Montclair Elementary School has been selected as winner and Yorkshire Elementary School as a finalist of the Virginia State Reading Association’s Exemplary Reading Program Award.  The Prince William County schools are the only ones to be recognized for this award. 
 The committee visited the schools in February and was impressed by the numerous activities used to promote reading.  Montclair Elementary incorporates reading exercises into every subject. 

 “Reading was everywhere in the school,” said Key Edmondson, co-chairman of the Exemplary Reading Program Committee which selected the school.  She said examples of reading were in the classroom, on the walls and in the halls.  The 45,680 books that students checked out of the library last year impressed Edmondson. 

 Montclair Elementary School received the award during the annual state conference in Arlington on February 23 – 25.  The school will also be recognized at the International Reading Association Convention in New Orleans on April 29 – May 2.

The Exemplary Reading Program Award is sponsored by the International Reading Association to recognize outstanding reading and language arts programs at all grade levels.  Its purpose is to call the public’s attention to outstanding programs in schools throughout North America.  Each participating state and province can choose one winning school.

The program has five objectives: to improve literacy in our society; to recognize school staffs who demonstrate excellence in reading and literacy programs; to encourage the development and refinement of exemplary reading and language arts program; to report to the public noteworthy efforts to improve reading and language arts and to disseminate specific information about high quality programs so that other professionals can use it to improve their own instructional efforts.