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Hay Wonders if 'His' Kids Are Reading

Just because it is summer and the school year is over, that doesn’t mean school principals stop thinking about their students. David Hay, principal of Brookside Elementary School, sure doesn’t. He worries about children who rely upon school lunch programs for a nourishing hot meal each day and wonders what they will eat over the summer. He wonders if “his” kids are reading, he says.

“We encourage them to read,” he said. “We had a kick-off for the ‘Governor’s Summer Reading Challenge.’”

Like many educators, Hay said he believes regular reading is one of the best ways for students to maintain their skills over the summer recess. Last year, 52 percent of Brookside students participated in the program and Hay said he expects even more kids read but didn’t keep journals.

“The agricultural clock is all wrong but how do we change it?” he asked, referring to the long summer vacation that is the consternation of many educators. The schedule became popular decades ago to allow children to tend crops during the summer.

Improving education is Hay's passion. Convinced the only effective way to close Connecticut’s achievement gap is to begin before children arrive for kindergarten, he pushed for a pre-school at Brookside. In October 2008 he got his wish.

In 2009, the educational advocacy organization ConnCAN recognized Brookside as one of its “Success Story Schools.” To achieve the distinction, a school must have a combined minority and low-income population of at least 75 percent and score in the top three in one of ConnCAN’s Top 10 lists of academic achievement. Brookside earned third place that year for academic achievement among its Hispanic students.

Recently, Hay and his wife bought a house in Massachusetts where they plan to spend time this summer. That doesn’t mean he is finished with education, though.

“Oh, no,” he said. “I still have some years here.”

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