Brandishing buckets of green goo this month, Westside Elementary School students zeroed in on a single target: Principal Angela Woyak.

As a reward for their recent Read-a-thon, students slimed their principal, who maintained a positive attitude about the experience.

“The most precious gift we at the elementary level can impart to children are the skills, confidence, and joy of reading,” Woyak said last week. “And I will do just about anything to foster these among our kiddos, even if it involves some dirty work.”

To motivate student participation in the school’s first-ever Read-a-thon, the Westside Parent Teacher Council (PTC) leaders had pondered possible rewards and prizes, Woyak said.

“I am a firm believer in listening to students’ voices and took the ultimate school-wide reward options to the student body for a vote,” she said.

Their options included requiring the principal to: be slimed, covered in banana split toppings, wear the Westside bear costume while dancing in the hallways or being toilet papered. (The vote occurred before the recent toilet paper shortage.)

“When the vote came in it gave me pause and I wondered, ‘What have I done to these wonderful little people to motivate them to want to cover me in disgusting slime?’” Woyak recalled. “I am certain it was the novelty and excitement of actually doing something so outlandish to the principal.”

A whopping 92% of Westside students participated in the school’s Read-a-thon, “which means 279 students read at least 20 minutes every evening of the two-week event,” Woyak said.

All told, Westside students read for 77,504 minutes. The Read-a-thon also had a fundraising component, with pledges for students’ reading minutes. A total of $15,603 was raised and has been earmarked for classroom materials and projects, and to support K-5 art education, Woyak said.

“Thanks to the generosity of families, friends, staff and local businesses, every participating student had pledges for their reading minutes,” she said.

For the slime concoction, the Parent Teacher Council “found an edible slime recipe, but that didn’t make it feel any less disgusting,” Woyak said.

Westside head cook Lena Jones mixed up vanilla pudding, applesauce, oatmeal and food coloring the day before and then refrigerated the slime overnight.

“Needless to say, it was cold, gooey and a little chunky as it oozed down my face, neck, and back,” Woyak said, “but hey, it tasted great!”

Students “did a great job” of surprising the principal as they tossed the slime on her or dumped the bucket of goo over her head.

“I couldn’t see much after my goggles were covered with the stuff, but when everyone started chanting ‘Dump it!’ I braced myself,” Woyak said. “The worst part was trying not to open my mouth and at the same time keeping my nose clear in order to avoid breathing it in.”

When organizing the Read-a-thon, the PTC sought to make it a successful fundraising event that would motivate and support Westside students’ reading,

“We are very blessed at Westside to have such an incredibly supportive, creative, and energetic Parent Teacher Council,” Woyak said.

She thanked the PTC and “all of our sweet, sweet Westside students for their voracious reading” as well as the Westside community and Powell businesses for sponsoring “these incredible young people.”