The Allen County Primary Center (ACPC) has received a Dollar General
Literacy Foundation Grant that will be used to help the 900 students at the
school enhance their reading skills. School officials were presented with the $3,898
grant Friday morning at the school.
“The Dollar General Literacy Foundation believes in providing literacy
opportunities to all children and believes in adult literacy as well,”
explained Brooke Menchaca, the Senior Human Resources Manager for the Dollar
General Distribution Center in Scottsville. “We have been fortunate to give
over $159 million in scholarships and grants for literacy and we are just
continuing that mission.”
The grant will be used to purchase the program, Reading A to Z.
“This program will supplement the reading program we have called Being a
Reader,” noted Melissa Jones, Instructional Coach at ACPC. “The new program provides
additional materials for teachers to use in teaching students to read. Not only
will it help students who need additional help but also reach students who need
more of a challenge. The span of this program goes from the lower grades up to
the higher grades. It will have lessons that can be used in guided reading
groups. Our ECE (Exceptional Child Education) teachers and our RTI (Response to
Invention) teachers can use it in their groups. This program benefits every
child.”
Allen County Primary Center Principal Tim Wilson explains that the new
program has digital access which allows 65 teachers in the building to use the
program as needed.
“The program being digital gives us many more opportunities,” Wilson
said. “In the Being a Reader program, we have to share materials because
everything is hard copy. This new program gives every teacher in the building
that many more materials to reach our children. We are super-excited to have
this. It’s one more key piece in teaching children to read.”
Jones adds that the program will be purchased as soon as possible with implantation
expected by the end of September or the first of October.