A day to rule the school

• Photo: Principal for a day

The chair was a little big, but otherwise, first grader MacKenzie Frame felt pretty comfortable behind the principal’s desk at North Trail Elementary School. Frame earned the Principal for a Day title after collecting the most donations in a recent Read-A-Thon.

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Reading books paid off big time for North Trail Elementary School first grader MacKenzie Frame. She read so much, she got to rule her school for a day.

Along with all of the other students at NTES, Frame was challenged to collect pledges through a recent school Read-A-Thon. The incentive? Principal Steven Geis would step aside for the student who read the most.

That means Frame was principal for a day last Wednesday.

Principal Frame came to school with her hair pinned up, a pretty lavender dress and a matching sweater. After all, she had to look the part. And she took her role very seriously.

It was a busy day for the young principal. She gave a visiting family a tour of the school and hosted a tea for volunteers. In the afternoon she sat through a Positive Behavior, Intervention and Support meeting with auditors from the Minnesota Department of Education. Geis got to tag along, too - just in case she needed a little backup. She even got to sit in the principal’s chair once in a while.

To principal Frame, the job seemed pretty easy.

“It’s not hard,” she said.

She didn’t remember how much she earned in the Read-A-Thon, but Geis said principal Frame earned her seat at his desk because she brought in the most of anyone in the school. Principal Frame said she was “very happy” when she learned she had earned the reward.

As a reader, Frame said her favorite books are the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series - she’s on her second book now.

Tags: district 192, elementary schools, education