The Greenville Book Buddies Program developed by the Greenville Rotary Club is once again stepping in to improve literacy across the Mississippi Delta.
Rotary secretary and reading buddy director Richard Dattel recently announced Rotarians will tutor this year at O’Bannon Elementary School.
“Many of our students in the public school system cannot read on their respective grade levels, which, in turn, causes failure,” Dattel said.
For one hour a week, Rotarians’ jobs will be to tutor third graders from 9-10 a.m. on Wednesday mornings.
The Book Buddies Program started 19 years ago at Carrie Stern Elementary School.
“We needed to find a way to help students that are struggling in school and since reading is the most important…that was going to be our focus,” Fellow Rotarian and longtime Book Buddies volunteer Judy Long said.
Long said she knows firsthand how significant reading is to developing well-rounded students.
“Reading was the key to our success and it had to be done at the school with volunteers,” she said.
Dattel and Long said they started the program with 15 Rotarians and as the years progressed, they started recruiting anybody in the town that would help.
St. Joseph School juniors and seniors have been helping Rotary tutor for 17 years and they have already started tutoring O’Bannon’s kindergarten, first-graders and second-graders.
Those juniors and seniors meet on Tuesday and Thursday mornings to tutor.
According to Dattel and Long, the idea was to be with two at-risk first to third grade students in first to third grade for 30 minutes each day for once a week.
“The teacher decides which students need our help the most and we have to have permission slips from the parents,” Dattel explained.
Achievement in literacy, or the lack thereof, has long been an issue in the Mississippi Delta.
In May, the Mississippi Department of Education announced 8,941 students failed the Mississippi Academic Assessment Program in English Language Arts assessment, otherwise known as the “third-grade gate.”
It was reported by MDE 74.5 percent of students were successful on the first try.
The Literacy Based Promotion Act requires third-graders to obtain a certain reading score to advance to fourth grade.
Dattel and Long said their focus is on helping the students learn how to read and also being there to serve as mentors.
The partnership with St. Joseph Catholic School has helped to cultivate a mentoring relationship between students and children.
“The process develops character that will remain with students for eternity. And that is truly a vital part of Rotary,” Dattel said.
