Champion literacy
As a former reading specialist, Diane knows learning to read is the single most important step in a child's education. Get it right early, and everything else gets easier. Miss it, and a student spends years trying to catch up.
Catch reading gaps in the youngest grades, when they're still small enough to close, with the specialists and support students need.
District 3 schools already run real literacy programs — Read to Succeed plans, Ten Oaks Elementary's “Rise With Reading,” Ocean Bay Elementary's book vending machine. Give them district-wide backing.
Celebrate reading in every classroom and home, not just during a single month or campaign.
When a child can't read at the level they should, it touches everything — every subject, every test, and eventually their confidence and their future. Diane has said it plainly: “The more people we have who are educated, the better all of us will be.” Literacy is where that work begins.
It's already happening here
The encouraging part is that District 3's own schools are doing this work right now. Ocean Bay Elementary lives out its “Learn, Grow, Achieve” motto with a Summer Reading Challenge and even a book vending machine. Ten Oaks Elementary runs its “Rise With Reading” drive and Red Fox Readers program. Read to Succeed plans anchor reading across Carolina Forest's elementary schools.
Diane wants to back that grassroots effort with a real district-wide commitment — aligned with Superintendent Clifford Jones' #RiseWithReading campaign — rather than leaving each school to carry it alone.
Early intervention is everything
A reading gap caught in kindergarten or first grade is a small problem. The same gap caught in fourth or fifth grade is a much bigger one. Putting reading specialists and early support where they belong — at the very start — is the most cost-effective investment a district can make.