A huge thank you to Greenville Recreation and Parks for hosting READ ENCCommunity Literacy Coalition’s public meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019 at the Walter L. Stasavich Science & Nature Center at River Park North. Local school board members, library staff, childcare providers and teachers, and many other interested community members attended the meeting to hear about READ ENC’s Community Solutions Action Plan (CSAP), recently endorsed by the national Campaign for Grade Level Reading. The 5-year CSAP has the ultimate goal of increasing the percentage of students reading at or above grade level by the end of grade 3. Details about the multiple CSAP strategies proposed to accomplish this goal through increasing kindergarten readiness, improving summer learning, and improving school attendance are available at: https://readenc.org/csap/

The meeting featured READ ENC community partners who shared: 

• a research report on the Imagination Library Kindergarten Impact Study(Dr. Elizabeth Swaggerty-ECU)
• plans for launching a Book Nook Project in waiting room areas throughout the community so that families can “turn waiting time into reading time” (Dr. Marianna Walker-ECU) 
• update on expansion of children’s programming at Sheppard Memorial Library (Greg Needham-SML)
• plans for upcoming Super Saturday and Early Literacy Academy for area childcare providers (Dr. Sheresa Blanchard-ECU and Angela Sawyer-MPPFC)
• plans for the 2019 Kids Read NowSummer Reading Pilot, Summer Learning Summit, and July 8-13, Summer Learning Week(Kris Arnold, Dan Quesnel-The Oakwood School and Terry Atkinson-READ ENC)
• an update from the PCS-READ ENC Attendance Committee (Grace Johnston-PCS)
• a recap of the latest Pitt County Imagination Libraryenrollment numbers (Jim Cieslar-UWPC). 

Read more in the Daily Reflector’s news coverage at:

http://www.reflector.com/News/2019/02/28/Literacy-effort-to-combat-summer-slide.html

Downloadable READ ENC public meeting agenda and handouts available at: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1WA80dAhe-WIxG0guRz8dpGcGBPbgn6Li?usp=sharing