Souris School staff are hoping to complement the Accelerated Reader program in the classroom, and have begun a fund-raising drive to ask Weyburn's business community to help them out.

The school has found a positive response to the introduction of the Accelerated Reader program at the school this year, but have found some of the complementary materials and computer programs are costly, said principal Vickie Betker.

In the Accelerated Reader (A.R.) program, there is a specific list of books for use in the program, set at various levels of reading difficulty, and the student takes a test on a computer which logs their progress through the school year.

To complement this program, the school has begun using Reading Renaissance, which is a teaching strategy to incorporate the A.R. program into the daily activities in the classroom.

"Money has been used from our school budget, fund-raising and from our Parents Association to get the program up and running. Although the expense is justified, as it is of great benefit to our students, we are unable to raise the required funds to maintain the program at an optimal level," said Betker, adding the Parents Association gave the school $1,000 last year for books to launch the program in addition to other fund-raising proceeds.

Souris held its first reading night on Wednesday, with 48 tests taken by students who came out with their parents, a bigger response than staff had initially expected. Reading nights, which usually feature prize draws for the children, will be held once a month to help promote the program.

The school is asking businesses to contribute either monetary gifts, to help cover the costs of books, test discs and reading incentives, or products that can be used in the A.R. store as incentives, such as stickers, badges, certificates, book marks, small toys, pencils, erasers, and so on.

Books cost approximately $6 each, computer test discs are $200 each (each containing tests for 50 books) and the cost of reading incentives are about $5 per student a year.

For more information on the program, or to contribute material or funds, contact Vickie Betker at Souris School.