Angie Perrier loves to engage her students in reading. But the media specialist at Colfax Elementary is quick to point out that she’s not solely responsible for her school being named a GCS Reads 20 School of the Month.

Reading is a school-wide commitment, from the reading logs that go home every night to the Battle of the Books team that boasts 40 members starting in third grade. Students also make use of the district’s eBooks, both at school and at home. In the media center, Perrier helps deepen that love of reading with hands-on activities that reinforce skills in other subjects, such as art or math.

On Monday, for example, after Perrier read “This Book Just Ate My Dog!,” the students illustrated their own comic books with similar themes, following the story but making it their own. When they read “The Day the Crayons Quit,” the children wrote letters to Crayola advocating for their favorite colors and summarized the class favorites into a spreadsheet.

GCS students read more than 19.5 million minutes in March, an average of 270 minutes per child. GCS Reads 20 encourages children to read 20 minutes per day, which has been shown to improve test scores and overall academic success.

Other schools that were named GCS Reads 20 Schools of the Month are:

• The Academy at Lincoln (Southeastern Region), with 405 minutes per student
• Jones Elementary (Central Region), with 404 minutes per student
• Western High Northern Region), with 488 minutes per student.