Hopewell Valley principal gets in-school suspension

For the sake of reading, Bruce Arcurio was raised to the rafters of the school gym.

By John Tredrea
   Being principal of an elementary school means doing many things.
   For Bruce Arcurio last Friday, one of them was strapping on a rock-climbing harness and being raised to the rafters of the school gym during an all-school assembly.
   Mr. Arcurio had promised his Bear Tavern students that if the school met its goal during this year’s March Reading Madness, he would read to them while suspended far overhead. The students met the goal and the principal kept his promise.
   "A group of us were talking at school, trying to come up with an idea of something I could do. I don’t remember who it was who suggested that I get hoisted aloft, but that was the idea we went with," said Mr. Arcurio, who was duct-taped to a wall at the end of last year’s Reading Madness.
   The reading challenge ran for five weeks, ending April 3. Students in kindergarten through second grade were challenged to read at least 40 pages each day during the five weeks. Students in grades three through six were challenged to read at least 40 minutes each day. Students meeting the goal would have to read at least 1,400 pages or minutes during the challenge.
   Mr. Arcurio’s spectacular demonstration was held because the school met its goal of 737,800 pages or minutes, calculated by multiplying 527, the number of students in Bear Tavern, by 1,400.
   This year students read more than ever. After the first three weeks of reading half of the classes already had met their goal for the entire reading challenge. The total minutes/pages read by the school was 1,205,577 — or 467,777 over the goal. This averages 2,287 minutes or pages of reading for every Bear Tavern student during the five-week period.
   "The children did a fantastic job," Mr. Arcurio said Monday. "What it’s really about is the kids reading."
   Mr. Arcurio was hoisted 25 feet high in the school gymnasium. Using a rig provided free of charge by the Red Bank outlet of Project U.S.E. (Urban Suburban Environments), teachers pulled a rope that put the principal up in the rafters as a public address system played the James Bond theme. It played the Beatles "Don’t Let Me Down" as he was lowered to the floor. While up near the ceiling, Mr. Arcurio and the school librarian, who was down on the floor, read aloud a two-voiced poem, "I Like."
   "The poem is about two people who can’t agree," the principal said. "They do agree in the end that the one thing they both like to do is read."
   Overseeing the project was Project U.S.E.’s Carl Smith, an expert in wall-climbing and rock-climbing. He did the work for free for Bear Tavern.
   Each class that met its goal will receive a certificate. The class that read the most in each grade level will win an ice cream sundae party.
   The primary grade class that read the most was Constance McCann’s second grade with 76,820 pages of reading (4,068 pages per student).
   The intermediate class that read the most was Martin Knott’s fourth grade with 76,297 minutes of reading (3,468 minutes per student).
   The following classes won the ice cream sundae parties for reading the most in their grade level: kindergarten, Ana Lopez’s afternoon class; Lorraine Drake’s first-grade class; Mrs. McCann’s second-grade class; David Friedrich’s third-grade class; Mr. Knott’s fourth-grade class; and Kimberly Niefer’s fourth-grade class.