‘Big Plan’ aims to boost reading in 10 Manatee elementary schools

Maribeth Mason, the principal at Samoset Elementary School in Bradenton, has already seen what a helping hand can do for her students.

She recently adopted Learning Pals, a program developed by United Way Suncoast to help students improve their reading skills from kindergarten to third grade. With help from trained community volunteers and one-on-one sessions, Mason’s students seem more eager and able to learn, the principal said Monday.

Mason was joined by Superintendent Cynthia Saunders and Bronwyn Beightol, the Manatee Area President for United Way Suncoast, during an announcement on grade-level reading. School board leaders Gina Messenger and Charlie Kennedy were also in attendance.

They announced a start to the “Big Plan,” an effort to rally local groups and support the neighborhoods that surround 10 struggling schools in Manatee County. It was vital that students have a firm grasp on reading by the end of third grade, Beightol said, highlighting the connection between reading comprehension and the likelihood of graduating high school.

“We’re not just sending volunteers into a room and saying, ‘Read to a child and hopefully things will happen,’” Beightol said. “We’ve been very consistent in partnering with the school district and making sure the training is more than adequate so they can make a difference.”

Much like the use of volunteers at Samoset, a large aspect of the Big Plan is expanding proven tools and making them available to students who need a boost.

Two pilot schools — Samoset Elementary and Palm View K-6 School — will implement existing programs and come up with new solutions. The school district will then incorporate the remaining eight schools over the next several years, applying lessons learned from the pilot campuses.

The other elementary schools are Ballard, Rogers Garden-Bullock, Manatee, Blackburn, Palmetto, Tillman, Daughtrey and Oneco.

While countless organizations will have a hand in the process, United Way Suncoast formed an advisory committee to spearhead the plan. It includes Manatee County Government, the school district, the Manatee Community Foundation, the Early Learning Coalition of Manatee County and the Patterson Foundation.

The Big Plan focuses on several neighborhoods within the county’s central area, which envelop the target schools. About 75 percent of children in the area have trouble reading by the end of third grade, and the plan is meant to cut that number in half over the next five years.

“Our students in high-poverty situations need more than just what we can give to them in the brick-and-mortar through the school day,” Saunders said. “We need outside support. We need community support.”

United Way Suncoast presented Samoset Elementary with a $1,000 check to help bolster its efforts on Monday morning, while Palm View, the other pilot school, received its own check later that day.

Samoset is currently helping students who were on the cusp of grade-level reading, meaning they were less than one year behind, the principal said.

“We are a school that’s on the move in Manatee County, and this is the added support that our students and families need to make sure all of our kids are reading on grade level,” Mason said.

This story was originally published January 14, 2020 at 5:38 AM with the headline "‘Big Plan’ aims to boost reading in 10 Manatee elementary schools."