists, and parents for helping to foster a love of learning in district students.
“We’re extremely proud of you,” said Board President Justine Durant. “One of our key strategic priorities is literacy, and it’s really awesome to be able to celebrate these students here this evening.”
