District students and staff read “Hidden Figures” in the district’s One Book initiative. Each school will screen the novel’s film Oct. 11.
This summer, the Lenape Regional High School District tried something a little different for its summer reading initiative.
Rather than students and staff at each school reading a book unique to that building, students and staff members at Lenape, Shawnee, Cherokee and Seneca high schools read the same book this summer — “Hidden Figures,” by Margot Lee Shetterly.
With students and staff across the district reading the same book at the same time, district officials hope to use the reading initiative as a way to not only encourage reading, but also focus on building a sense of community across the entire Lenape Regional High School District throughout the year.
“I think we were at the point where we needed a fresh face as to what the program looked like … but we didn’t want to do away with it because we thought it was valuable,” said Heather Xenakis, director of curriculum and instruction for the Lenape Regional High School District.
Formerly known as “One Book, One School,” district officials now say the initiative, simply known as “One Book,” will allow teachers to create district-wide opportunities to strengthen the LRHSD community by focusing on the themes of “Hidden Figures” and future selections.
“The idea of ‘One Book,’ is that reading is awesome, so let’s read, but let’s also read to help building a community for our schools,” Xenakis said.
The first of those opportunities is scheduled for Oct. 11, with a movie night at all four high schools where students and staff can watch the film “Hidden Figures,” which was released in December of last year and also based on the Shetterly novel.
As with the novel, the film details the stories of several African American women who worked at NASA as mathematicians and engineers during the Space Race of the 1960s, while also dealing with the prejudice they faced due to the color of their skin.
“Some content of the book is about math, but it’s also about what they had to overcome with segregation and these ugly things, so it ties into history classes as well. Then it ties into our science classes when students might ask why it matters to learn certain topics — that’s what we’re going for on a building level and a classroom level,” Xenakis said.
In addition to serving as material for the district’s “One Book” initiative, district officials say the themes of the book also tie-in to the district’s work in its ongoing “No Place for Hate” campaign.
Run through the Anti-Defamation League, the campaign asks schools to combat bullying, bias and hatred through yearly programs and initiatives while also working toward long-term solutions for a positive school climate.
The district started with the program in 2012, and through the work of students and staff in that time, district officials say the Lenape Regional High School District is the only complete No Place for Hate district in the state.
As students and staff were able to vote for the inaugural “One Book” selection last spring, Xenakis said the selection of “Hidden Figures” provides a historical perspective the district can build on as the year goes on.
“Being able to have those conversations (through all schools) is new for us this year,” Xenakis said.
The free, district-wide movie presentation of “Hidden Figures” will be held for students and staff outside at each of the district’s four high schools on Wednesday, Oct. 11, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Additional upcoming events focused on the themes of “Hidden Figures” will include a computer coding night at each school in December and a STEM career night in March.
