The grossest flavor of jelly bean is dead fish.
“It’s been dead awhile,” said Susan Yakich, principal of Jefferson Elementary, as she popped one into her mouth Wednesday morning, March 10. Joining her was Jefferson Dean of Students Robin Murdock, also eating a jelly bean, and Jennifer Craig and PTA President Angela Olsen, both holding up their phones to record the sight for social media.
Yakich and Murdock sat outside at 8 a.m. under a covered area of the elementary school, each with a checklist of less-than-ideal morning tasks for a work day morning — eat 15 BeanBoozled Jelly Beans, pour seven cracked eggs on their heads and have a silly string fight — all in the name of congratulating and celebrating their elementary school students for reading for 62,395 minutes and raising $7,590 along the way as part of the Jefferson PTA Reading Challenge Fundraiser.
All students who participated in the reading challenge also get to attend a virtual PTA disco dance party next week.
According to Yakich, 116 students met their reading goals — 100 minutes for kindergarten and transitional kindergarten, 200 minutes for first and second grade and 300 minutes for third and fourth grade — all of which earned VIP prize bags for the dance party.
The top fundraising classes were Barbara Fayter’s kindergarten class who earned $935, Sarah Miranda’s first grade class who earned $775 and Becki Maloney’s fourth grade class who earned $700.
Of the money raised, $1,000 was from the Cloverdale Kiwanis and Key clubs.
“We’re proud of our students for reading over 60,000 minutes and raising over $7,500 to support our instructional program,” said Yakich in an email. “We appreciate the community’s support and we are grateful for all the support Cloverdale residents give our school and district. We have an amazing community who always puts the students’ best interest at the forefront. Our community is focused on students and providing them with an enriching and engaging instructional program. We thank our PTA for organizing this special event.”
