The Poughkeepsie City School District Board of Education honored students excelling in the Poughkeepsie Reading Challenge at its meeting March 18.
The students who read the most minutes in each school building in February were invited to the meeting to be recognized with certificates and coupons courtesy of Texas Roadhouse for a free kids meal.
The list of honorees included:

• 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.

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, using the myON digital library platform. 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.
Through Friday, March 20, students had read roughly 382,000 minutes, placing the district on track to exceed its goal. 
Superintendent of Schools Gregory Mott at the meeting thanked the students and their families for embracing the Reading Challenge, noting, as many students cannot take their school-supplied Chromebooks and tablets home, the amount of minutes read outside of school hours on myON is especially impressive.
“That’s dedication and commitment from our students and that’s also dedication, commitment and understanding of the importance of reading from our parents, and our guardians and our loved ones,” he said.
Each month, the Board of Education will honor high achievers in the Reading Challenge at a meeting. In addition to those who read the most minutes who are honored individually, all students who finish each month as a “Royalty Reader” (250 or more minutes), “Minute Master (150 to 249 minutes) or “Story Seeker” (50 to 149 minutes) are invited to the meetings to stand and be recognized.
Many of the schools’ principals and assistant principals also attended the meeting to congratulate their students.
“This is a fantastic group of administrators, who are doing a bang-up job,” Mott said, before the principals announced the students. “Our administrators are supporting this Reading Challenge … they understand the importance of reading and the enjoyment of reading.”
Clinton Principal Dr. David Scott praised the students’ work ethic.
“They have embraced the opportunity to read, they have embraced the opportunity for the challenge and they’re really getting a lot out of it,” he said. “They are really getting a lot out of it. We’re really turning children into readers, growing that love for reading, which is going to be beneficial throughout their life.”
Previously, district leadership visited Smith Elementary to celebrate its earning 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. Watch a video from that day below.