What’s Right With Our Schools: Catoosa Reads Program

CATOOSA COUNTY, GA (WDEF) – Getting young people to love reading is a team effort in Catoosa County. Last year, the School District teamed up with Citizens for Literacy and the Public Library to create Catoosa Reads. That’s a page-turning example of “What’s Right With Our Schools.”

“Today we have Catoosa Reads which started last year as a collaborative of the early literacy task force. So the early literacy task force is a collaboration of the Catoosa County Public Schools, Citizens for Literacy, the Catoosa County Public Library, and like-minded individuals who are just very passionate about reading and literacy and getting books into the hands of kids,” Sarah Holmes, Director, Catoosa County Library, said.

“I think it’s very important. I grew up in the library and if I have a spare minute, I’m reading and they are already doing that. So, it makes me really happy,” Erika Lyle, Catoosa County parents, said.

Holmes says, “Catoosa Read started out as an event that we wanted to do to kind of start this off, right? We’re going to get people really excited about literacy and making sure we’re connecting people with resources. A big thing about what we do is connecting people and kids to resources and then also reading.”

“I mostly like reading because I like learning. And most of the books I read uh books to help me learn, so…” Henry Lyle, Catoosa County parent, said.

Erika Lyle says, “He’s in kindergarten and he’s already reading chapter books. I’ve bought him a couple of probably fourth or fifth grade reading level science books and he struggles with, you know, the more complicated Latin words, but for the most part, the concepts are clear to him and he can pronounce the, the more complicated English words and just needs a little help with the science from me.”

“We have Head Start. We have Lyft, which is a youth center. We have the YMCA,” Holmes says.

“We have summer camp coming up. So from the end of May to the beginning of August, we do summer camp,” Amber Hinch, North Georgia Community YMCA Program Director, says.

“We have Catoosa County Public Schools, Citizens for Literacy, County Bax. And so all these resources where we’re connecting people with these resources in the community where they might not know that they exist,” Holmes says.

“So, we are from Catoosa County Schools and um we have bags with some books to help promote literacy and we partner with the Catoosa County Library every year um or for the past couple of years. Yes. To help um promote literacy in the community,” Julie Robbins, Office of School Superintendent, said.

“We are working on that summer slide. We don’t want them to lose any of their reading abilities as we go through the summer,” Kristy Jablonski, Catoosa County Schools Family Engagement Coordinator, said.

Holmes says, “We have Blessing Creeks Farms here today. Um, and they are having a their Highland, their Highland cows. Um, they having some other animals here today. And then they also have the opportunity since we’re hosting at the library to get your library card which opens you up to all the other resources that the library has. I hope they have a renewed sense of energy for literacy and reading and also understand how passionate we are to make sure that they are connected to the resil resources and how much we are there to help them along the way.”