The Liberty County School System is starting a new literacy campaign and is looking for partners to jump on board.
Dr. Zheadric Barbra, the system’s deputy superintendent, gave board members a look at the new effort, which will launch next month. The goal is to get 100 members of the community to read to and with a selected student bi-weekly. There have been two meetings so far with a number of stakeholders.
“We wanted to figure something easy, something fast, that everyone in the community could get behind,” Dr. Barbra said. “We want to build a literacy-focused community, increase student grade-level literacy rates and expand early learning opportunities from birth to pre-K.”
While Liberty County schools currently have more than 10,580 students and boast a graduation rate of nearly 92%, the system wants to boost its Lexile scores — those figures measure a student’s reading ability.
In 2025, the percentage of students with a Lexile at or above grade level was 59% for third grade, 50% for fourth grade, 70% for fifth grade, 49% for sixth grade, 62% for seventh grade, 62% for eighth grade and 63% for high school students in American literature.
Dr. Barbara also cited national statistics that show 54% of those ages 16–74 read below a sixth-grade level. The same study revealed approximately 45 million adults are functionally illiterate, reading below a fifth-grade level. The average American reads at a seventh- or eighth-grade level, and children surrounded by adults with low literacy rates are 72% more likely to have a low reading level in school.
The same set of statistics also said 44% of Americans did not read at least one book last year.
The Power of 100, Dr. Barbara pointed out, is designed to boost literacy initiatives by focusing on enhancing reading and writing skills for all students, from pre-kindergarten to high school. It also will try to foster a love of reading throughout the community, provide access to diverse reading materials and support teachers through professional development.
Dr. Barbra said they want to continue the Little Free Libraries around town that were started under the school system’s L4GA (Literacy for Learning, Living and Leading) grant. They also want to take advantage of the use of marquees or billboards to promote the effort and he also put forth the idea of having a book table where parents can pick up a free book at a wide variety of meetings.
Both Dr. Barbra and school board chair Verdell Jones noted that literacy was one of the main community initiatives from the annual countywide retreat last fall.
“We want to make sure they are at the table because we want the community to have ownership,” Jones said of community involvement. “We want everybody engaged in that.”
Dr. Barbra also said the program could line up with other volunteer programs, such as Book Buddies, Grandparents Who Read, Mayors Reading Club, the Read Baby Read initiative, which has books for newborns, and Books with Barbers and Reading Gardens.
The material read by volunteers with students also could align with commemorative months, such as Black History Month or Hispanic Heritage Awareness Month.
Volunteers will select the school they want to help and read with a student biweekly for 30 minutes. After completing six sessions with that student — each volunteer will read with a single student for the duration — volunteers will receive a Power of 100 lapel pin.
“What we would like to do is have that consistency,” Dr. Barbra said. “Part of this is building a relationship as well.”
Dr. Barbra said the school system will take the “show on the road” to present to other entities in the coming weeks and they also want to work with area day care centers on their reading curriculum.
A literacy leader link will be hosted on the school system’s website and there will be a QR code for the site. An official launch is set for March 2, which is also National Read Across America Day.