Riley Krummerich, 9, of Largo spent the morning of Monday, July 7, snapping together a solar-powered rover at Plumb Elementary in Clearwater, according to the Tampa Bay Times. A volunteer helped him connect the tiny motor. Next on the schedule: reading.

That's the rhythm at Camp Read Strong, a boys-only summer literacy program now in its second year at the Clearwater school. Run by Pinellas County Schools, the camp pairs hands-on STEM projects with high-interest books for boys entering third through fifth grade. A second site operates in St. Petersburg.

The program targets a stubborn problem. Florida's Department of Education reported a 6% gap between female and male students on English Language Arts achievement for the 2023-2024 school year. Nationally, boys score about three-quarters of a year behind girls in reading by fourth grade, according to a January 2026 analysis by Stanford University's Educational Opportunity Project.

Bronwyn Slack, the Pinellas County Schools library media program coordinator who created Camp Read Strong, has described the program's founding logic in terms of that persistent pattern. "There are very few districts where there isn't a gap in reading comprehension scores between boys and girls," Slack told Bay News 9 in July 2025. "Sometimes it varies between 1-2 percentage points, sometimes it's 10."

Slack pointed to one factor: schools lean heavily on fiction during the academic year, while many boys gravitate toward nonfiction. Camp Read Strong builds sessions around science, technology, sports, art, music, and multimedia production, weaving reading into activities boys already want to do.

On July 7, volunteer Yvonne Cooper, 49, of Palm Harbor was photographed helping Krummerich assemble his rover, the Tampa Bay Times reported. The scene captures the camp's hands-on approach.

The program's return for a second year and expansion to a St. Petersburg site suggests demand, though the district has not released enrollment or outcome data for 2026.

The broader picture offers some hope. A June 2026 NAEP long-term trend report found that 9-year-olds nationally rebounded to pre-pandemic reading scores. But older students haven't recovered, and only 14% of 13-year-olds said they read for fun every day, down from 27% in 2012.

Pinellas County Schools, recognized as an "A" district by the Florida Department of Education for the third consecutive year as of July 1, 2026, also runs two school-year programs addressing the gap: "Boys Read" for grades 3-5 and "Guys Read" for middle and high schoolers.

What families need to know

Camp Read Strong runs from 9 a.m. to noon. The cost is $100 per session, or $25 for students eligible for free or reduced-price meals. Transportation is not provided.

As of mid-July, a few Pinellas County Schools summer camps still have openings. Families can contact Bronwyn Slack at [email protected] or email [email protected] for availability.