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RPES Wins NYS Regional PTA PARP Award for 8th Time!

Congratulations to Rensselaer Park Elementary and RPES Reading Teacher Kelly Juliano for the 8th consecutive time winning the New York State PTA’s Pick a Reading Partner (PARP) Award for the Northeastern Region! Mrs. Juliano attended the NYS PTA's awards banquet on October 24, 2024.

The PARP program is a statewide NYS PTA initiative promoting literacy and daily reading among young students. Students pick a reading partner (parent, grandparent, sibling, etc.) and read for at least 20 minutes daily with them outside of school while the program is running.

Winning PARP programs must:

  • Encourage cooperative reading or literacy activities for at least 20 minutes a day
  • Have a wide variety of community involvement and participation
  • Be accessible and affordable to all communities and make creative use of literacy activities

RPES won this year's Northeastern Region PARP Award for their 2023-2024 School Year take on the program - "RPES Reading Extravaganza" - which transformed the school into the New York State Fair! The program ran from March 1 - March 28, 2024, and as a building, RPES read a total of 183,109 minutes during it! 

While many at RPES play a part in making PARP an annual success at the school, a special shout out and thank you go to Mrs. Juliano, who takes the lead role in organizing it year after year, transforming the school every March and inspiring the students to read more!