Jackson Free Press

Baker Elementary School is getting kids excited to read. The south Jackson elementary school recently won "School of the Year" honors from America Reads Mississippi, a literacy program that brings AmeriCorps volunteers into schools to tutor reading and increase community support for literacy. Volunteers work with students one-on-one during the school day, using library books that complement classroom lessons.

Melissa Dearman, the school's administrative assistant, received the "Site Supervisor of the Year" award for her work overseeing the school's AmeriCorps volunteers.

"All of the volunteers I have worked with are so energetic," Dearman says. "They get so excited when they sit and tutor a child, and days later or a month later, that child comes back and says, 'Let me read this to you.' Sometimes it's a child that struggled reading, and they'll pick up that book and start reading--it's amazing."

Dearman's primary responsibility at Baker is handling teacher and student schedules but her work rarely stops there. She has personally bought school supplies--paper, pencils, notebooks--and uniforms for children whose parents can't afford them.

"The money doesn't matter--just to see the kids smile when they know that they're going to be able to go to school, hold their heads up and have their uniforms and supplies," she says.

For students who come to school without their uniforms or need a change of clothes, Dearman keeps a supply of spare uniforms, taking them home to be washed when necessary.

Dearman, 53, has worked at Baker since 1999, after spending eight years at Woodville Heights Elementary School as an instructional support technician. A native of Jackson, she graduated from Callaway High School in 1975 and entered the workforce immediately after graduating, starting off in a cancer research lab associated with Baptist Medical Center.

A self-described "big NASCAR fan," Dearman loves following the racing circuit, as well as taking trips to Gulf Shores, Ala., for parasailing and kayaking.

Dearman, who lives in south Jackson with her husband, Freddy, originally started working with Jackson Public Schools to be closer to her three children. While they're grown up now, she says that the students are still the best part of her work.

"If I make an impression on one child, I think I've done my job," she says.