Miss Tara Foor, the librarian, and Mr. Michael Klopfenstein, a journalism and English teacher, are trying out a new program that will be launching soon. This new program is to encourage students’ in the EL program to read more and there will be different incentives for the more pages that they read.

Foor says the way the program works is that the students can go to the library, check out a book and they then have a reading log for the students to fill out as they read. As they read more, they will get book bucks for every certain amount of pages that they read and they can exchange the book bucks for prizes.

“The students can use the prizes for games here at Southport, things at the bookstore, things from the cafeteria,” Foor said. “We are even working with other companies and places like Indiana University, Purdue, and Butler to get tickets and things from them to encourage reading.”

According to Foor, this program is for anyone right now in the EL program, but there are a few teachers that are testing it out to see how popular the program will be. Then, they are hoping to expand it to the entire school at some point. Right now though, they are just trying it with a specific group of kids that they think would benefit them the most.

The thought of this new program has made EL students like Thang Thang very happy. Thang, a sophomore, says that this program is a good program for the EL students because it will bring more EL students wanting to read more. He says that he is also excited about the prizes that will be given.

“I just can’t wait for the prizes because there are many that will be given, and I believe they will be great prizes,” Thang said. “The prizes will allow us to go to games that we’ve never gone before and we will be able to watch the games for free, so I really like the thought of this new program.”