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Read With Me volunteers credited with thousands of reading hours in Palm Springs Unified
Summary
District staff and Read With Me leaders described a volunteer literacy partnership that provided thousands of volunteer hours, tens of thousands of books, and plans to expand to additional Palm Springs elementary schools.
Palm Springs Unified School District staff and leaders from the nonprofit Read With Me presented the district board with an overview of a long-running volunteer literacy partnership that supplies tutors, mentors and books to elementary classrooms across the Coachella Valley.
Jessica Whiteman, the district’s director of elementary curriculum and instruction, introduced Read With Me as a nonprofit founded by Roberta Klein that “assists children from low‑income, limited‑English environments to develop to their fullest potential by learning to read, comprehend and speak English.” Whiteman said the organization partners with all three valley school districts (Palm Springs Unified, Desert Sands and Coachella Valley) and that Palm Springs Unified will expand the program to additional elementary schools next year.
Read With Me Executive Director Sean Webb, a Riverside County Office of Education employee, told the board the program provides volunteers to classrooms and donates books at schools and community events. Webb and district staff reported recent program data for Palm Springs Unified: - 2022–23 and 2023–24 combined: 106–164 classroom volunteers (range reported in presentation), nearly 4,000 mentoring/tutoring hours in classrooms, and more than 4,000 books distributed to schools with roughly 15,000 books provided during community events. - Through April of the 2024–25 school year: 142 classroom volunteers, over 3,000 hours of mentoring and tutoring, 4,624 books provided to schools, nearly 15,000 books purchased for book fairs, and 17,000 books distributed at community events.
Whiteman described the program’s onboarding and operating model: when a school agrees to partner, site administrators recruit teacher interest while Read With Me recruits, clears and orients volunteers; volunteers commit at least one hour per week (many serve more), usually during a November–April season though some serve year-round. Read With Me coordinates with district volunteer clearance procedures and training.
Sean Webb outlined summer and community activities planned for 2025, including weekly reading hours at the Children’s Discovery Museum, book distribution at food-bank events, and participation in a free-movie summer program at the Mary Pickford Theater where volunteers supply books during movie previews. Webb thanked district staff for what he described as an easy fingerprinting and TB-clearance process and praised the district’s volunteer coordination.
Board members thanked the organization for its work and praised volunteers; several board members noted Read With Me’s recent recognition by the Cathedral City Greater Coachella Valley Chamber of Commerce as Nonprofit of the Year. No board action was required or taken on the presentation.
