MacAfee Road School Principal Gets ‘Pied’ By Super Readers

MacAfee Road School principal Bill Grippo gets “pied” by a student as part of the school’s “Grow a Garden of Readers” program.

A group of MacAfee Road School students on  June 22 were awarded a prize they’d worked for the entire school year: they got to throw a pie in their principal’s face.

Some even got to throw more than one.

It was all part of the school’s Grow a Garden of Readers program, which incentivizes students reading books. The way it works is students record books that they have read, and the students who read the most – after meeting a minimum threshold – partake in the prizes.

This year there were two prizes, actually. Students who read the most books  were able to throw pies in the face of principal Bill Grippo. Those on the next level had the chance to dunk a teacher in a dunk tank.

Students had to read a minimum of 10 books to participate, said 3rd Grade teacher Linda Krute, one of the event’s organizers. In the case of the (whipped cream) pie throwing, every 30 books read earned one pie.

“There were some kids who really read a lot of books,” she said. “It was quite an accomplishment.”

She said the students started the school year with the goal of reading 2,018 books, but actually read more than 2,100.

Corinne Yorlano, a 4th Grade teacher and co-chairperson of the organizing committee, said the program inspires children to read.

“It inspires students to grow as a reader and learn about all the great places a book can take you,” she said. “That is what this program is all about.”

She said the students could read anything they wanted.

“Anything that they like, fiction, non-fiction, informational, magazines, current events going on,” she said. “Anything that gets kids excited about reading is what we’re interested in.”

Grippo said the program has its roots in the school’s organic garden.

“When I first got to MacAfee we started the organic garden, it was an outgrowth of the greenhouse,” he said. “We connected the reading incentive program to the garden, that children should be growing their love for reading.”

Here are some scenes from the day:

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