A $4,000 donation from Cloverdale Rotary Club will ensure the new Hazelgrove Elementary School, 7057-191 Street, Clayton, will have books on their library shelves on opening day in September.

Rotary vice-president, Dave Woods presented the cheque to Pat Horstead, Director of Instruction for the Surrey School District, at the regular club meeting on Wednesday morning.

Horstead told members that Surrey educates over 66,000 children in the most diverse school population in the province.

Describing SD36 literacy programs - such as PALS, Parents As Literacy Supporters, which works with parents of four and five-year olds many of whom may never have owned a book of their own, and L.L.L, Language, Learning and Literacy — Horstead emphasized the importance of establishing the reading habit with children before they reach Grade 3.

She also explained the district’s support for full-day kindergartens.

Those already put in place by Surrey (the government will not fund them) have been a great success.

Rotarians were surprised to note research shows a 30,000 word deficit in youngsters’ vocabularies attributed to conventional language tools even as simple as old-fashioned dinner-table conversations.

Developing Readers programs, for example, encourages Grade 4 students to venture into non-fiction to expand their comprehension.

The district is concerned about, and working to address, the 40% aboriginal graduation statistics.

An enhancement agreement has been signed to help address the situation.

Horstead, who has 30 years of experience in education, said todays community partnerships, such as the one established with Cloverdale Rotary Club, are extremely valuable.

Other partners include Surrey Parks and Recreation, the City of Surrey, Options, Diversity and Community Schools at Martha Currie and George Greenaway.

editor@cloverdalereporter.com