Students at Baranco Elementary learn love for reading with this award-winning program
Photo caption: Stephanie Dupuis, Instructional Leader at Baranco Elementary, engages with children and families attending the school’s Prime Time Family Reading program in the Baranco Library, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, in Lafayette, La. Photo by Robin May.
By Ashley White
For the past five Tuesdays, after the rest of the school went home, the library of Dr. Raphael Baranco Elementary stayed open to welcome a small group of students and their families.
After dinner and learning about community resources, students gathered cross-legged on the library’s carpet at the feet of Principal Cayce Otwell for a story time. When she finished, they discussed the story to ensure students understood it, its themes and how its central message might show up in their own lives.
It’s the second time Baranco has offered the six-week Prime Time Reading Program. The program is designed to bring children and their families together to foster a love for reading and model how to engage with a book. Over the course of the program, families receive 12 free books for their home library.
“I hope that families see the importance of reading to their children and how much their children get out of a good story,” Otwell said. “I’m hoping to help families develop lifelong readers in their children.”
The program was the winner of the 2025 American Prize from the Library of Congress, which is awarded to organizations for making a significant and measurable contribution to increasing literacy levels in the United States or the national awareness of the importance of literacy.
“This year’s winners and honorees, based in various states and countries, have a particular focus on family and community,” Acting Librarian of Congress Robert Randolph Newlen said in a September news release.
This month, the program will roll out to the four Prime Time Head Start and Early Start centers in Lafayette and Iberia parishes. Prime Time, Inc., an initiative of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, oversees those centers.
Reading and resources
Baranco first hosted the reading program in the spring and about 15 families were interested, Otwell said. When they announced its return this fall, more than 40 families wanted to participate.
“The hard work that it takes to put on the program, it made it a lot easier that so many families were interested,” she said. “Now I have kids passing me in the hall telling me as I walk by, ‘I want to Prime Time,’ ‘When do I get to Prime Time?’”
The program offers support for families in several ways. Each week, free community resources are shared with attendees. Representatives from the library and the Lafayette Parish School System Family Engagement Center talked about how they work with students and families. Other resources have included information about Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and podcasts that discuss the importance of literacy.
The story time, which Otwell said is her favorite part of the program, models to parents how to read and engage with their child once they finish a story. Families receive a pair of books that have a similar theme such as being courageous or clever.
After reading “Abiyoyo,” an African folktale about a ukelele-playing boy and his magician father who save the very town they were ostracized from, students talked about who they knew in real life who showed courage or a moment they had to be brave. First grader James Eggins and his brother, second grader Jitroell Lee, talked about how it took courage for them to learn to swim.
And on top of the resources, families receive, it’s a moment for parents to connect with their students and other families, said the boys’ parent Tanisha Lee.
“It’s a warm place where everybody can come together and socialize,” she said. “It’s been positive. It’s been a learning experience.”