The Sweet, Creamy, Sticky, Principal Who Loved Reading

Photos by Brian Mather

Who knew reading so many books would allow you to cover your principal in syrup? The children at
Edgewood Elementary School did.

Where did everybody go?

First she promised to let her students smash cream pies in her face, if her students read 3,000 books.


They did.

Apparently, Edgewood Elementary Principal Calista Boyer did not learn her lesson, so then she made another pledge.

If her students read 5,000, she would become a human ice cream sundae.

Well, it turns out that students like the idea of squirting sticky, slimy, tasty treats all over their principal.

You can see the result for yourself.

But she was a good sport and stepped up to keep her promise for all her students' "Sundae Reading."

As a reward for students taking a reading challenge from Mrs. Boyer and reading almost 6,000 books, Mrs. Boyer became a human ice-cream sundae complete with ice-cream, chocolate syrup, butterscotch syrup, bananas, whipped cream, and sprinkles.

Is this fun or what?

Students were selected one at a time to come up on stage and in front of a full class assembly help turn Principal Boyer into an ice‑cream sundae.

“Books Are Your Ticket to the World” is the Edgewood’s reading incentive program that asks students to read at least 25 books during the course of the year.

Mrs. Boyer pointed out her strategy for encouraging reading,

“This year I wanted to do something extra special to motivate students to read. Together with Connie Belin, Kerry Kline, and Kolb we planned special events that I would do if students met their reading goals each marking period," Boyer said.

What? Are you kidding? There's more?

"We stressed to the students the importance of reading and how if you know how to read you will achieve," she said. "The students loved the ideas and it truly motivated them to read more and more books.”

Boyer was appointed as Edgewood's "interim principal" last year after Angela Tuck resigned to take a new job.

She was appointed at the same time Ryan Oxenford was appointed as "interim principal" at Barth Elementary School, taking over for Robert Geiring, who had also taken another job.

The good news is both Boyer and Oxenford were unanimously re-appointed by the Pottstown School Board Monday night to another year at their respective schools.