Gathering ideas to boost literacy in Monterey County

The Literacy Service Providers Network of Monterey County will host Symia Stigler of Sacramento at its monthly meeting Tuesday, April 30.

Stigler will discuss the process Sacramento is using to develop and implement its 10-year plan to have all their third graders at grade-level reading.

Stigler will outline how Sacramento READS! and the stakeholders in Sacramento were able to draft, organize and implement a Third Grade Literacy Campaign as a ten year initiative with a vision of making Sacramento the first city in the country to have every third grader reading on grade level by the end of third grade.

It promises to be an interesting presentation, particularly as Monterey County gears up its literacy campaign. With the recent hiring of Ron Eastwood to lead the organization, there are already several major events planned for this year. Like the Sacramento campaign, the main goal of the Literacy Campaign for Monterey County is to have all children achieve literacy by the third grade. (Fully disclosure: I'm on the board of directors of the campaign, and very excited about how we're moving forward).

The monthly meeting will take place from 11:30 a.m to 1 p.m. Tuesday, April 30, at the conference room, of the Salinas City Elementary District Office, 840 South Main Street, Salinas. RSVP to Crystal Macias Diaz at cmacias@literacycampaignmc.org or 595-2665. Lunch will be provided and sitting is limited. RSVP needed to plan lunches.