When Bill Johnson retired after 15 years as an assistant principal at Arvada K-8 in 1992, he didn’t really retire. He started the Read to Me program, which has promoted parents reading to their children for the past 12 years.
In honor of that devotion, the school recently dedicated the Bill Johnson Library for a former employee who has helped thousands of students with their reading skills over the years. The naming was a surprise to the guest of honor.
“It really touched me,” Johnson said. “I walked in that building completely unaware of what was going to happen.”
The Read to Me program sends kindergartners through second-graders home with a different book each week for their parents to read to them. In the beginning, Johnson organized the book packets for 46 classrooms by himself. The Arvada Optimist Club now provides six to eight volunteers for the program.
When kids are read to, Johnson said, their reading skills improve. He estimates kids are read to for 28,500 hours a year through the program.
