Hitting the books reaping awards for two schools

Irma Lemus

BURBANK -- Voracious reading habits are paying off for Walt Disney and

George Washington elementary school students whose schools were winners

in a new reading program introduced by Gov. Gray Davis.

The schools will receive $5,000 each in cash awards, said district

officials.

The "Reading Awards Program," implemented this school year, provides

$2 million in awards as an incentive for students in kindergarten through

eight grade to read every day.

A total of 400 schools from throughout the state will receive awards

from the six-month program. At Disney, students read more than 600,000

pages this year and at Washington the total was more than 900,000 pages,

school officials said.