Principal sleeps on school roof
Karen Peterson
Principal Tyler Arlint climbs 33 feet to the roof.
Karen Peterson
As a Bulldog, Principal Arlint sets up to sleep in the doghouse.
Karen Peterson
Principal Tyler Arlint shows kids, with a thumbs-up, that he made it on the roof.
Karen Peterson
Students raise hands in agreement after being asked if they want to see the principal on the roof.
Karen Peterson
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ST. IGNATIUS — Mission Elementary School principal Tyler Arlint gripped the ladder leaning against the 33-foot building and began to climb.
“On the roof, on the roof,” the elementary students chanted. Principal Arlint promised to spend the night on the roof if the students read 2,000 books as a school in the month of February. The kids were so excited to put the principal on the roof that they read 2,148 books.
School secretary Connie Marchant thought the principal should do this project when it was warmer outside, maybe after the snow melts, but February is National I Love to Read Month, so it had to be done in the cold.
Before the climb, the principal set up an igloo style doghouse on the roof, and he planned to sleep in it. He also had a cup of noodles, water, and a warm sleeping bag. The Lake County 911 Dispatch service was called in case police officers saw a man on the roof and got worried.
The children debated whether the principal would freeze into an icicle during the night. It was a bright sunny day when he climbed onto the roof at 3:05 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 28, but the thermometer read 32 degrees, and the 15 mph winds made it seem more like 20 degrees. Arlint was ready for colder night temperatures and the possibility of more snow.
“It might be really cold up there tonight,” Kieran Incashola, 8, said.
And Eugene McDonald, 8, agreed: “Yeah, he might freeze.”
The boys said they read “extra books” to get the principal on the roof, and it was exciting to see him go up there, but they hope he comes back down. The principal also planned to give the kids hot chocolate in the morning around 8 a.m. when his time on the roof was up.
The idea for the project started when Arlint was a student at the school about 30 years ago. The principal at that time, Mr. Dave Werdin, slept on the roof to excite the kids about a similar project, and it made an impression on Arlint.
“He was the kind of principal I want to be,” Arlint said.
Principal Arlint also had a motive behind the project.
“Reading sets a pattern for lifelong learning,” he said. “And our district has a goal to have an 80 percent proficiency rate in reading by third grade. Reading develops the whole student, across every subject.”
And the more books the kids read, the better.
“My favorite part about this is when kids come up to me and say ‘I read five books last night to get you on the roof.’ I couldn’t be more pleased,” Arlint said.
Principal Arlint did make it off the roof the next morning to have hot chocolate with the students.
