With 219 students, Smith Elementary is the smallest school in the Poughkeepsie City School District.
But, in February, the students at Smith combined to read more than 36,990 minutes during the first month of the Poughkeepsie Reading Challenge, the third-most of any building.
On Monday morning, the students gathered to be honored and receive the Monthly Literacy Leader trophy, an enormous traveling award that will live in the school that reads the most minutes-per-student each month during the challenge.
“Do you see how large this is? That’s because you deserve a large reward,” Superintendent of Schools Gregory Mott told the students. “I can see why, looking at your faces, looking at your teachers, having conversations with building administrators, why Smith came out on top for the Month of February. It’s because you were dedicated to the challenge.”
The Poughkeepsie Reading Challenge is a districtwide initiative encouraging all students, from pre-K to high school seniors, to read daily. The goal is to read at least one million minutes before June 30. The belief is that, by incorporating reading into a daily routine to a greater extent, students will improve their vocabulary and comprehension to achieve academic success and grow a lifelong love of reading.
Each month, the district will recognize the building with the most minutes read per-student, in addition to the most minutes read overall. Individually, the students who read the most in each building each month will be recognized and invited to a Board of Education meeting the following month. Lists of students will also be compiled for recognition: “Story Seekers,” who read between 50 and 149 minutes; “Minute Masters,” who read 150-249 minutes; and “Royalty Readers,” who read 250 minutes or more.
For February, the district accumulated roughly 197,000 minutes, led by Krieger Elementary’s 39,682 and Warring Elementary’s 38,551. Individually, 98 students earned “Royalty Reader” status.
Leaders for each school were:

• Poughkeepsie Middle School: Sean Foster (8th grade) 811 minutes
• Clinton Elementary: Sheng Wei (5th) 305 minutes
• Krieger Elementary: Maya Marquez (1st) 316 minutes
• Truth Elementary: Jermiere Williams (2nd) 538 minutes
• Smith Elementary: Dereck Perez Corea (3rd) 695 minutes
• Warring Elementary: Azuri Massey (5th) 483 minutes.

At the end of the presentation Monday, the top 15 readers at Smith were each called to be honored in front of their classmates with a certificate, handshakes from Mott and others, and a lollypop. All 15 read more than 388 minutes in the month and four (Perez Corea, Lerkvi Urieta Rivera, Julian Guido and Axel Huila Perez) topped 550 minutes.
“I just want to say congratulations to everybody,” Smith Principal Jessica Baruffo told her students. “We have read a lot of minutes.”
Plenty of awards and incentives for the challenge are still to be announced, including details of the year-end awards and party planned to celebrate reading the district’s goals.
Learn more about the reading challenge at www.poughkeepsieschools.org/readingchallenge