Principal and Pig Challenge Students to Read
Sandra Downes, Eisenhower Elementary principal, dyed her hair purple and took a nap on the roof of her Clearwater school in May after students met her challenge and read 10,000 books over a four-month period. This year, she is coming down from the heights to offer a different challenge – if students read 10,000 books by Dec. 19, Downes will kiss a pig.
Students took a vote on Election Day to decide what they wanted her to do if they meet her 10,000-book challenge, and puckering up to a porker won. They also picked some other tasks for her if they exceed her challenge – 11,000 books mean corn rows in her hair; 12,000 books, she dresses like a clown; 13,000 books, she wears pajamas while visiting each class, and 14,000 books, she dyes her hair black. Whatever the students’ success requires will be on display at the school’s Panda Celebration, 9:30 a.m., Friday, Dec. 19.
The pig-kissing promise and the other stunts have a simple purpose. They are to encourage all the school’s students to read more.
Last year’s rooftop nap challenge started with a book. Downes read Miss Malarkey Leaves No Reader Behind by Judy Finchler and Kevin O'Malley to the school’s 720 students over the in-school TV. The book ends with the principal of a fictional school dying his hair purple and sleeping on the roof. Downes challenged her school’s students to be readers and promised to bring the Miss Malarkey book to life if they read 10,000 books by the end of school.
For more information, contact Allison Brown, (727) 725-7978, ext. 2078.
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