Texas Border Business
San Juan, Texas – Arnoldo Cantu, Sr. Elementary in the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo School District was recently selected as a recipient of a $2,000 Dollar General Youth Literacy Foundation Grant.
Since it was first established in 1993, the Dollar General Literacy Foundation has awarded more than $159 million in grants to literacy organizations that have helped millions of individuals learn to read, prepare for the high school equivalency or learn English.
According to the Cantu Elementary Librarian Diamantina Garcia, the grant will be used by the campus to promote early literacy among students in pre-kinder to 1st grade by having a special book session in the library where parents can read to them before and after school daily.
“With the grant, we will build up our emergent readers by targeting five essential components of reading that include phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension,” said Garcia. “These are all skills needed for them to become versified readers.”
In addition to promoting early literacy through the grant, Garcia shared that the campus hosts Family Literacy Nights every day, has daily Story Times, and often invites authors to speak to students throughout the year to promote reading among all students.
