Elementary school principal Lynn Johnson brought teachers to their feet while student’s reading accomplishment March 3. All of the teacher” title=”254a” width=”” height=”” class=”size-FULL”>

Photo by Amy Veneziano

Elementary school principal Lynn Johnson brought teachers to their feet while student’s reading accomplishment March 3. All of the teacher

OROVILLE – At the end of January, Oroville Elementary School principal Lynn Johnson set a goal for her students: to read 1,200 books in February.

Two weeks later, that goal was mastered.

By the end of the month, the student body read 3,085 books and was rewarded with an assembly March 3, when Johnson dressed up as a hornet, popped several balloons – one for every 200 books read – and teachers donned antennae and wild bug eyes.

“This was a way of motivating them,” Johnson said. The original deal was for her to dress as a hornet; all the other activities were added on once the first goal was met.

Johnson also destroyed a hornet piñata made by an art class.

Kindergartners read 206 books; the transitional class read 56 books, first graders read 222 books, second graders read 431 books, third graders read 687 books, the fourth graders red 163 books, the fifth grade read 99 books and the sixth grade read 679 books, Johnson said.

The assembly also included a presentation by Ernie Bartelson, the superintendent of Oroville schools, thanking the bus crew and other staff for their work.

“We don’t have to have a superintendent to run the school,” Bartelson said. “But we have to have these people. We can’t run a school without them.”