by Jennifer Pritchett
Northern News Services

NNSL (DEC 06/96) - Seniors are getting back into the classroom at Mildred Hall to help students improve their reading skills.

Mary Takasaka, program support teacher at the school, said that the volunteers are needed after education cuts reduced their number of classroom assistants.

"There's never going to be the money to rehire these aids," she said. "This is our way of dealing with cutbacks."

Takasaka said that teachers have a needy student population at Mildred Hall, and using volunteers is the best way to go.

"We have students in Grade 7 who are reading at a Grade 2 or 3 level -- they need one-on-one attention that we can't give them enough of," she said. "The cutbacks affect them first."

Takasaka approached parents for help once teachers found out about the cutbacks.

She said that the parents helping the students did a great deal to help with their reading skills -- many of the students showed improvement after only a few weeks.

"Then I thought about the Aven Centre that's just down the street," she said.

Gerry MacLean, one of the seniors volunteering at the school, is enjoying her work with the children. She started coming into the school once a week nearly a month ago.

"We're providing help to children who need it," she said. "I hope that as the weeks go by, we're going to see progress, and that will be rewarding."

She provides one-on-one attention to remedial students who need the extra time going over material taught in the classroom.

With a senior at the school every day of the week for one hour, Takasaka expects to see improvement in many of the remedial students' reading abilities.

"It has been really positive so far -- both for the students and the seniors," she said.