Reading: It's a splash

COEUR d'ALENE — A throng of children chanted: "Water! Water! Water!"

After a quick countdown, Coeur d'Alene Fire Capt. Nate Hyder unleashed 500 gallons of water on dozens of elementary and middle school kids who cheered, squealed and pranced about beneath the cooling shower from the fire engine.

"We love it," Hyder said with a big smile. "It's just a drop in the bucket for us."

A fire department spraydown, 3,000 water balloons, frozen treats and bouncy houses with water slides were the reward for the nearly 160 kindergarten-through-fifth graders who participated in the Coeur d'Alene School District's CDA Reads program at Fernan STEM Academy this summer. The program culminated with Thursday's celebration.

From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. three days a week since June 20, students from across the district have engaged in the literacy intervention camp to combat the "summer slide" — a term used to describe learning loss some students experience while out of school — and keep their reading skills sharp as they prepare for the next school year.

CDA Reads is geared toward students who struggle with reading. Many participants are in the 40th percentile or lower in reading, or about two grade levels behind where they should be.

“It bridges the gap between school year, summer and school year," said Carla Zimmermann, enrichment coordinator for the Coeur d’Alene School District. "It gives them an opportunity to find positive role models in the older peers with our middle school volunteers."

More than 80 middle school students volunteered this summer to assist their younger counterparts with reading challenges and work with them during literacy-based activities with community partners including the Coeur d’Alene Library, the Community Library Network, Gizmo-CDA, the University of Idaho, the Idaho Resiliency Project and Girl Scouts of America.

Jewel Martin, 14, is an incoming Coeur d'Alene High School freshman. This was her third summer volunteering with CDA Reads.

“I just like the reward of how the kids respond and how they look up to me,” she said while spooling fresh cotton candy onto paper cones. "I also just love kids. I love to help them grow."

Some CDA Reads participants struggle outside of school with unstable housing or food insecurity. Zimmermann, who also works with the Coeur d'Alene Backpack Program that on weekends provides backpacks of food for students in need, said surplus food items from that program helped provide meals for about 42 at-risk students.

“We were able to bring that here and families that needed access to food were able to come pick up food," she said.

Ten teachers helped facilitate CDA Reads this year to provide focused and targeted reading instruction. Zimmermann said it takes a community to grow students and strong readers.

“We just have a phenomenal group of teachers that are here sharing their ideas with one another from different school sites so they get to take those ideas and go back to their schools next year, as well,” Zimmermann said.

As CDA Summer Reads 2023 closed, students were given up to 30 books they've acquired in their personal collections through the program.

Keira DesJarlais, 7, is going into second grade at Dalton Elementary. She said she most enjoys books from CDA Reads and her favorite this summer is “Unusual Chickens for the Unusual Poultry Farmer.”

“We’ve been attending weekly and we did it last year,” said her mom, Rahshel DesJarlais. “It’s just a great way for her to keep engaged in the summer. She has two older brothers and we grab a book for them and a book for her. It’s fantastic.”

“I like it,” Keira said with a shy grin.

Christian Aga, 11, is going into sixth grade at Canfield Middle School. This was his second year in the program.

“It was awesome,” he said, adding that he enjoyed meeting new friends and keeping up on his reading to be better prepared going into middle school.

Steve Spencer, incoming fifth grader at Ramsey Magnet School of Science, enjoyed his first year with CDA Reads.

“There was a science project under the gazebo, there was telescopes and a lot of other stuff I like to do, and I don’t like staying home doing nothing,” he said. "It was pretty fun. Some of it I already knew.”

Casey Pickering, 9, is going into fourth grade at Ramsey. He also enjoyed CDA Reads, especially the day Gizmo visited with supplies for kids to make their own inventions.

"I feel like it could actually make me learn a little more," he said, eating a frozen treat. "But it was pretty fun in the meantime.”

CDA Reads has been paid for through Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds since the COVID-19 pandemic. The district will have to fund new funding sources as ESSER funds are no longer available. This year the district paid for 40% of the program.

Next year CDA Reads will be on its own.

“We’re at risk of losing the program,” Zimmermann said. “We are having to self-fund now."

Info: carla.zimmermann@cdaschools.org