Bring Back the book fair during school hours.

Kids who pick their own books feel more engaged and motivated to read. Our book fair provides this opportunity for our students. The book selection includes various topics and genres. It is also a stress-free environment. The books available cover a wide range of reading levels and price points so that everyone can feel included. To this end, we also provide coupons to many students to defray the cost of purchasing a book. The process of browsing for books to purchase not only piques the students’ interest in reading, it also provides practical experience in decision making regarding choices and budgets.
The policy change to only permit the Book Fair after school has been detrimental to our students. The time they once had to come with their teacher to browse, discuss, and purchase has been eliminated. Many families find it very difficult to attend the Book Fair at a specific time after school due to homework, sports, other outside activities, and parents’ work schedules. These same obstacles also affected the volunteers who work at the Book Fair, many of whom were available during the day because their kids were in school. Without the time devoted to the Book Fair during the school hours, many parents simply couldn’t find the time to come and, as a result, the overall student participation suffered.

Scholastic Book Fair Statistics: Fall 2016 vs Fall 2017
Fall 2016 - Middle School
Student Participation at 61.92 %; Independent Reading Minutes are 280,728.
Fall 2016 - Clarks Summit
Student Participation at 127.75 %; Independent Reading Minutes are 236,592
Fall 2016 - S. Abington
Student Participation at 95.42 %; Independent Reading Minutes are 140,004
Fall 2016 - Waverly
Student Participation at 143.33 %; Independent Reading Minutes are 226,008
A total Reading minutes are 883,332
Fall 2017 - Middle school
Student Participation at 6.58 %; Independent Reading Minutes are 62,388
Fall 2017 - Clarks Summit
Student Participation at 49.18 %; Independent Reading Minutes are 140,832
Fall 2017 - S. Abington
Student Participation at 25.33 %; Independent Reading Minutes are 94,068
Fall 2017 - Waverly
Student Participation at 34.86 %; Independent Reading Minutes are 116,618
The total Reading Minutes are 413,906
The drop in participation is staggering across the board. This correlates to a huge difference, a total of 469,427 independent reading minutes, that our kids missed out on.