DNES chief tapped for national RIF honor

By Staff
Staff Reports, Hartselle Enquirer
Danville-Neel Elementary School Principal Jeremy Jones has moved to the front of the class.
Jones has been named the Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) central regional winner of the 2004 Anne Richardson RIF Volunteer of the Year Award, an honor shared by only five people in the nation.
As instructional leader at DNES, Jones has succeeded in the school's goal of 100 percent literacy for all students.
Jones first helped bring RIF to DNES five years ago after learning of the program through the school's partnership with Nestl/. He quickly adopted the program, working with the school's library media specialist to develop motivational activities and literacy ideas.
Programs initiated by Jones include challenges to meet reading goals, partnership with the DollyWood Foundation's Imagination Library, parent workshops, business support, and a Family Literacy Center.
"RIF has made it so simple, I can't believe every school in this nation would not be involved," Jones said. "It's a win-win situation. You want students to learn how to read and to affirm good reading and literature, and through RIF, they do it.'
Made possible this year by a donation from Nestl/ USA, the Volunteer of the Year Award honors extraordinary RIF volunteers across the country and pays tribute to the late RIF Chair Ann e Hazard Richardson. An independent panel of judges selected Jones as one of five outstanding regional volunteers. He will accept the award in June at a RIF board reception in Washington, D.C.