It's all hands on deck as schools continue to return to in-person instruction, slowly, across the region.
One school district in Shasta County is pressing non-teachers into service to augment the educational offerings for students. The Cascade Union Elementary School District in Anderson recently started a reading program called "CHIRP," for Cascade Hero Inspired Reading Program.
It gives books to students, and provides Zoom reading sessions led by district employees, a couple of evenings a week. The employees who volunteer are from classified staff: bus drivers, janitors, and other non-classroom occupations.
Superintendent Jason Provence and district librarian Rita Reiley talk to us about the workings of CHIRP, and its creation.
The students get to keep the books, which are featured in the California Young Reader Medal program.