BIDDEFORD – A Biddeford school principal has taken an activity long deemed a cornerstone of literacy and brought it to the web.

Margaret Pitts of Biddeford Primary School has read books via the Facebook Live feature at 7 p.m. every Sunday through Thursday since early March.

“The first one on March 11 had 1,000 views,” she said, almost in disbelief. “Kids and parents have come to expect it.”

The idea, said Assistant Superintendent Chris Indorf, was inspired by an article in a national newspaper.

“I sent Margaret the article, suggested she try it and offered to do the same,” Indorf said. “’Kids can read along with me and my son, Benny,’ I wrote her in an email. ‘Maybe once a week?’”

Pitts, who said she has the time because her husband works out of town most of the week, turned it into something more.

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“She jumped in with two feet,” Indorf said. “Within 48 hours she was live, in my Facebook app, dressed in PJs, on her couch reading to literally hundreds of students. Five days a week since then she has done it every single night. She’s viral in York County.”

Parents often comment on the video on behalf of their children and Pitts reads through the comments at the end of the story.

“Hundreds of families check in – one parent event posted a picture of her two daughters hugging the TV screen on which Margaret was projected reading a  book. It’s been amazing,” said Indorf, who’s waiting for his turn to be a guest reader.

A recent school board meeting took Pitts from away from reading duty, so a guest reader filled in for her. One session featured at least five members of the Biddeford School Department who were together for professional development, all donning crayon hats for a reading of “The Day the Crayons Quit.”

Pitts said live story times, which can be seen on the Biddeford Primary School Facebook page, are not only good for children, but also for parents.

“Everyone is busy,” she said, “and anything you can do to get a child interested in reading is worth doing.”

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Pitts signs off by reminding boys and girls to brush their teeth and wash their faces, along with the quote, “In a world where you can be anything, be kind.”

Celeste Charland, whose oldest son, Caiden, is a third-grader at Biddeford Primary, and Carson, a student in the pre-kindergarten program at JFK, watch the live story times as a family.

Charland said it teaches her children school spirit and it’s a nice way to unwind at the end of the day.

Caiden and Carson love to anticipate what book Pitts will choose and embrace the mystery of a guest reader.

Pitts said she plans to read during April vacation while visiting family in Texas, where she thinks students will enjoy guest readers with different accents than what they’re used to.

The story times, Indorf said, are part of a five-year strategic plan for academics. First, is to increase literacy achievement for students.

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“While it’s all important, strong literacy skills are the undeniable prerequisite for future success, regardless of vocation,” Indorf said.

Second, school officials have identified childhood trauma related to abuse, neglect and substance abuse by parents as a barrier to improving literacy outcomes.

The third component to the plan, Indorf said, is to strengthen school-to-home connections that reach beyond the school day.

“Learning doesn’t have to end at 2:30 or in June, and it doesn’t have to start at age 5,” he added. “In that context, it occurred to me that the idea of a principal reading bedtime stories to kids is really the nexus of all three efforts: community connection, making reading important, routine and fun, and potentially offsetting some of the daily stressors that many of our children face, including the ravages of poverty, broken homes, abuse, neglect or even just parents who aren’t home because they are working two jobs to make ends meet.”

The school department’s backpack program feeds hundreds of hungry families each week and Pitts and other Biddeford Primary School staff served a free Thanksgiving meal to the community in November.

“This is another way we show families that we care,” Indorf said. “We want to support them and our work never ends. Margaret and our other principals care desperately for kids. We know that hungry, scared, cold and stressed children suffer delays in development and while we can’t be in everyone’s home all the time, we’re getting darn close.”

Indorf said policymakers sometime bemoan schools acting as social service agencies.

“We are proud to say we try to be both,” Indorf said. “While we lack some of the expertise and resources to be the latter, we have the obligation to try. The city is changing – some say gentrifying – but we still have hundreds of needy children who depend on us to try everything we can to strengthen their lives and improve their prospects for the future.”

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