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The Club welcomed visiting Rotarian Bill Nielson from St. Paul and former Club member Jeff Riddlehoover. Jeff talked briefly about the Mounds View School District's request for a $165 million capital referendum to add space to all of the schools which are now operating over capacity.
The guest speakers were Ann Kay and Bill Jones from the Rock N Read Project. The project's mission is to use singing to unlock children's potential for reading and learning. They discussed the importance of children learning to read and future success in life. Based on research, the Rock n Read program has been shown to improve reading by one full grade level with an investment of about 13.5 hours in the program. They have received two State grants to expand the program to different schools. The first State grant helped create a mobile computer lab on a former MTC bus that can have up to 30 students use a software program that is designed to improve reading skills through the use of music. The second $500,000 grant will help expand this program to more classrooms around the metro area and state.