SOMIS : Reading Drive Puts Principal on the Roof

Dale Forgey usually eats lunch in the teachers’ lounge at Somis School. But today the principal and superintendent of the one-school district dined on the roof. Under a beach umbrella. In a furry, brown bear costume.

Forgey was holding up his end of a deal he made with 316 students from kindergarten through the eighth grade: If the students read at least 5,000 books in one month, Forgey would eat his lunch on the roof--in a bear costume.

“They obviously wanted to see me do it, so they read about 6,200 books,” Forgey said.

Forgey climbed to the roof of the school library on a ladder provided by the Ventura County Fire Department. There he sat in a lounge chair and ate a sub sandwich, corn chips and a Coke. “I ate part of my lunch, and it was hot, and I came down,” Forgey said.

The costume “had a little hat with a flower in it. It was real cute,” said Donna Griffiths, school secretary and Parent Faculty Organization member.

The stunt was part of a reading contest organized by the PFO to promote reading. Parents kept track of the number of books read by students (or read to students) during April. The five most voracious readers were awarded with free passes to a miniature golf range in Ventura and a free book.

The top readers were Lisanne MacDonald, second grade, who read 170 books; John Catano, kindergarten, 161 books; Magan Griffiths, first grade, 150 books; Daniel Borla, kindergarten, 132 books; and Melissa Ward, fourth grade, 100 books.

One kindergarten class read 2,278 books out of the total 6,136 books.

Forgey said he might be willing to put on another wild costume for a second annual reading contest next year, but “it will not be a tutu. I have to draw the line somewhere.”