School is out for the year and that means Summer Reading!

This year brings a summer reading program at Greywolf Elementary School and an annual summer reading challenge at Helen Haller Elementary School.

The benefits of summer reading are many. Students maintain and improve reading skills, discover new genres of books, develop confidence and grow a love of reading through stories and related activities.

In addition to our schools’ efforts to promote reading this summer, the North Olympic Library system has a summer reading series with activities for all ages as well. Our community strongly supports literacy partnerships.

Each Tuesday and Thursday from June 25-Aug. 20, Greywolf Elementary will host a drop-in Summer Reading program where parents or grandparents can bring their child to check out books to read at home, complete a craft or activity, take home a handwriting practice sheet to complete and return for a prize, and pick up a free lunch!

The program will be located in the small building behind the school at the south end of the campus. The program will be staffed from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. each of those days (except July 4).

Helen Haller Elementary continues the Six Book Challenge again this summer. During the last week of school, students self-selected six books to be taken home and read over the summer. The books were provided by a joint partnership between Sequim Elementary PTA, Sequim Education Association and First Fed.

The students log their reading throughout the summer using University of Washington’s Real Dawgs Read form. At the end of the 30 days of logged reading, students are eligible for a certificate and reward from the Real Dawgs Read program and recognition from Helen Haller Elementary.

Also, our Sequim Library is hosting a comprehensive summer reading program that includes events hosted on the school district campus and beyond. Speakers such as the Reptile Man, a weekly K-5 Discovery Club, a Cartoon Drawing and Teen Songwriting Workshop will be held on our Olympic Peninsula Academy campus. Summer Book Club for grades 1-3 and Tween Book Club meetings will be hosted, and more.

Check out the Summer Reading Challenge and full schedule of available activities at NOLS.org. Let’s support our local library!

In addition to keeping our students engaged in learning, our campus capital projects efforts will progress throughout the summer as well! If you drive by our facilities this summer, you are likely to notice the activities of various contractors addressing replacements and renovations such as HVAC, fire suppression systems, sewer lift station, roofing, re-piping and the Sequim High School track replacement.

There are also projects in motion that are not as visible such as preventative maintenance cycles and interior evaluations of wiring and cabling so that our intercom and access control systems can receive an upgrade.

There will be significant capital projects activity in Sequim School District this summer and we thank the community for the capital levy support for these campus infrastructure improvements.

We look forward to starting back in the fall with capital projects freshly completed to welcome our well-read students!

Regan Nickels is superintendent of the Sequim School District. “Schools in Focus” is a recurring column featured in the Sequim Gazette. See sequimschools.org. For more information or to comment on this column, email to columnists@sequimgazette.com.