OBSERVER Photo by Natasha Matteliano Interim superintendent Sylvia Root presents on the reading issue at Dunkirk’s Board of Education meeting on Feb. 25.

Dunkirk city schools are looking at changing their current curriculum for teaching children how to read.

At the recent Dunkirk Board of Education meeting, Sylvia Root, interim school superintendent, presented an issue to the board that involves reading.

In their current process, students in third grade are not getting fundamentals of reading due to module instruction, which was an aspect from common core curriculum, according to Root. By third grade, most of the students are “reading to learn, not learning to read.” The problem with this is that a great number of students are not fully up to speed on their reading skills by third grade and not teaching them reading from that point on impacts student success for the rest of their school career and lives.

“This is an issue for us and our principals, teachers recognize we need to change this procedure for many of our students,” said Root.

To solve this problem, Dunkirk will need a new curriculum that allows more time for learning how to read. To do this, Root will form a committee to work on what their new curriculum will be.

“You asked me to keep the district moving forward,” said Root to the board. “So, I’m trying.”