Reading First

Our former administrator of the grant and Hollis principal, Mark Kellis, decided to return to teaching and is now a second grade teacher in our neighboring town of Waterboro. Cari Lyford, our former Reading Recovery teacher, decided to stay home with her new baby and our Literacy Coordinator, Judy Hogan, took a new position in Sanford.Our part time Reading Interventionist, Jan Winsor, continued to work as a Reading Associate in our district, but full time in Standish. This left us with quite a few holes to fill but we were able to do so quite successfully.

Our new principal, Diane Gagne, brought a great deal of leadership to our school as well as her expertise with literacy, having graduated from the University of Southern Maine with a Master's in Literacy Education. Our new Literacy Specialist is an old face here in Hollis, Mary Lou Shuster. She has been on staff here at Hollis Elementary School as a kindergarten teacher for over twenty-three years and also graduated from U.S.M.with a Master's degree in the same Literacy program that Mrs. Gagne attended.

Last year we found a wonderful person to serve as our Reading Interventionist - Jillian Ayres. However, the Interventionist position is only a part time position, and Ms. Ayres did such a great job that we didn't want to lose her to the competition and so we hired her full time as a first grade teacher this year! Of course that left us in the position of once again needing to hire a part time Reading Interventionist but we were incredibly fortunate to find just the right person in Karen Kantolak who lives right next door to us in Waterboro. She took on the job after school had already begun and has done a beautiful job fitting in with our staff and jumping right in with the workload. She is helping with both second and third grade students this year as well as working with lots of data!

As we found our footing with all the new staff and got to work with our third and (we thought) last year of the grant, we really saw things beginning to go in an incredibly positive direction in the area of literacy here at Hollis Elementary and when the Department of Education told us that there would be money available to fund a fourth year of the grant, our teachers agreed, through an anonymous vote, to continue for another year.

Kudos to our one mainstay throughout this grant and that would be our Reading First secretary and Reading Associate, Lucinda Larrabee! She was a wonderful help and resource to all the new people who came on board and continues to keep track of all the secretarial items that need attending to when you are given a state grant. A big thank you and shout out to Cindy! :-)

Hollis School has received a 3-year, $400,000 Reading First Grant. Hollis is one of only seven schools in the state to receive such a grant award. With the funds, the school has purchased a new K-3 reading program that includes materials geared to readers of all abilities and our staff has committed to ongoing professional development.

This new reading series consists of materials from the publisher, Houghton-Mifflin. To ensure for seamless instruction through out the elementary grades, MSAD 6 supplemented the grant award with funds to purchase the Houghton-Mifflin reading series in Grade 4 and 5 as well. The new reading materials support the five essential elements of reading instruction: comprehension, phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, and vocabulary development.

The entire Hollis School community is working toward the goal of helping students become better readers who carry over a love of reading into their everyday lives. To support this exciting reading initiative at Hollis School, the Hollis Parent Teacher Club purchased a book for every student to read and enjoy at home.