School Spreads the Word With ‘Reading Jam’

Reading fever swept through Park Oaks Elementary School this week.

Copies of various books appeared on desks in many classrooms and buses idled outside waiting to shuttle half the school--nearly 300 students--to the Thousand Oaks Library for a field trip.

Those who stayed behind listened to volunteers, including parents, school board members and Assemblyman Nao Takasugi (R-Oxnard), read from books like “The Great Brain” as part of a two-day “Reading Jam” at Park Oaks on Thursday and Friday.

The “Reading Jam” was coordinated by Principal Leean Nemeroff to celebrate students’ progress toward reaching the school’s goal of having its pupils put in 1.5 million minutes reading during the school year.

So far, students at the kindergarten-through-sixth-grade school in midtown Thousand Oaks have tallied more than 1 million minutes.

Takasugi, who wore a tie sporting a big yellow school bus, read to a group of fourth- and fifth-graders Friday morning. They were curious students about life in Sacramento.

“You have so many opportunities out there in the world to make the best of everything,” Takasugi told students, who asked whether the assemblyman had ever met the president and about what he was doing to make schools better.

Elsewhere at the school, local officials, including Councilwoman Linda Parks and Conejo Valley Unified Board of Education member Dolores Didio, read stories from books such as “Danny and the Dinosaur” and “ ‘Stand Back,’ Said the Elephant, ‘I’m Going to Sneeze.’ ”

“It’s to entice the students and to stimulate their interest in reading,” Didio said after reading to a third-grade class Thursday morning.

“If they’re read to it develops their interest, and you hope they’ll go out and get more books and read them on their own,” she said.

Students, who sat on a patch of carpet while Didio read a story about a Native American boy whose toy pony, made of mud, comes to life, said they were also looking forward to the evening’s “Read In” assembly featuring children’s authors.

Eight-year-old Shauna Clark, one of the third-graders listening to Didio, said the celebration has taught her why reading is important.

“You learn stuff, and it can be really fun,” Shauna said. “You can get a lot better information in books than on TV.”

Shauna’s classmate, Tony Sintic, 9, who is an avid “Goosebumps” fan, said having good reading skills means a lot, and not only at school.

“Reading is a big part of your life,” he said.