State Sen. Dr. Akilah Weber Pierson and the nonprofit United Way of San Diego County teamed up on Friday to give Linda Vista Elementary School students a gift ahead of spring break.
The youngsters got to pick out new books to take home, hopefully to read over the break, which begins Monday.
The senator from the 39th district, which includes parts of the city of San Diego, Coronado, El Cajon, La Mesa and Lemon Grove, organized book drives during her time in the State Assembly, but Pierson said this is her first time continuing the practice after taking her new office.
It’s also the first year she has handed out the books at a local school.
“To continue to provide these things to the district, to the community, also adds a sense of continuity,” Pierson said. “So they know about it and they look for it.”
Over 800 donated books sorted by reading level were laid out across two rows of tables in the school’s auditorium. Each student was invited to pick out two as volunteers stood behind the tables, ready to help find the perfect fit.
Across San Diego County, more than half of children are not reading at grade level by the time they enter fourth grade. Linda Vista Elementary’s California Smarter Balanced Assessment results for the 2022 school year revealed that 55.6% of students did not meet English Language Arts achievement levels.
Another slice fell just short of the standard, leaving 77.8% of Linda Vista Elementary students underperforming in ELA.
For Nancy Sasaki, president and CEO of United Way San Diego County, providing students with a way to build their own “at-home library” is a way to help bridge the achievement gap.
“I didn’t even realize kids didn’t have books in their homes,” Sasaki said. “I grew up with a ton of books in my house, but there are families that don’t have books. And you can’t learn to read if you don’t have access to a book, right?”
Before the students made their picks, Pierson and Sasaki said a few words as two SeaWorld mascots stood on stage, eliciting cheers and hands raised high, waving to catch the attention of either the giant polar bear and penguin. Even with this excitement, once students were dismissed, they swarmed the tables.
Among the volunteers were three women from Phi Delta Kappa Incorporated, a sorority for Black women in the education field, who sat in their bright red Delta Epsilon chapter jackets.
Cheryl McClellan, the sorority’s far west regional director, said each of the women once worked in San Diego schools, and their involvement with the chapter provides them with opportunities to continue serving children across the county.
As students approached the tables, they asked volunteers questions ranging from “Does this one have pictures?” to more specific queries. For instance, were there any “cat ninja” books?
McClellan said these questions encouraged her as students showed a genuine interest in what they would take home. She said the variety of books drew students in; one even expressed excitement about seeing pages in English and Spanish.
Seeing students set on making the right selection, Sasaki said, is a consistent part of the book drives. For her, their determination is one of the most rewarding parts of the day.
“When we’re going through the book distribution, these kids are really purposeful about which book they’re going to take,” Sasaki said. “They don’t just grab a book to grab a book. They really look at it in terms of, is this a book I want? It is the cutest thing to see.”
