Alvin ISD is attempting to increase summer reading with its Book Bus, a program that came to fruition in June. Ana Pasarella, AISD family engagement coordinator, put her plan in motion three months ago.

“During the summer, the kids who don’t have access to literacy always come back in the fall with a lot of what we call ‘summer reading loss,’” she said. “Some of them regress [up to] two or three reading levels. I was thinking of an idea to get books to them in the summer so that they could continue reading.”

The Book Bus—a former district vehicle that was repurposed by AISD students—is filled with reading selections available for the public to check out. The six-week program will run through July 27.

“We can serve anybody in the community who wants to come,” Pasarella said. “It’s geared toward the students, but anybody who wants to come from the community is welcome.”

The district held a book drive to generate the bus’s inventory. The campaign collected 14,000 books for the program, Pasarella said. Selections focus on students’ personal interests as opposed to academic subjects, officials said.

Career and technical education students from Alvin and Manvel high schools remodeled the interior of the bus to remove seats and install shelves. The Book Bus also features Wi-Fi, iPad Minis and a flat-screen TV.

AISD officials chose the bus’s stops to serve areas across the district that have more limited access to books, Pasarella said. The 13 Book Bus locations are spread throughout the district.

“We tried to hit at least one or two neighborhoods that feed into every school in the district, especially the Title 1 schools, which are the schools that have more socioeconomic needs,” she said.

The AISD Education Foundation donated $10,000 to jump-start the program. Pasarella said making the Book Bus a reality was a group effort.

“[The Book Bus] was [the result of] a cooperation of almost every department in this district: special programs, CTE, transportation and the librarians,” she said.