The mission of the APPLE Partnership is to increase community involvement to support families in assisting our children to become successful readers.
In early 2004, alarmed about startling statistics regarding early childhood literacy, the mayor, then James Gibson, and the Council of the City of Henderson pledged community support to help educators and families help children learn to read.
Soon thereafter, Mayor Gibson and Dr. Lauren Kohut-Rost, then the SE Region Superintendent of the CCSD, assembled a group of parents, teachers, principals, and city representatives to meet and create what is known as the APPLE Partnership.
APPLE CORE is the reading program portion of the partnership. The program operates on the understanding that all children are capable of learning and reading is the basis for all learning. It also operates on the understanding that parents and families are the biggest influence on literacy and development and that parents are the most important teachers in a child’s life.
Elementary school administrators are invited to opt-in to the APPLE CORE program each school year. For schools that participate in the program a parent letter will be sent home with students explaining how the program works.
APPLE CORE
Parents/Guardians help log the out-of-school time students read or are read to on the APPLE CORE bookmark.
Parents/Guardians initial one-fourth of an apple on the bookmark for every 15 minutes of out-of-school reading completed.
Students write the titles of their favorite books read on the back of the bookmarks.
Parents/Guardians sign the bookmark after 20 hours of out-of-school reading have been completed.
Students submit their completed bookmarks to their teachers, teachers sign the bookmarks, and students receive another bookmark to continue with the reading program.