Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SOUTH JORDAN — Jordan District schools are often filled to capacity with students, and these days they have a growing population of parents. What started as a small challenge with KSL's Read Today program, led to a wave of parents engaged in the education of their children.
The Jordan District started a campaign called "It's a New Year, Volunteer." Officials wanted each parent to spend one hour in class a month for the rest of the school year to help students with reading and school work.
"You've got parents working side by side with teachers doing reading, math," said South Jordan Elementary principal Ken Westwood.
The Read Today program organizers promised a pizza party for the school with the most pledging parents. In one week, South Jordan Elementary parents volunteered 817 hours.
"The kids excel more because the teachers can focus more on what they need to in the classroom," said PTA member Becky Zamora.
Overall, the challenge netted Jordan District more than 15,000 hours of parent pledges to volunteer.
"I love the partnership with our parents, with our community," said superintendent Dr. Patrice Johnson. "It takes everyone to reach every child, every day in our classrooms."
South Jordan city leaders said there's no better way to help bridge the funding gap in schools than by volunteering.
If a person would like to volunteer and help with a student's reading, go to www.Readtoday.com.
